A former politician has landed himself squarely in Ray Hadley’s crosshairs after publishing an ‘apologist’ opinion piece. 

Former Labor state minister Robert Schwarten has played down integrity concerns within the Palaszczuk government, arguing “no one can find anyone who should be before the courts“.

His comments come after three public servants raised issues about integrity processes in the government and the Premier acknowledged “some things could have been done better”.

In his piece published in The Courier Mail, Mr Schwarten launched criticism on an interview conducted by Afternoons host Sofie Formica with former state archivist Mike Summerell.

Mr Summerell has made a number of claims against the state government, which Ray believes constitute a “legitimate complaint”:

• Department officials pressured Mr Summerell to remove content from a 2017-18 report that could be viewed as ‘bad news’;
• Mr Summerrell was ordered to remove mention on then-energy minister Mark Bailey’s email scandal in his annual report; and
• Mr Summerrell was ordered to remove all reference to the poor standard of government record-keeping in the annual report.

But Mr Schwarten writes he is “at a loss to understand just what the problem is“.

A lack of byline acknowledging Mr Schwarten’s affiliation with Labor has caught Ray’s attention.

“He’s written this opinion piece but there’s no declaration at the end of it of who he is.

“This apologist, Robert Schwarten, doesn’t make any declaration about him being an apologist.

“There’s another word I’d use, and you can probably not use that in the paper: ‘I’m a Labor Party suck’.”

Press PLAY below to hear Ray’s scathing comments in full 

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