So it’s come to this: police stationed outside the home of Queensland’s top public servant, tailing her in order to keep her safe while she determines the state’s border policy.
Thus far, chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young has done a sterling job of keeping Queensland relatively COVID-free. That’s not at issue. This issue is: is this her job? Should a public servant take over the role of a premier, whose ambit is surely wider than any specific policy area?
This is a health crisis first and foremost, but it’s also an economic crisis, a conundrum for schools, a mental health minefield and a dozen other things.
So why has one public servant been handed a role where she is being forced to make decisions on more than health. This is the role Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has given her; a role Palaszczuk has all but admitted trumps her own during COVID-19.
Last week Young admitted that athletes and Hollywood stars allowed into the state, on exemptions, brought in “a lot of money’’. Where’s the health imperative there? Surely that’s a decision about the economy, not the spread of the virus?
Many Queenslanders hitting out at the government over its border stance want the borders to remain closed. They’re not arguing for a free-for-all, as it is now being painted. They just want an an end to the inconsistencies that favour the rich and famous over a mother who cannot hold the hand of her seven-year-old who is having radiation therapy.
This isn’t Young’s fault. She has been put in this position by a government that has abdicated responsibility for being the final arbiter of policy.
So where does this end? Why not let the state’s chief scientist determine climate change policy? Or the top education bureaucrat have the final say on teacher’s wages? Or its top cop write her own cheque to fight crime?
Voters elect politicians, who elect their leader. And public servants should be granted the respect to provide advice without fear or favour in their area of expertise. They are not there to act as a shield for politicians during tricky crises.
Six weeks out from the state ballot, Young has been sandwiched in an election campaign, and been made the face of Queensland’s daily contradictions on border policy.
It’s done no favours for a highly talented public servant, widely tipped within government to be appointed the state’s next governor — a post she truly deserves.
As time drags on, and as Palaszczuk is the subject of another targeted headline, it might not do any favours for the government, either.
It seems Crikey has joined the ill informed ,vindictive and dangerous
Murdoch
/ LNP pile on of Anastasia Palaszczuk
it seems you can take the Journalist out of News Ltd but you can’t take News Ltd out of the journalist.
7:30 last night was joining that game too. The range of informed news and comment sources is self diminishing quite rapidly. Is it any wonder so many news outlets are closing when such uninformed nonsense is being published? They’re digging their own graves.
I wonder why Anastasia does not want to talk to Leigh Sales? My view is that she should do a 7.30 interview, in spite of Sales’ poor record of false balance and failure to properly interrogate government failings.
Why would she waste her time. 7.30 is simply joining the pile on. It saddens me that a show I once watched religiously has become a maybe. A bit more informed analysis and it may be worth going back but this running with the uninformed herd is not worth my time.
The problem with current 730 is that Leigh Sales is more than happy to toe the line whereas Kerry O’Brien was an actual journalist
I cannot understand how Crikey can print Madonna Kings right wing garbage.
Don Neil
Perhaps to remind the likes of you and me that the 4th estate contains a lot of 5th columnists.
I doubt that many here know the import of “5th column”.
Which is a pity because it would clarify their understanding of politics.
This is a nonsense argument which takes no account of the legal position of the Premier and the public service. To quote Paul Bongiorno in discussion of condemnation of the Queensland Premier.
“The federal ministers are contemptuous of Queensland’s crime and corruption law designed to protect the state against political misuse of power. Professor Orr says “it would be highly inappropriate for a minister to intervene”. ”
Professor Graeme Orr is a legal and constitutional expert. He has pointed out that is illegal for the Premier to override the decisions of a public health official on quarantine.
Why is it so difficult for journalists to understand that politicians should not corruptly override the decisions of public servants for their own political advantage? If Premier Palaszczuk did this she could be referred to the CMC and prosecuted for interfering to gain a political advantage.
I have not forgotten why we need these laws. Perhaps Madonna King needs to revisit the Fitzgerald inquiry and the subsequent necessary integrity laws. I congratulate the Queensland Premier for her integrity and would like to see the opposition and the media display some.
Is this “Crikey” or “News Corp “that I logged onto tonight?
Not only is it becoming difficult to discern – far from a recent problem – but does it matter any more?
This organ is contrarian or it is nothing.
The Public Health Act in Queensland, and it all jurisdictions as far as I know, places the Chief Health Officer in charge of the response to public health emergencies. Its no different to putting the Chief Fire Officer in charge of a bushfire response. As in that case, it is designed to allow co-ordination of response by qualified people with the public interest foremost, and it is specifically acting on delegated authority from the Minister. This ‘takeover’ narrative doesn’t take account of how senior public servants work within government, or how operational responses are actually enacted. Politicians actually ‘do’ very little at an operational level.
Exactly. Anastasia would actually be breaking the law if she tried to override Jeanette. Kinda thought a Crikey journalist would know that…
Almost. The decision to declare a public health emergency is that of the Minister. This includes the duration of the public health emergency. the Minister may, at any time, end the declared public health emergency and then resume their ordinary responsibilities.
But that would require true accountability and judgement – something missing in the average Aussie Pollie.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, the idea that Andrews may have made his own decision about curfews is treated as an outrage by some because it wasn’t based on a recommendation from a health bureaucrat. Can’t win.
It is indeed an outrage. Andrews is hiding behind Sutton to perform social experiments and to attempt to vacuum his conscience from the quarantine shambles responsible for dozens of deaths in Victoria.
Except when he’s not, that needs to be discovered by accident.