Welcome to Brisbane Times’ Queensland public sector column, Public Circus. This week: who missed out on cash from a department’s new bail support scheme, the bureaucrats not working on Bleijie’s union ‘competition’ push, and the police union in leak control.
Last week gave us long-anticipated news of the government’s new support program for kids granted bail under its controversial looming crackdown – and details of the providers who will deliver it.
This week we’ve learned about the existing services which are losing funding under the Youth Justice department’s shake-up.
The Brisbane-based Youth Advocacy Centre, fronted by Katherine Hayes, was among the unsuccessful respondents to the department’s July call-out for bail support providers.
Circus hears YAC, which has a reputation for calling out governments of all stripes, had a multi-year contract cut short last July, with rolling three-or-six-month contracts since.
In a post to Facebook on Monday, YAC said its 20-year run of government-funded bail support work was ending. About 19 frontline workers whose roles are tied to the work will lose their jobs.
It’s a reminder of comments David Crisafulli made in the first months of his term, amid criticism about his first “adult time, adult crime” bill.
“Just on some of those [making] commentary, in many cases, it’s the same people who led to the same situation for the last decade,” Crisafulli told reporters at the time.
Hayes’ organisation was among those raising concerns.
Youth Justice Minster Laura Gerber said last week the former Labor government’s weak bail laws and “failed intervention programs” meant 60 per cent of youth offenders reoffended while on bail.
“The previous Labor government bail support programs were fragmented and didn’t give youth the comprehensive support needed and the data proves this,” Gerber said.
In a statement to Circus, Hayes said YAC’s current bail support had been independently reviewed by Nouse Group in department-commissioned work which found it reduced offending frequency and seriousness.
“YAC’s workers are very highly regarded in the community, the youth justice sector, the courts and by the Youth Justice Service Centres,” Hayes said. “The new program has lost a dedicated focus on family support and early intervention.”
The department has been contacted for comment.
Department not working on union ‘competition’ push
In Queensland, the questionable practice of tacking amendments onto bills after committee consideration is happening increasingly often.
By bypassing the committee process and introducing changes at the consideration-in-detail part of parliamentary debate – essentially, after the debate is done – governments can avoid scrutiny.
It’s less common for a minister to openly discuss this approach, but it’s happened this month, as Deputy Premier and Industrial Relations Minister Jarrod Bleijie introduced his strike-breaking industrial relations scheme shake-up last sitting.
“Depending on the feedback received during the committee process, the government may proceed to amend the bill during consideration in detail, to enshrine freedom of association and competition amongst the union movement in the great state of Queensland,” he told parliament at the time.
Given Bleijie’s longstanding curiosity with opening the door for LNP-linked Red Unions previously frozen out of the public sector bargaining system, this caught Circus’ eye.
It’s particularly noteworthy given other elements of the bill will make it easier for Bleijie and government departments to kick difficult negotiations off to the industrial umpire.
It was in this context that the government’s top bureaucrat on this front, Office of Industrial Relations deputy director-general Megan Barry, joined colleagues fronting a committee on Monday.
Barry was asked by Labor’s industrial relations spokesperson Grace Grace if the department was working on any other amendments which could be useful for the committee to know about.
Barry played a straight bat. “Our understanding is that is part of the work of the committee,” she said. “[We] stand available to assist the committee.“Time will tell if it’s even the committee’s call.
Police union hunting for leaks into ‘uninformed’ report
Speaking of unions, readers may have clocked the comments of minister Dan Purdie last week, calling on union president Shane Prior to answer questions about a major story.
This involved Prior using a casting vote on the union executive to OK a $10,000 benevolent fund loan to support the legal defence of an officer accused of domestic violence, who’d been knocked back from an earlier application to the legal defence fund itself – not available for DV matters.
While not providing a detailed response to questions from this masthead or Nine News, Prior instead took to the union’s Facebook page to tell members pollies and the media had got it wrong.
On what the issue was, however, Prior could not say, citing the confidentiality of the officer involved.
“The QPU executive do not make financial decisions lightly, and we make sure we know all the facts before we make them, unlike politicians and the media who are weighing in uninformed,” he said.
“Thank God police have their union to back them and aren’t reliant on the whimsy of politicians and journalists who pass judgment without knowing all the facts.”
If only there was some way we could be properly informed. Prior has also since written to members advising them an independent probe had been launched by the executive into the leak.
It’s caused quite the stir among police, and the various online pages populated by officers and those engaged in their union democracy – as a presidential election looms.
Circus imagines we’ll hear more on that front.
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