Senior figure at Public Trustee of Queensland suspended on full pay

There is never a dull moment at the Public Trustee of Queensland with a senior figure in the organisation suspended last week on full pay.

MORE DRAMA

The leaks keep coming from inside the deeply-troubled Public Trustee of Queensland.

City Beat spies tells us that a senior figure in the organisation was suspended last week on full pay pending an investigation.

Another top player is also on some form of “special leave’’ on full salary.

PT spin doctors declined to comment yesterday.

The drama comes as we’ve learned that ousted CEO Peter Carne filed not one but two claims in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission late last month.

It’s also understood that Carne, who was suspended over unspecified allegations of wrongdoing in June last year, is still getting a salary.

Peter Carne was suspended as the Public Trustee of Queensland last year.

The annual report shows he was on a nice little earner of $385,000 in the last financial year.

No wonder his LinkedIn page reads as if nothing happened! Carne could not be reached for comment yesterday and has never commented publicly about his removal.

Meanwhile, talks continue between Together union officials and the PT over proposed plans for a dramatic shake-up of the organisation.

Meeting minutes show PT executives couldn’t explain how they would fund an extra $1 million or so in director pay packets.

They also wouldn’t guarantee that staffing numbers will remain intact, preferring to say only that cuts are “not intended’’.

Incredibly, one PT operative even said that increasing staffing levels at the case work level wouldn’t necessarily fix the problem of the troops getting overloaded with work.

“This comment is complete madness,’’ one stakeholder fumed.

“Staff are massively over worked and stressed out, which isn’t healthy for the employees or our clients.’’

Public Trustee employees claim they have been left in the dark about plans for sweeping change

The reorganisation of the senior ranks of the much-criticised Public Trustee of Queensland continues with a firing and redeployment this month

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HYDROGEN HAPPENING

The hydrogen revolution has arrived in Queensland.

Construction of Australia’s first hydrogen plant powered by renewable energy will kick off in Gladstone starting in November.

Adelaide-based Australian Gas Networks announced plans yesterday for the $4.2 million production facility, which is set to be commissioned late next year.

Once operational, it will be able to deliver up to 10 per cent “blended hydrogen’’ mixed in with the gas supplied to 770 residential customers, as well as small commercial and industrial facilities.

The aim is to reduce the carbon footprint of gas, with hydrogen an ideal resource because it’s super clean and obviously abundant.

The Queensland Government has come to the party too, tipping in a $1.78 million grant from its $15 million Hydrogen Industry Development Fund.

AGN boss Ben Wilson.

It’s probably no accident, either, that AGN chose Gladstone as its base, given the city is home to the east coast’s LNG production, processing and export industry.

So it makes sense that the so-called “Hydrogen Park’’ is designed to be scaled up in the future to supply bigger markets, both domestic and export.

AGN boss Ben Wilson hailed the plant yesterday as a “ground breaking project’’.

“Gladstone will become the first entire city in Australia to be on a blend of natural gas and hydrogen,’’ he said.

“Queensland, and Australia as a whole, has the potential to be a renewable hydrogen superpower, with jobs and economic growth from supplying clean energy to regional and eventual metropolitan wide markets.

“The Gladstone plant can deliver a citywide proof-of-concept to enable implementation of blended hydrogen gas across regional cities in Australia.’’

AGN is also in the midst of building an $11 million hydrogen plant in Adelaide expected to start operation in the middle of this year.

The company is part of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group consortium, which was formed two years ago and now has hydrogen projects under way in Victoria, South Australian and Western Australia.

A RUDE SHOCK

We hear a certain Brisbane PR principal got a rude shock recently when checking her office computers.

It seems several staffers had made highly unflattering comments about her on some non-secure chat platform, a move which saw them shown the exit.

In a peculiar twist, the principal then rang local media identities to alert them to the drama, saying she wanted to get her side of the story out first.