The Palaszczuk Labor Government’s political donation ‘inquiry’ has descended into farce, with the Premier and Deputy Premier at odds about how it will be conducted and who it will investigate.
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad today revealed that the inquiry wouldn’t look into unions’ donations to the Labor Party because “unions didn’t make decisions on behalf of the government”.
This is despite Annastacia Palaszczuk’s promise to look into donations made to both the LNP and Labor.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said it was another sign Labor was obsessed with political ‘get squares’ and incapable of governing competently.
“Again we see that six months after coming into office, the Palaszczuk Government is still making things up as it goes along,” Mr Springborg said.
“If you’re going to hold a genuine inquiry that Queenslanders can have confidence in, then it needs to be holistic and treat all sides equally.
“What is this government afraid that will come out if union donations are put under the microscope?”
Mr Springborg said it was clear the Palaszczuk Labor Government wasn’t interested in conducting a fair process and had no desire to achieve anything more than pull out a few tricks to discredit their opponents.
“Everybody knows the union movement was instrumental in getting Labor elected at the last election and in six months since forming government, they’ve already started collecting on the debt,” he said.
“Jackie Trad is kidding herself if she thinks people will believe that union bosses have no influence over the Palaszczuk Labor Government. A government that has rolled back workers compensation changes to benefit unions, torn up existing enterprise bargains at the behest of union bosses and put unions in control of administering a compensation fund.
“Queenslanders are still asking who is really running this government: Annastacia Palaszczuk, Jackie Trad or the union bosses?”
Mr Springborg said the Premier’s claims that the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) would conduct the inquiry were also blown out of the water by her Deputy Premier.
“To even suggest that the government could direct the anti-corruption watchdog to establish this inquiry goes against the purpose of the Commission and rejects the fundamental Fitzgerald recommendation. The Premier should know better.
“The more Annastacia Palaszczuk uses the CCC as her political plaything the more she erodes the trust and confidence Queenslanders have in the system.
“By using the CCC to pursue a personal vendetta against the LNP, the Premier is doing the same thing Anna Bligh did three years ago. Queenslanders didn’t vote for that.”
