QLD: Who would you like to be the next transport Minister?

[#Metro]

^ I love how Annastacia said she would "look into it" and this then consisted of her viewing the said e-mail printed with the name in question redacted/blacked out so no-one would know who it was and thus be untraceable.

Wow, what a joke.

So how many applicants were there for the position? Was the position advertised? Where was it advertised and for how long?
What did the selection process consist of? Who and how was the selection process conducted?

Was this selection by open advertisement or was it appointment by minister/politicians to the board, like how QR's board gets chosen by the Queensland Government of the day?

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Electrical Trades Union had mail on Energy Queensland board director Mark Algie

THE Palaszczuk Government has been forced to admit a senior government job was granted to the man whose CV was forwarded to a minister, Mark Bailey, by the Electrical Trades Union – but only after journalists tracked the man down.

Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk, who has campaigned in two elections on a platform of transparency and accountability, yesterday insisted for the second day that she did not know who the man in question – Energy Queensland board director Mark Algie – was or whether he was given a job.

Ms Palaszcuk also insisted she did not need to ask Mr Bailey who it was as Mr Algie's name was redacted in emails released under Right to Information laws last month.

Mr Bailey has also declined to reveal if the job was given.

But within hours of The Courier-Mail and The Australian asking questions regarding Mr Algie's employment, Anthony Lynham – who replaced Mr Bailey as Energy Minister last year and was not involved in the awarding of the directorship – released a statement confirming Mr Algie was granted the director's job.

Ms Palaszcuk had personally announced his appointment alongside Mr Bailey on October 4, 2016, 14 days after the email containing Mr Algie's CV was sent to Mr Bailey's private account.

Mr Algie declined to answer questions yesterday, pointing to Dr Lynham's statement which said his appointment was subject to the usual board appointment process "including the endorsement of Cabinet".

When Ms Palaszczuk was asked whether unions were involved in the normal government recruitment process, she responded: "How does it work in News Corp? I don't know, I'd like to know too." Mr Algie also works for News Corp Australia.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said Mr Bailey should be sacked over the access he gave the ETU.

"Annastacia Palaszczuk's Government is run by the unions for the unions," she said.

"The only people who suffer are Queenslanders who have to pay record power prices."

Mr Bailey, however, has repeatedly insisted the access was not inappropriate.

At a time when decisive leadership is needed in Transport even more political distraction and sloppiness.  Has Mr Bailey actually made a decision yet in transport that stamps a new agenda, actually sorting the mess?  Or is he too being progressively snowed by the fail culture that permeates and oozes from the transport bureaucracy? 

Righto ...  I thought things would be better than this.  It is headlong into an even bigger basket case ..

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/971780340489469953

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/971784749147549696

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Transport Minister Mark Bailey only delays the inevitable by refusing to publicly release mangocube emails

WHEN former premier Anna Bligh stood in State Parliament in May 2009 to introduce new laws overhauling access to government documents it was all about openness and ­accountability.

Ms Bligh told the House at the time that the public release of ­information about government policies and decisions enabled "informed debate, ­scrutiny and public participation".

"Without information, people cannot exercise their rights and responsibilities or make informed choices," she said.

Ms Bligh said the increased openness and transparency the Act was designed to bring would also mean Governments would be "held to account" for their actions.

The Act itself dictates that it should only be used as a "last resort".

Fast forward almost 10 years, however, and Governments are more often than not using that Act as a ­delaying tactic rather than a tool to ensure they are kept to account.

There have been numerous examples of information held up through the RTI process rather than being ­released on request.

The most recent – and most public – example of this is the release of public records from within former Energy minister Mark Bailey's private email account.

The Crime and Corruption Commission identified hundred of public records within his mangocube6 @yahoo.co.uk account when it investigated and cleared him of corrupt conduct last year.

The CCC this week said it saw no barrier to the public release of those emails now its investigation is complete. Both Mr Bailey and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, however, refuse to order their public release.

Journalists have been told to give it their best shot under RTI – that ­option of "last resort" – instead.

No doubt this has a lot to do with the embarrassing nature of the emails concerned.

Those already released have made life uncomfortable for both Mr Bailey and the Government.

Multiple RTI applications are now pending, meaning more emails will eventually be revealed.

By refusing to just release them now, the Government is simply ­delaying the inevitable.

It is a strategy that is affecting the state's ability to get a message out.

And it is a strategy that leaves Mr Bailey vulnerable to a political death by a thousand cuts.

Had those emails been released last year, at the completion of the CCC's investigation and before the state election, the matter would have been dealt with by now.

Instead, it will likely re-emerge every few months as the next tranche of emails is released. And then the tranche after that.

Mr Bailey is in charge of a major portfolio – Transport and Main Roads.

