Annastacia Palaszczuk emerges with an eye on the exit

Annastacia Palaszczuk has brushed aside a scathing report into her besieged state government – and signalled she might not seek a fourth term in 2024.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk refused to apologise to the public servants who had been stood over by overzealous ministerial staff. Picture: AAP

Annastacia Palaszczuk has brushed aside a scathing report into culture and accountability in her besieged state government, dismissing the findings of bullying and cover-up as a routine “health check” that failed to trouble her.

After ducking the press gallery for two days, the Queensland Premier finally emerged, but failed to take personal responsibility for the mess – and for the first time signalled she might not seek a fourth term of office in 2024.

Ms Palaszczuk said she welcomed the review by former Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake and “embraced” the searing depiction of a culture ­inside the government “that from top down is not meeting public ­expectations”.

Defending the 40 hours it took for her respond to the latest flare-up in the integrity crisis engulfing her third-term Labor government, she said she had prior commitments in Bundaberg on Tuesday and a dental emergency on Wednesday that left her ­unable to speak. But she stopped short of accepting personal ­responsibility for the malaise in the public service, insisting “we all need to take responsibility, and we will get this fixed”.

Ms Palaszczuk refused to apologise to the public servants who had been stood over by overzealous ministerial staff in a number of incidents described by Professor Coaldrake, part of a rot that reach “to the top” of the Queensland government.

“This is a large public service, over 200,000, so I think everyone needs to be treated with respect, I said that from day one when I came in,” Ms Palaszczuk said when pushed on whether should would apologise for the alleged misconduct by advisers.

Instead, she said training would be fundamental to repair a government Professor Coaldrake described as “too tolerant of bullying”. “The key to that is training, it is absolutely regular training and that is exactly what I want to put in place,” she said.

“If people do not know what they can and can’t do it is a bit hard to criticise them. They need to get training about ‘this is how you behave in a workplace’, some people naturally do it, some people don’t.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie turned up the heat on the Premier, saying the only person who was not troubled by the review was Ms Palaszczuk. “The Premier did not take any responsibility for the rotten culture under her leadership,” he said. “This is a toxic state government that will not learn any lessons.”

While Ms Palaszczuk pledged to “absolutely” finish out her current four-year term she was undecided about contesting the next selection.

Asked if she would serve out the full term Ms Palaszczuk said: “absolutely”. Pressed if she would go for another term, she replied: “Maybe, I am looking at it. I love this job and it is up to the people of Queensland to vote on whether they want me to continue to do this job.”

A spokesman for the Premier later clarified she was committed to staying on until October 2024, but had not decided if she would contest the next election.

Her comments will inflame speculation inside the Queensland ALP that she is eyeing an exit from politics. Ms Palaszczuk, 52, became a Labor staffer after completing a law degree, succeeded father Henry Palaszczuk, a minister in Peter Beattie’s state Labor government, as MP for the working-class Brisbane seat of Inala, entered cabinet under Anna Bligh and then became leader when the ALP lost office in Queensland in a shattering 2012 defeat at the hands of Campbell Newman.

She became Premier in 2015 and led Labor to victory at the 2017 and 2020 state elections, making her the most successful of the current crop of state leaders after Daniel Andrews in Victoria.

The Australian spoke to half a dozen Labor MPs on Thursday, all of whom were surprised to learn Ms Palaszczuk was considering retiring from politics at the end of this term. All insisted there was no appetite to roll her.

In his review Professor Coaldrake uncovered an “atmosphere of fear” in the government with public servants frightened to provide frank advice to higher-ups.

“Personal interactions with some ministers and ministerial staff, and indeed some senior officers, can be disrespectful, belittling or bullying and long-term detriment to careers real or ­apprehended,” he wrote.

However, Ms Palaszczuk will continue doing business with the two Labor-aligned lobbyists who ran her successful 2020 re-election campaign, despite accepting Professor Coaldrake’s recommendation to ban “dual hatting”. Professor Coaldrake found a surge in lobbying activity revealed a “failure of government itself to be able to deal with business and community interests without the involvement of a paid intermediary”.

Former ALP state secretaries Cameron Milner and Evan Moorhead were called in by Queensland Labor to run election strategy as they continued to lobby the government on behalf of corporate clients.

Ms Palaszczuk said cabinet would consider on Monday whether the pair would be ­allowed to continue to lobby her government this term, arguing Professor Coaldrake’s recommendation was for a “prospective” government.

Professor Coaldrake’s crackdown on lobbyists was among 14 reforms recommended in his Let the Sunshine In report, aimed at cleaning up the public sector. Both major parties have accepted all recommendations.

He warned there was a view within the public service that the “price for frank and fearless advice can be too high, sometimes devastatingly so, and the rewards too low”.

He has also pushed Ms Palaszczuk to employ top public servants on fixed five-year contracts and release cabinet documents within 30 days.

“The proactive release of cabinet documents would be an important signal, from the very top, of an open and pro-disclosure culture,” Professor Coaldrake wrote.

Kept secret by law for 30 years, the government will release cabinet papers within 30 business days, “subject only to a number of reasonable exceptions”.

Professor Coaldrake warned “any tendency to avoid disclosure upon the implementation of a transparency regime, would be a serious indictment on culture”.

The boss of the Attorney-General’s Department, David Mackie, has been tapped to lead the implementation of the reform, which Ms Palaszczuk wants running by the end of the year.

“This is the most fundamental change (to cabinet conventions) that this state and this nation has ever seen,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

A culture of cover-ups was laid bare in the Coaldrake report, with senior public servants describing attempts by departments to suppress public records over fears information would be reported by the media.