Welcome to Brisbane Times’ Queensland public sector column, Public Circus. This week: a funding funeral march, who wants to be an Ombudsman heir, the teacher helming a new political party, and more.
Queensland’s education minister has done it again. Walking into an April meeting with department officials and cabinet colleagues wrangling their second budget next month, John-Paul Langbroek had a soundtrack.
The tune, piped from his mobile phone speakers? Frederic Chopin’s “funeral march” – the third movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2, more often used in the setting from which the piece gets its informal name than budget talks.
And this is a budget that the Crisafulli government is drafting under difficult economic circumstances, after making competing fiscal vows, and with parts of the public sector feeling squeezed in the middle and fearing more to come.
The dark humour of the entrance music has seemingly not been lost on Langbroek, a former LNP opposition leader who also holds the arts portfolio and considers the Polish composer and pianist his favourite.
It’s an approach he’s taken to some department meetings since last year. A ministerial spokesperson described it as just “a bit of banter before the meetings start”.
While Langbroek was unable to recall which track he had used in April, we caught word of the specifics from another source with knowledge of the matter, who shared on condition of anonymity.
With the budget fast approaching, the Circus tent is wide open for all your tips and insights.
Who wants to be an Ombudsman? (No really, anyone?)
After bringing news earlier this month of the impending departure of Ombudsman Anthony Reilly, Circus has a curious update.
Initially posted with a closing date of May 17, the advertisement for Reilly’s roughly $400,000 a year replacement has now been extended by a fortnight to May 31.
A mistake? A lack of interest in running the accountability office? We put the questions to his media team, who fobbed us off altogether.
(They also didn’t answer earlier questions about whether his decision to step away after almost six years, despite his ability to be reappointed for up to 10, was his own call.)
The Ombudsman office media folks instead pointed us to Justice Department cabinet, appointments and parliamentary services director Adam Denaro – the job ad contact.
Our questions to Denaro were answered via a department spokesperson, who said it wasn’t uncommon for the recruitment of senior public service executive roles to be extended.
In an unprompted follow-up, the spokesperson added: “interested applicants are encouraged to apply”. Well, you heard ’em!
Police union’s prison blame games wearing thin
For at least a year now, Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior has been on a tear: to him, Queensland Corrective Services, under Commissioner Paul Stewart, has been dropping the ball.
Among Prior’s beefs – conveyed through comments to media outlets and his own social media posts – is that jails are not taking prisoners quick enough, heaping pressure on overcrowded police watchhouses.
In one post last month, Prior said the Richlands watchhouse was at 120 per cent capacity.
The bit often unsaid, and frustrating frontline corrections staff and several in management ranks, is the dire state of longstanding capacity pressures in the state’s prison system itself.
At the time of corrections’ last annual report, there were 11,275 prisoners (a 54 per cent increase over the last decade) across its more than a dozen facilities statewide.
This equated to a built-cell capacity figure – how prisoner numbers compare to the number of prisoners its cells were constructed to hold – of 144.4 per cent.
While the Lockyer Valley Correctional Centre opening late last year added capacity for another 1600 prisoners, the total number of them across the board had, as of February, ticked up by another 500.
Extra beds have been added to cells statewide to partially boost capacity, but this does nothing to alleviate pressures on staffing, and the logistics of managing more people in a space built for less.
Early site preparation work on construction of 800 more beds across the Arthur Gorrie and Townsville prisons, at a cost of $2.3 billion over six years, is said to be under way.
Asked to respond to Prior’s criticisms, a corrections spokesperson said the department worked closely with police, recently upping reception intakes and taking high-risk prisoners 24 hours a day.
As of this week, that prison pressure is certainly still there, with the state’s 13 high-security prisons still sitting above 140 per cent built-cell capacity.
Circus can’t imagine the government’s hardline approach to crime will ease any of this.
Teachers’ ‘fightback’ figure at helm of new party
The Electoral Commission of Queensland has had a workout this month, with the Stafford state byelection and another for division one of the Central Highlands Regional Council.
Another piece of work on commissioner Pat Vidgen’s plate, finalised in the government gazette on Friday, was the registration of a new political party: Queensland Socialists.
It came just too late for Liam Parry, who had the backing of the party, but was listed as an independent on the Stafford ballot paper as it was not yet registered. (Parry ran fourth on primary votes behind the LNP, Labor and Greens, with a 3.8 per cent share in the Socialists’ first electoral foray in Queensland.)
But it was a detail on the commission’s registration notice which caught Circus’ eye. The registered officer for the fledgling party, which held its first event a year ago, is one Rebecca Barrigos.
Barrigos is also a state school teacher and part of the rank-and-file Queensland Teachers’ Union “Fightback” group pushing for greater use of the union’s hefty industrial power.
Based on the social media activity of Fightback and the Socialists, Barrigos – previously described as the party’s interim secretary – is not the only person in the middle of that Venn diagram. Watch this space.
No surprise, governance still an issue in Redlands
Regular Circus readers will remember the appointment of governance adviser Chris Rose to help councillors navigate the tricky waters of Redland City – though he hasn’t been quick to get stuck into his work.
Well, his contract– initially from December to the end of May – has been extended by a month, which will keep him in the role until after the council has handed down its budget.
So far, Rose’s presence at the council hasn’t seemed to work wonders. First-term mayor Jos Mitchell took leave for an undisclosed health issue earlier this month, but before doing so, launched an online campaign denouncing “disrespectful” behaviour in politics. Yeesh.
Since her departure, deputy mayor and former state political hopeful Julie Talty has been sitting in the big chair. Sort of. Last week’s meeting was chaired by councillor Rowanne McKenzie, with Talty beamed in from an undisclosed location. Turns out Talty is on leave too, though hers is recreational.
A spokesperson for the Department of Local Government said the adviser’s contract was extended as part of their commitment to providing the support necessary to the council.
In case you were wondering, they also said he had been providing reports to the director-general.
Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics, parliament and the public sector. He has previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
