Editorial: Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek has first strike on NAPLAN

Voters elect politicians to make decisions and get things done, not to do whatever the public service tells them to, writes the editor.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek this week. Picture: Adam Head

How does Premier David Crisafulli plan to hold his ministers to account if they fail to deliver on his specific instructions?

That key question has arisen after Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek’s lazy refusal to guarantee improved NAPLAN results under his watch over the next four years.

Fixing the state’s currently poor NAPLAN ratings is one of the five “core portfolio values” for the education portfolio in the charter letter Mr Crisafulli issued to Mr Langbroek in November after the election victory.

In other words, it’s one of Mr Langbroek’s key performance indicators. But when The Courier-Mail’s education reporter Rose Innes asked Mr Langbroek during a sit-down interview on Monday if he could guarantee Queensland’s NAPLAN rankings – currently among the worst in the country – would be better by the next state election in 2028, he duckshoved responsibility to his department.

“I don’t make any guarantees,” Mr Langbroek said, before adding “I’m not a teacher” – a defence that is dangerously close to former prime minister Scott Morrison’s infamous and lame “I don’t hold a hose, mate” excuse when trying to justify his Hawaiian holiday during the 2019 bushfires.

Mr Langbroek is right – he is not a teacher. But he is the responsible minister. And as that minister, it is his job to ensure the public servants in his department understand – and deliver – the policies of most import to the government, and on the promises it made to voters.

But Mr Langbroek apparently sees his job as a minister differently.

He says that it “is to work with my department, to say, from a policy perspective, if we can work on the things that we believe, (with) the department … because they’re the experts”.

Again, yes – listening to the experts makes perfect sense. But again, Mr Langbroek is the person with the ministerial responsibilities, and that means more than simply taking advice from public servants.

It means inspiring them and driving them to deliver – in this case, improved NAPLAN results.

Mr Langbroek’s laconic approach to delivering or not – depending on what the public servants come up with – presents a potentially big problem for Mr Crisafulli, and not just in the shape of a broken election promise at the end of his government’s first term.

It also suggests that one of his most experienced ministers – a former opposition leader no less – is treating a specific instruction from the top less than seriously.

And so here we come to that key question of how the Premier plans to deal with any minister who fails to deliver on what they have been specifically tasked with delivering.

It is possible that Mr Langbroek is truly committed to delivering improved NAPLAN results, and that he simply chose the wrong form of words to explain his approach. But he is also one of the new government’s most experienced ministers, having previously served for three years in the same portfolio in the Newman government just over a decade ago. He surely knows the ropes by now, both in terms of how to get things done – and how to express himself.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles predictably jumped on Mr Langbroek’s comments, declaring: “I’ve never seen a minister for any government wipe their hands of their responsibilities quite like this.”

You would have to assume Mr Langbroek’s job is secure – for now at least. Mr Crisafulli certainly does not need to be so dramatically disciplining a minister this early in his administration. But we hope he yesterday counselled Mr Langbroek – because other ministers need to know they can’t be watering down the government’s most critical promises by saying it all depends on what the department advises.

Voters elect politicians to make decisions and get things done, not to do whatever the public service tells them to. They also expect their ministers to take responsibility for what they promised.

‘OPEN PARKS’ CALL SENSIBLE

Environment Minister Andrew Powell’s decision to definitively rule out making any national parks off-limits to the public is a victory for common sense.

It is disturbing that officers from the Department of Environment in 2022 – under the previous Labor government – suggested that Mount Beerwah could be closed to hikers, with real climbs replaced by a simulator experience using drones. This closure, they said, could serve as a case study for other closures elsewhere.

But as we report today, Minister Powell has ruled that out – making the sensible point that allowing access actually makes those who go “champions for the protection of these wilderness areas”.

It is a position that not only makes perfect sense, but also makes political sense – as anyone who recalls the backlash against then-Labor environment minister Molly Robson’s ill-fated plans to ban fishing in national parks in the early-1990s would attest.

The plan was dumped after protests from tens of thousands of anglers reminding her that “I fish and I vote”. Ms Robson lost her seat at the next election.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek has first strike on NAPLAN