Three Queensland lobbyists will be barred from contacting cabinet ministers as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk seeks to make her government “the most transparent” in the country.
Ms Palaszczuk announced the move on Monday after the Coaldrake report last week raised serious concerns about lobbyists accessing and influencing her government.
Professor Peter Coaldrake called for a ban on “dual-hatting”, where people who work on political campaigns are able to lobby governments after elections.
As a result, Evan Moorhead, Cameron Milner and David Nelson will be barred from lobbying any ministers or staff until after the 2024 election.
“It’s for the rest of the term, then they’ll have to make their own decisions,” Ms Palaszczuk said after Monday’s cabinet meeting.
“We believe that by implementing the Coaldrake recommendations, this will make Queensland the most transparent government in the nation.”
However, the premier brushed off a new poll showing Labor’s primary vote had fallen to its lowest level since the 2020 election.
Labor’s primary vote had fallen to 34 per cent in June, said the YouGov poll, from 39 per cent in February.
The poll commissioned by News Corp showed the Liberal National Party’s primary unchanged at 38 per cent and the Greens’ up four per cent to 14 per cent.
If an election were held today there would be a hung parliament, but the premier wasn’t flustered.
“The poll that matters of course, is on election day, but we have a big job to do,” she said.
“This means that by the government implementing all those recommendations, it means that we will be the most transparent government and that is a good thing, that is a good healthy thing for democracy.”
© AAP 2022
