Former minister Paul Lucas. Credit:Michelle Smith "Will the Premier explain how this Labor political hack was able to be offered a departmental $160,000 a year job and a start date before he had even submitted a CV?" Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg asked. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended the move, saying she had been informed Mr Hoge was not a permanent staffer and would still be subjected to the merit-based application process, before turning the attack back on the LNP over appointments it made under the Newman government. "Can I just contrast the way they appointed the director-generals?" she said. "Michael Caltabiano, a known personal friend of the former premier, was actually appointed as director-general of the Department of Transport and we know how that all ended up: absolutely terribly.

Letters were tabled showing Lawrence Springborg as health minister "was put on notice a full year before commissioning that transition arrangements were a risk" at Lady Cilento. Credit:File " ...This is the way they ran government, this is the way the LNP ran government and this is how they are continuing. I stand by my principles of merit-based appointments for director-generals and public servants." Ms Palaszczuk then read out a list of Newman government appointments she said were made without merit-based applications while defending the appointment of another former staffer, Paul Inches, to Treasury. The Opposition claimed Mr Inches had been brought in as the "union whisperer" to gather support for the government's proposed merge of electricity mergers. Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Inches was not on a permanent contract. Health has been a key area of attack for the Opposition in recent weeks, after reports of ongoing issues at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital.

Opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle again criticised Health Minister Cameron Dick's handling of the situation, which Mr Dick responded to by criticising the Opposition on how they delivered the hospital. Meant as a replacement for the ageing Royal Children's Hospital, Lady Cilento was announced by former premier Peter Beattie in 2006 and was plagued with planning problems almost from the start. It was opened under the LNP, with a review finding the hospital had opened before it was ready. Mr Dick ordered a second review into the hospital, which again criticised the rushed opening and gave recommendations the government is working through, but subsequent reports from patient's families have added to its load. On Thursday, the Health Minister tabled letters from the Australian Medical Association of Queensland which he said showed Mr Springborg, the then health minister, "was put on notice a full year

before commissioning that transition arrangements were a risk".

But Mr Dick took particular umbrage at what he called a "smear campaign" against Mr Hoge, who the Opposition pointed out described himself as an "ex-political hack" on social media. "This is a man who worked for one-and-a-half years for the Department of Main roads, two-and-a-half years in the Department of Transport in 2009, he carried the torch in the 2000 Olympics, he wrote a book, he had overcome significant disabilities in his life and he wrote a book called Ugly, a book that has won awards, but what we have seen in this House today is nothing but ugly."