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Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie accused Labor leader Steven Miles of orchestrating chaos on the rail system, as a union urged the NRL to intervene and pressure the LNP government to resolve an industrial impasse before the city’s sporting flagship, Magic Round, is derailed.
Bleijie suggested the ongoing industrial disruption was a calculated move to put the thumb on the electoral scales.
“I think – now you might call me a conspiracy theorist – we’re in a Stafford byelection,” he said outside the government offices in William Street on Wednesday.
“It was not too long ago that Steven Miles met with the rail union at Parliament House, and then the campaign started the day after that meeting.
“I think this is clear, deliberate industrial disputation to sabotage commuters getting to school, to work, to the footy on the weekend, to help out shonky Steven in a byelection.”
Bleijie repeated LNP attack lines that a bad result in the byelection would trigger a Labor leadership challenge, and he claimed the union movement was “doing everything they can to protect Steven Miles”.
Campaigning in Stafford on Wednesday, Miles said Bleijie and his LNP government colleagues were determined to blame anyone for the impasse but themselves.
“They won’t take any responsibility for their role in this,” he said.
“You saw the Fair Work Commission quite sensationally say the impacts on communities of previous industrial action was entirely of Queensland Rail’s own making, their own strategy, and the same goes for the disruptions that the LNP could cause to Magic Round.
“Magic Round is a magic time to be here in Brisbane to celebrate our great city, the great game of rugby league, and our fantastic stadium in Suncorp Stadium, but public transport is such a crucial part of what makes all of those things great.
“This government should do a better job of ensuring that disruptions do not occur, by having a productive relationship with their workforce instead of fighting with them.”
In a decision published earlier this month, Fair Work Commission deputy president Nicholas Lake laid the blame for the April 1 disruptions, during which workers planning industrial action targeting freight routes were locked out, firmly at the feet of Queensland Rail rather than the unions.
“I consider that those disruptions were directly caused by Queensland Rail’s … notice, rather than the protected industrial action itself,” he said.
Bleijie said he was more concerned about the impact for everyday commuters than rugby league fans during Magic Round, between May 15 and 17, when 150,000 were expected to descend on Suncorp Stadium.
“I do think there is a clear case here of deliberate industrial disputation in a fuel crisis,” he said.
Electrical Trades Union state rail organiser Darren Wood said workers did not want to disrupt the upcoming Magic Round, and he called on the NRL to use its influence in Queensland’s halls of power.
“The NRL should put the pressure on the government to give us an offer so we can lift our actions,” he said.
Bleijie said the government, through Queensland Rail, was negotiating in good faith, but Wood said the government was trying to wedge workers by insisting all involved unions must agree to the deal simultaneously for the wage increase to be triggered.
Wood said a resolution was unlikely while that requirement remained in place.
“We’ve never seen them put these sorts of caveats into an offer at the start of one,” he said.
“Usually, at the end of negotiations, unions will have discussions about where we disagree, and things will go to a vote to memberships.
“We’ve never seen it at the start, and the only reason we can see that it’s being done is to take the spotlight off the government and off Queensland Rail in order to have it put back onto unions, so they don’t have to be accountable for the fact that they haven’t done anything for three weeks with our claims, and the fact that we’ve been taking action and they’ve ignored us until Monday this week.”
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