Axed transport and infrastructure chief Rod Hook’s farewell lap of media outlets has shone a light on a state public service that he says is willing to work to a political agenda.
Hook has been Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure chief since 2002 and had about two years to run on his contract before Premier Jay Weatherill asked him in for a chat late last Thursday.
The high profile public servant said the Premier gave him 24 hours to leave the office – a move that Hook thought should have been better handled.
“I don’t think it had to happen this way,” he told 891ABC breakfast in his second radio interview of the day.
He said that as a department CEO it was his personal style to give senior executives around six months to find other opportunities.
“It’s not in my nature to just call someone in and sack them.”
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InDaily understands, however, the Premier’s initial discussion with Hook included an option to leave over a longer timeframe.
Hook’s tour of morning radio followed a front page in yesterday’s Sunday Mail where he posed with his family in front of Adelaide Oval and reportedly made the claim that the ALP wouldn’t have won the March state election without the efforts of himself and his department.
“If those things weren’t working there might have been a few people who voted another way.”
He repeated that line today, going further by admitting the rollout of rail upgrade projects was completed with a looming election in view.
“We deliberately organised the rail to get services back and running on the Noarlunga line rather than the Tonsley line,” Hook told Matthew Abraham and David Bevan on ABC 891.
When Abraham asked if that meant he was “working to a political agenda”, Hook replied; “Yes.”
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Hook claimed a legacy of major infrastructure projects.
“In 30 years’ time historians will describe this period as the time Adelaide rebuilt its rail network,” he said.
“They will acknowledge this as the ‘rebuild era’.
“Adelaide Oval is a great outcome as is the footbridge.”
“That will stand as a legacy,” he told FIVEaa.
“I don’t say it’s me personally; the people in the department, we all work as a team.”
Hook admitted that some government projects had been difficult, mainly due to the process of estimating costs before adequate design work has been done.
“The Gallipoli Underpass is an example of that.
“It was costed at $60 million and in the end it cost $114 million.
“Property acquisitions hadn’t been factored in.”
The planned O-Bahn tunnel project is likely to run into unseen difficulties, he said.
Hook’s final years in the public service included key roles in the upgrade of Adelaide Oval, major road and public transport projects and the management of the ‘BER’, the Federal Government’s school buildings project.
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