He will play a critical role in ensuring the success of next month's ­Commonwealth Games. And in continuing to repair the damage caused by the 2016 rail fail.

Yet he has been forced to advertise his public ministerial duties via Twitter of late because a press conference would likely be derailed by questions about his email account.

Questions that should be asked of him. But questions that should and would have been asked last term had the Government released those emails last year.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/975041822169837568

[ozbob]

19th March 2018

Premier and Minister for Trade
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

New guidelines for ministerial email use

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has released new ministerial guidelines banning the use of private email accounts for ministerial business.

The ban also applies to messaging apps including Facebook Messenger, SnapChat, Wickr and WhatsApp.

Websites and social media posts by their nature are public documents and are therefore disclosed.

"Cabinet endorsed my decision today. These rules take effect from tomorrow and the Ministerial Handbook has been updated accordingly," the Premier said.

"Following findings of the Crime and Corruption Commission on the risks associated with private email use I committed to review our record keeping and information managements policies," the Premier said.

"I have already made clear my expectation that all ministers, assistant ministers and ministerial staff use only government email accounts for official business.

"The new Queensland Ministerial Handbook makes it crystal clear."

Ministerial records include any document that provides evidence of ministerial portfolio responsibility.

The State Archivist issued a new ministerial records policy in December setting out requirements on ministers, assistant ministers and their staff in relation to record keeping.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/couriermail/status/975608009006243840

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland LNP calling for premier to sack Mark Bailey

MARK Bailey has issued an apology for the use of his private email account, chalking it up to a mistake made by a "rookie" MP.

But he is refusing to publicly release his emails, insisting they must be subject to the Right to Information Act instead.

Mr Bailey fronted the media for the first time in almost two weeks today as he made his way into Caucus.

"It was a first-term-minister mistake from a rookie MP," Mr Bailey said.

"I freely admit that in hindsight I would have done it diffently."

But when asked if he would release them outside the RTI process, he said no.

"As a Minister I have to comply with the RTI process," he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk this afternoon said her Cabinet had endorsed new rules today and insisted they would be enforced.

The rules ban ministers from discussing government business on private emails, but they will have 20 working days to forward an email on to their official accounts before replying if someone contacts them on a personal email.

The rules, which will apply from tomorrow, will also ban discussing ministerial business on messaging apps like SnapChat and Facebook Messenger.


"I have already made clear my expectation that all ministers, assistant ministers and ministerial staff use only government email accounts for official business," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"The new Queensland Ministerial Handbook makes it crystal clear."

The Premier said any ministers who breach the new rules "would have to face the consequences" but she would not commit to sacking those who do so.

Earlier today, the Liberal National Paty again called for Mr Bailey to be sacked ahead of the release of new ministerial guidelines around email use.

The guideline review was sparked by Mr Bailey's use of a private email for official government business, which led to a corruption investigation and an ongoing scandal surrounding a union-backed candidate for the board of a government company.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington says Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's refusal to axe Mr Bailey renders the guidelines irrelevant before they are introduced.

"The premier didn't enforce the old guidelines for Bailey, so how can Queenslanders trust that she'll enforce these new ones?" Ms Frecklington said in Brisbane.

"We've got a minister who has lied, and the premier needs to sack him."

Mr Bailey has come under fresh scrutiny in the last few weeks after new issues emerged from his use of private email — mangocube6@yahoo.co.uk — for official purposes 18 months ago.

It was revealed ETU state secretary Peter Simpson sent the CV of Mark Algie to the former energy minister in 2016.

Two weeks later, Ms Palaszczuk and Mr Bailey issued a joint statement announcing Mr Algie as one of six board appointments to the newly-formed Energy Queensland.

In the face of the renewed scandal, the transport and main roads minister has maintained a low profile in recent weeks despite being responsible for the transport plan for next month's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Editorial: Premier's own 'eyeball test' moment

POLITICS can be a silly business.

That is often most apparent when a leader starts down the path of making asinine reforms because they simply cannot admit that their initial response to a problem was ill-judged.

Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie churned out some notorious and highly amusing examples during his tenure.

Perhaps the one that left Queenslanders most aghast was his infamous annual "eyeball test" of his Cabinet colleagues.

Facing several scandals where ministers had failed to properly disclose their interests, Mr Beattie refused to act against the rule breakers.

Instead, he promised to deploy near superhuman abilities to detect untruths through an annual eyeball test during which he was going to glean the accuracy of their disclosures.

"I will go the extra step now of eyeballing each minister to make certain that they have complied with the disclosure," he boasted at the time.

Unfortunately, Mr Beattie resigned within a year, before the eyeball testing fell due.

