Queensland parliament updates: Striking staff to protest ahead of bail law passage

Premier David Crisafulli is paying tribute to “colourful” former Bjelke-Petersen cabinet minister Vince Lester, known for campaigning for changes to toilet door engineering and walking backwards to raise money.

Lester served as the National Party MP across Central Queensland seats of Belyando, Peak Downs and Keppel between 1974 and 2004.

“I think it can be said that Mr Lester is one of the most colourful and interesting people to have ever been elected to this place,” Crisafulli said.

“He was unique.

“A grassroots parliamentarian, a resolute campaigner, a baker … a person well known for walking backwards over great distances to raise money for worthy causes.

“If he believed in something, he campaigned for it, as he did with hinges on toilet doors.”

Lester famously walked backwards more than 20 kilometres to raise money for a local football club.

He also campaigned to change building laws so all toilet doors would open outwards, so anyone who had a heart attack while relieving themselves could be accessed easily by emergency services.

Treasurer David Janetzki described Lester as the “minister for dunny doors”.

Katter Party MP Shane Knuth told the parliament his party’s own founder thought highly of the former Queensland minister.

“I had the honour of inviting him to Charter Towers to campaign for us as a candidate,” he said.

“He said, the first thing you’ve got to do is you got to get your federal member on side.

“So we rang up Bob Katter … and he said, ‘listen to Vince. He taught me everything I know’.”

Minister Ann Leahy also paid tribute to the former MP.

“He made his living as a baker … and rumour has it that the reason he kept getting elected was because the people of Clermont wanted to keep him away from baking, so they voted to send him to Brisbane.

“He championed small practical changes that we see every day, like reflectorised number plates, and also as mentioned earlier, he advocated for those toilet doors to swing out.”

Lester died in August, aged 87.

After we clocked off yesterday, Regional and Rural Development Minister Dale Last lobbed a new bill to make changes to the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority.

Last said the bill builds on work started by the former Labor government.

“The bill will streamline the process to establish new financial assistance schemes,” he said.

“Currently, section 11 of the act requires schemes delivered in Queensland to be detailed in a regulation. This process is timely and can potentially take months to make or amend a scheme.

“While this process provides oversight, it can be lengthy and administratively burdensome, delaying the delivery of financial assistance programs, which is particularly problematic when it comes to things like disaster assistance, which we need to get out the door as soon as possible.

“The bill will replace this process with a ministerial notice for scheme approval … the Crisafulli government is not seeking to remove oversight or diminish accountability; we are simply removing unnecessary administrative barriers.”

The third and final day of the sitting week is here, and there’s plenty of movement still to come.

First up will be a condolence motion for Vince Lester, a Bjelke-Petersen cabinet minister who served as the National Party MP across three central Queensland seats between 1974 and 2004.

Lester died in August, aged 87.

With ongoing bargaining between the government and workers in youth justice and child safety now before the industrial umpire, striking staff will protest outside the Legislative Assembly after lunch.

Passage of the government’s controversial “breach bail, go to jail” laws is then slated for 9pm.

Follow along here for everything you need to know (and catch up on the first two sitting days here and here).