Kylie Lang: It beggars belief that Bailey continues to survive

Transport Minister Mark Bailey should have been booted out years ago and he certainly doesn’t deserve any more chances, writes Kylie Lang, and her inaction on the matter suggests the Premier doesn’t want to win the next election.

Annastacia Palaszczuk doesn’t want to win the next election. That’s all any reasonable person can deduce – because if she did hope to see a Labor victory in October 2024, she would put on her big girl pants and sack Mark Bailey.

Instead, her most incompetent minister, from a growing pool, gets to survive yet another day.

To the ire of Queenslanders wearied by zero transparency and accountability in government, the Premier refuses to cut loose the deadweight transport minister.

Just last week I called out Bailey’s ongoing ineptitude – in particular his failure to negotiate with the UK owners of Airtrain, to the detriment of anyone travelling to and from the Brisbane airport on public transport.

The Minister for Hiding Cost Blowouts is what I called him.

Little did I know he’d outdo himself in this regard merely days later.

As we mugs found out – with no thanks to Bailey – the Gold Coast Faster Rail project has blown out by a massive $3.1 billion. What was meant to cost us $2.6 billion will jump to more than $5.7 billion.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Baile. Picture Queensland Government

But, apparently, we taxpayers aren’t interested in the numbers – another flippant if not contemptuous statement by Bailey – we just care that infrastructure gets built. Wrong.

Details of what happens to our taxes are very much of concern, and especially when so much in this state is broken or lacking. Imagine what $3.1 billion could do for hospitals or housing, for example.

When asked by Deb Frecklington in question time on Wednesday if she agreed with Bailey’s view that Queenslanders aren’t interested in the fine print, Palaszczuk did the familiar duck and weave.

She referenced comments by the Auditor-General, who said there were generally cost increases to major projects.

When quizzed why, when Bailey has stuffed up several times in his ministerial career, he was still in a job, the Premier dodged that as well.

Instead, she sledged the person doing the asking, Deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie, saying he was the “worst” member. Compared to who – Mark Bailey?

Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Bailey should have been booted out years ago and he certainly doesn’t deserve any more chances.

Earlier this month he tried to cloud the issue, saying the Gold Coast Faster Rail would cost “a bit more” than $5 billion but this waffle only after the blowout became evident during the federal government’s infrastructure review.

On Tuesday, he again refused to disclose the specific figure, because it was not “appropriate process” and he was supposedly waiting on notification from the feds about it.

Well, that “notification” came via publication of the revised $5.75 billion on the Department of Infrastructure website.

Did no one in Canberra think to tell Bailey, and were his own advisers asleep at the wheel?

Being caught out, Bailey had no choice but to admit the figure.

And once again, we see the hollow promise of transparency in government. We heard it first back in 2015 when Palaszczuk took office … and on it goes.

In August this newspaper revealed Bailey’s office attempted to deliberately hide from Queenslanders a sizeable $2.4 billion blowout in the government’s train manufacturing program.

The true cost of $9.5 billion was not disclosed on the official press release. In fact, it was scrubbed out, then the original figure of $7.1 billion magically inserted.

The inference at the time was that someone in the Premier’s office filled in the blank.

Yet the Premier stood by Bailey.

She did the same with the Mangocube fiasco when Bailey used his private [e-mail] email for official business in breach of the Public Records Act and was then investigated for trying to delete the account after it was exposed.

This week Palaszczuk stopped short of endorsing Bailey – if she’s finally reading the room, it’s too late – and left it to police minister Mark Ryan to do the talking. “I back him; he’s a mate of mine,” Ryan said.

I feel so much better, don’t you?

The word is Bailey has kept his job thus far because he is fiercely loyal to Palaszczuk. Pity about what’s best for Queensland.

Palaszczuk doesn’t appear to care about this – or maybe she’s just lost interest in her own political future.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
[e-mail]

Originally published as Kylie Lang: It beggars belief that Bailey continues to survive