Paul Broad says he was effectively “dead” as Snowy Hydro chief executive as soon as Chris Bowen was named energy minister after years of simmering tensions boiled over when Labor insisted the Commonwealth-owned electricity generator use green hydrogen at a new NSW power plant.

In his first in-depth interview since his abrupt departure from Snowy last August, Mr Broad accused Mr Bowen of using Labor senators to target him at Senate hearings for two years and said that meant it was “just a matter of time” before he would exit after the change of government last year.