Annastacia Palaszczuk lambasts former attorney general after report finds millions of dollars wasted on trials for youth offenders

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Queensland’s former attorney general Jarrod Bleijie should be sacked from the shadow cabinet for wasting money on youth boot camp trials, the premier says.



The auditor-general has found the previous Liberal National party government wasted millions of dollars on the trials for youth offenders, which were overseen by Bleijie.



On Thursday it reported the program’s original budget was $4.9m over two years but the final cost was likely to be $12.3m.



The report also identified a lack of documents showing why tenders were awarded to certain providers, and found accusations of favouritism “cannot be readily rebutted”.



The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, called for the opposition leader, Lawrence Springborg, to sack Bleijie from the shadow cabinet.



“What he should do today is move aside Jarrod Bleijie, the member for Kawana, from any shadow ministerial responsibilities,” she said.



“What this report says very clearly is that there was an abuse of the process, it alludes to favouritism, but most importantly taxpayers’ money was wasted.”



Palaszczuk supported another assessment of the camps to make sure more money was not wasted in future.