Minister Stirling Hinchliffe quits over train chaos

Queensland transport minister Stirling Hinchliffe has quit following the state’s chaotic train driver shortage.

Stirling Hinchliffe leaves parliament after quitting as transport minister yesterday. Picture: Darren England

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will promote to cabinet one of her Right factional comrades to replace a key ally, transport minister Stirling Hinchliffe, after he quit following the state’s chaotic train driver shortage.

Ms Palaszczuk yesterday vowed to pressure rail unions to relax restrictive workplace rules and recruitment practices to allow beleaguered Queensland Rail to hire more drivers and boost productivity.

Mr Hinchliffe yesterday unexpectedly resigned from cabinet, despite the release of ex-Rio Tinto boss Phillip Strachan’s independent inquiry into the rail crisis, which cleared Mr Hinchliffe of culpability for the rail disaster.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad will act as Transport Minister until Ms Palaszczuk conducts a limited reshuffle of her ministers’ port­folios. Mr Hinchliffe will be replaced in cabinet by a fellow member of the Right faction, with backbenchers Linus Power, Mark Furner and Scott Stewart seen as the frontrunners.

The Premier yesterday apologised for the rail disruptions, which peaked with the cancellation of 167 services on October 21 and more than a third of scheduled services being slashed on Christmas Day.

Mr Strachan said the driver shortage was sparked by a 9 per cent increase in weekly services between 2014 and 2016, which ­coincided with train crew productivity plunging by 7 per cent. He said productivity was cruelled “due in part to more restrictive crewing rules agreed between unions and Queensland Rail’s management”.

The supply of drivers dipped by 4 per cent, because the railway chose to operate with a chronic undersupply of drivers, unions ­required internal hires before outsiders could be recruited, and training times for drivers doubled to 18 months. A freeze on new drivers being trained was put in place for the year to February 2015, until the Palaszczuk government was elected. Ms Trad, Mr Strachan and acting Queensland Rail chief executive Neil Scales met with the rail unions yesterday afternoon to press for co-operation to help ease the shortage.

“Of course we need to see more train drivers, we need to see ­increased productivity … it also needs the co-operation of the ­unions,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Mr Strachan said every train crew rule that had been put in place by Queensland Rail had been agreed to by management. “There’s no unilateral arrangement put in place by the unions,” he said.

He was scathing of QR’s culture, which he said was complacent, unwilling to share bad news, and used intuition to make decisions, rather than data. He said there were failings at each level of QR’s hierarchy, including then-chief executive Helen Gluer, who quit after the October cancellations. He said Ms Gluer — who was paid a total remuneration package of $730,000 a year — didn’t actively investigate whether adequate measures were being taken to manage the risk of a ­driver shortfall.

Other executives didn’t challenge assumptions, were inexperienced and responsible for delayed responses, or did not challenge the information they were given.