Ex-banker to take control of state finances for LNP government

The Crisafulli government has appointed former banker Paul Williams as under treasurer in the lead-up to the LNP’s first budget in June.

Announcing the appointment on Friday, Treasurer David Janetzki said Williams would “bring a fresh approach” to Treasury and draw on 25 years’ experience in banking and property.

Williams – who becomes Queensland’s seventh under treasurer in a decade – is the former chief financial officer at People First Bank. He spent the bulk of his career with Heritage Bank, in various roles, before it merged into People First.

Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki recently delivered a budget update.Credit: Markus Ravik

He will start in the role on February 24, having been identified as a candidate during the independent recruitment process for the separate role of Queensland Treasury Corporation CEO.

“His appointment is a significant coup for Queensland,” said Janetzki, who worked as general counsel at Heritage Bank during Williams’ tenure when they were both in Toowoomba.

New Queensland under treasurer Paul Williams.

“Mr Williams will guide Treasury as we meet the fiscal challenge of the debt and deficit legacy we inherited, as revealed in Labor’s last budget update.”

Williams graduated from the University of Queensland with an arts degree, and then went to Cambridge to do his masters. Years later, he pivoted into business and, according to his LinkedIn profile, gained a graduate diploma in Applied Finance and a Master of Business Administration.

Williams replaces Rachel Crossland, who has held the role in an acting capacity since December when then under treasurer Michael Carey was moved on by the incoming LNP government.

Carey, who held a number of short-term roles in the bureaucracy, had been under treasurer for just over a year. He replaced a longer-term Treasury official and former banker, Leon Allen, who lasted almost two years in the top job before moving to QTC and recently resigning as CEO effective February 28.

The last long-serving under treasurer in Queensland was Gerard Bradley, who held the role from 1998 to 2012 under Labor governments. He was succeeded by Helen Gluer when the LNP took power under then premier Campbell Newman.

Gluer resigned in November 2013 for personal reasons, with Mark Gray then taking the role until another change of government in 2015, when the incoming Labor government of Annastacia Palaszczuk installed Jim Murphy.

Murphy resigned in 2018 and was replaced the following year by Frankie Carroll, who was himself replaced the following year by Rachel Hunter before Allen took over.

Former Labor treasurer Jackie Trad’s appointment of Carroll, now the CEO of Victoria’s Suburban Rail Loop Authority, was the subject of an investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission. The CCC took no further action, but was prevented from releasing a report on it and other investigations.

After years of legal action, the Crisafulli government will next week introduce legislation to parliament allowing the CCC to report on such matters, including the Trad case.

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