The Queensland Government will be releasing cabinet papers within 30 days instead of 30 years, in what the state’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described as a “revolutionary” response to a damning integrity review.
The Premier, who was publicly absent on Wednesday, faced a barrage of questions two days after the review report found major issues within the public service.
“It means that cabinet papers, which are usually held for 30 years, will be released in 30 days. This is revolutionary,” the Queensland Premier said.
Professor Peter Coaldrake’s landmark report pointed to a tolerance of bullying within the state’s public service and a reluctance to deviate from the perceived official government line. The report also called for the access and influence of lobbyists to be reigned in, including an explicit ban on “dual hatting” by lobbyists during election campaigns.
The Premier described the review process as a “health check”, adding all governments benefit from scrutiny.
“To every single member of the business community out there, you do not need to employ a lobbyist to have a meeting with my government,” she said.
But on “dual hatting”, the Premier said every state and federal political campaign run by the major parties employed a lobbyist.
“That has been the practice for many years, in fact, many decades,” she said.
Within hours of the release of the Coaldrake report, the Premier committed to adopting all 14 of his recommendations
But her absence the day after was noted, forcing her to reveal she had dental surgery and couldn’t speak.
The Liberal-National opposition backed the report’s recommendations, with leader David Crisafulli saying a poor public service culture was having a direct impact on the government’s ability to deliver services.
Katter’s Australia Party also welcomed the report but said it would do little to address concerns, while the Greens said the recommendations were band-aid solutions to a systemic level of interference in the public service.
With AAP