However, given one of the original rule breakers was corrupt minister Gordon Nuttall, a man Mr Beattie originally declared had not broken any laws, it's difficult to believe the then premier's superpower would have yielded much.

Annastacia Palaszczuk is having her own "eyeball test" moment.

The Premier's initial refusal to act against her senior minister Mark Bailey for using a personal email account to conduct government business, circumventing multiple layers of accountability in the process, was an error.

Now we have the truly inglorious spectacle of Ms Palaszczuk producing new rules about ministers' email use, even though such rules already existed.

This is a classic case of a political leader who has dug themselves into a hole and their solution is to grab a bigger shovel.

The Crime and Corruption Commission already found Mr Bailey had breached both the Queensland Ministerial Handbook and the Ministerial Information Security Policy by conducting government business on his mangocube6@yahoo.co.uk account.

And we're not just talking about the odd email where the line between personal and professional became blurred.

Some 1199 of Mr Bailey's emails were deemed public records and 660 needed to be kept, according to a report conducted by the State Archivist.

Ms Palaszczuk is trying to convince Queenslanders that she is demonstrating leadership around this saga by instigating a new set of rules around email and other trendy electronic messaging channels.

Yet how can the Premier or her new rules be taken seriously when she deemed the current rules so meaningless that she reappointed Mr Bailey to Cabinet on the very day the CCC said he broke them?

It also cannot be forgotten that Mr Bailey evaded more serious action by the CCC on a technicality over the legal definition of the word "dispose".

The Minister's reactivation of his private account – which he deleted following a Right to Information request from The Australian newspaper – meant he did not breach the Public Records Act.

Had the mandatory time passed when deleted accounts can no longer be reactivated this may be a completely different story.

Throughout this saga, the State Government has protected Mr Bailey.

We now have the truly perverse scenario of a transport minister missing in action just 16 days before the biggest sporting event in Queensland history – the Commonwealth Games – because he doesn't want to be asked questions about his nefarious emailing activities.

Ms Palaszczuk insists the new rules are necessary because the old ones were "a bit unclear".

Perhaps the Premier might next consider annually eyeballing her ministers about their emailing habits.

"... We now have the truly perverse scenario of a transport minister missing in action just 16 days before the biggest sporting event in Queensland history – the Commonwealth Games – because he doesn't want to be asked questions about his nefarious emailing activities. ... "

[Stillwater]

Perhaps Minister Bailey can make use of his time away from the media spotlight to call Neil Scales to his office for an 'eye-balling' on the adequacy of Comm. Games transport arrangements and the running of NGR trains to the Gold Coast should the AHRC find they do not comply with the law (DDA).

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/984467999967985664

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/984464200519962624

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Transport Minister Mark Bailey will not be referred to Ethics Committee

TRANSPORT Minister Mark Bailey will not be referred to the Ethics Committee over LNP allegations he misled Parliament over his mangocube email account.

The LNP had written to Speaker Curtis Pitt in March asking him to refer Mr Bailey, alleging emails released under Right to Information from the yahoo account were at odds with the Transport Minister's assertion that the account was used only for "private purposes".

Deputy Speaker Scott Stewart revealed the ruling in Parliament this afternoon after Mr Pitt delegated the decision to him to avoid any conflict due to his former role as Treasurer.

He said he had found Mr Bailey did not have a case to answer.

It comes almost two months after the LNP wrote to Mr Pitt with its complaint.

[ozbob]

Couriermail -->Mark Bailey in hot water for email use again]Mark Bailey in hot water for email use again

ENERGY union boss Peter Simpson sent expletive-ridden emails to Transport Minister Mark Bailey's private account, demanding his "star recruit" intervene in an industrial dispute.

New documents also show Mr Bailey directed an ETU official to contact him on his private Mangocube6@yahoo.co.uk account on February 16, 2015, the day he was officially sworn in as Energy Minister following Labor's election win.

In an email sent five months after Labor came to power in 2015, Mr Simpson said he was "a f---ing angry man" and lambasted Mr Bailey and his staff for not doing enough to resolve a dispute with Ergon energy.

Mr Simpson complained to Mr Bailey that the union was being ignored despite helping Labor win the election.

"I've spent the past 5 months or so talking up this Government and our star recruit, you, telling all and sundry that asked how you were going as our new Minister, that all was ticketyboo," Mr Simpson wrote in an email to Mr Bailey's yahoo account on June 30, 2015.

"My pride, given the amount of effort and strings I had to pull to get you there have all kept me in defence mode, well not tonight.

"Why are we having to take industrial action against a Government we put there?"

Mr Simpson sent other emails in June 2015 complaining that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad and then Treasurer Curtis Pitt were too difficult to get hold of.

