Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has deflected an opposition attack on Labor’s union links by declaring the former Liberal National party government was a “champion” of a Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union official at the centre of a royal commission corruption probe.
The royal commission into trade unions this week heard allegations former state CFMEU boss Dave Hanna fraudulently had the cost of work on his palatial Brisbane home covered by developer Mirvac.
Hanna reportedly quit the union last month after an internal review found he had inappropriately sought contributions from companies to cover the cost of an IVF program for a fellow union official.
Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg, seizing on what he said were “ongoing revelations and investigations into corruption, extortion and intimidation” against the CFMEU, asked Palaszczuk in parliament on Thursday if she would have her ministers renounce donations and election campaign assistance from the union.
Springborg, who noted Palaszczuk had taken an election campaign “selfie” with Hanna, also asked if she had sought explanations from her ministers about “their personal and political relationships with any union official currently under investigation”.
Palaszczuk, who described the allegations against the union as “disgraceful behavior”, revealed she had instructed state Labor secretary Evan Moorehead to begin disciplinary hearings against Hanna, who remains a Labor party member.
But she then sought to turn the tables by producing a copy of former premier Campbell Newman’s diary, noting he had a private lunch with Hanna, then of the Builders Labourers federation, in the “premier’s lounge” in April 2012.
The Newman government later appointed Hanna to an expert panel overseeing a review of the state building watchdog and to the board of directors for Construction Skills Queensland.
“Unlike the former premier I have not had a private lunch with Mr Hanna,” Palaszczuk said.
“It doesn’t say that there was any departmental rep there. Doesn’t say if there was any staff member there. It looks to me it was a private lunch behind closed doors.”
Palaszczuk said it was “quite ironic they want to come in here and throw the mud. When they go back in their history they’ll see very clearly the former premier had a meeting and [former housing minister Tim Mander] put Dave Hanna on a panel of experts”.
“So he was all right to appoint to a board. He was all right to have lunch with the premier. He was all right for you to put on the expert panel advisory board.
“So there you go … you were a champion of Mr Hanna,” she said.
Palaszczuk said deputy premier Jackie Trad had recently met with a CFMEU official but the meeting had been brokered by LNP MP Lachlan Millar.
She then speculated whether answers about Newman’s meeting with Hanna would be forthcoming at the launch of the former premier’s biography at Brisbane Tattersall’s club next month.
Speaker Peter Wellington cut Palaszczuk short, saying this was irrelevant.
“Premier, please, we don’t want to know about the book tour,” he said.