The union boss raged about being "kept out of the loop" on talks about energy company mergers and criticised Ms Trad for ignoring a request for coffee.

He said the ETU had abided by a request from Ms Palaszczuk to take "a backwards step in relation to allowing the new Government space to fill key positions" after the election but was no longer willing to be left out of decision making.

"As you would know the ETU and Labor have not always had the greatest of relationships but now that we've collectively won the unwinnable election together I held out some hope of a more respectful relationship. I am not seeing that Comrades and neither are quite a few others," he said.

The tranche of documents, released to The Australian newspaper under Right to Information laws, also reveal Mr Bailey sought advice about senior appointments from union officials and discussed possible roles with a PhD student at the University of Queensland using his yahoo account.

The emails are the latest to be released in a continuing saga over Mr Bailey's use of private emails to discuss official business.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington on Friday tabled in parliament a separate set of emails to another private account used by Mr Bailey and called on Ms Palaszczuk to sack him.

But Mr Bailey told parliament the corruption watchdog was aware of his keepqldnuclearfree@gmail account, which he said he no longer used.

"The existence of this account was known in the previous emails considered by the CCC," he said.

"One of the emails that was considered by the CCC told people not to send emails to that address."

Mr Bailey was previously cleared of corrupt conduct by the CCC over his emails but the watchdog rebuked him over his use of the yahoo account and his attempts to delete it.

Ms Palaszczuk was this year forced to issue tougher ministerial guidelines after the saga and Mr Bailey said he had abided by them.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1007725927667658752

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/SteveAustinABC/status/1007770513249308674

https://twitter.com/SteveAustinABC/status/1007778280215228416

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Latest emails reveal ETU sent Mark Bailey dossiers on power chiefs

A KEY Queensland union sent dirt file-style dossiers on government board directors to Mark Bailey's private email account just days after he was sworn in as minister.

The latest release of more than 2000 pages of emails to the Opposition under Right to Information has further laid bare the extraordinary access the Electrical Trades Union had to the then energy minister via his mangocube6@yahoo.co.uk account.

It reveals the ETU forwarded Mr Bailey multiple emails on March 2, 2015, about two weeks after Mr Bailey was sworn in as energy minister, with information on the then directors of the Ergon, Energex, Powerlink, Stanwell, Sunwater and CS Energy boards, from their political beliefs and associations to their employment history.

That included former Energex board chairman Shane Stone and former Ergon board chairman Malcolm Hall-Brown, both of whom resigned shortly after the Palaszczuk Government was sworn in.

The union also sent through background information on former Ergon boss Ian McLeod.

The Government later overruled the Ergon board in 2016 and ended Mr McLeod's contract.

Mr McLeod was critical of the Government at the time for the way it ended his role.

"The CLP now run Energex and that has come through with their attitude," then ETU state secretary Peter Simpson wrote in one of the emails.

Mr Simpson also emailed Mr Bailey about an Ergon executive in mid-2015, who he described as a "smug f---" causing "90% of your ETU issues".

Other emails reveal many more approaches were made to Mr Bailey via the mangocube6 account for board appointments.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington called for an immediate review of all appointments made by Mr Bailey off the back of the latest email revelations.

She also described the "dirt files" as disgraceful.

"It is clear the unions are in charge of the Palaszczuk Government, issuing back-channel instructions to a senior cabinet minister."

Mr Bailey, however, insisted all board appointments were made "on merit".

He said he did not request the dirt files from the union.

"The emails which have been released were covered by the CCC investigation which closed last year, and these matters have been well reported."

Mr Bailey was cleared by the CCC of corrupt conduct allegations in relation to his private email use.

[achiruel]

The CCC is aware of these emails already, they were reviewed and the CCC decided to not proceed with any charges. It's a bad look, but it's not criminal. This is just more garbage from the media mouthpiece of the LNP akak NewsCorp.

If they really wanted to write stories about Bailey, they should be writing about his performance as Transport Minister.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1086758938421293056

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/SteveMinnikinMP/status/1109952387312041984

[ozbob]

It is increasing looking bad for Minister Bailey. 

He and his staff seem to be unable to grasp the fact that the rail network is in crisis,
the bus network is collapsing and now reluctantly accept fare evasion is out of control. 
There has been plenty of advance notice on all these issues by ourselves and others,
but they do little, except more selfies and bullsh%t spin. 
" On time running is good " when it clearly isn't. 
Petty political bickering between BCC and themselves. 
Half baked DDA compliance. 
Chronic neglect of long needed infrastructure improvements.

They have also obviously decided that doing the right thing and reforming a
proper public transport authority is too much work and effort,
they will just leave the present broken cluster of silos to get worse.

I have lost confidence in these clowns.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1118598077785313280