Court hears safety executive quit over ‘possible safety incident’ and cost cutting before power station explosion
Safety managers at one of Queensland’s largest state-run power stations quit over state government-ordered cost cutting before it blew up in 2021, a court has heard.
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Miles government ministers are facing new allegations in the Federal Court that safety managers at one of Queensland’s largest state-run power stations quit over cost cutting before it blew up in 2021, sending electricity prices soaring.
The explosion at the Callide C generator – operated and half-owned by the state government’s CS Energy – cut power to 500,000 homes and sent wholesale prices soaring across the national grid.
Allegations of government-ordered cost cutting, poor maintenance and a drive for dividends is poised to become an issue in the state election campaign as the Federal Court examines the Labor government’s running of the power station in central Queensland.
State Energy Minister Mick de Brenni has been called to give evidence on Thursday after his repeated claims that the generator had been properly maintained was disputed in findings of a government-commissioned forensic investigation into the explosion, finalised this year.
Dumped CS Energy chairman Jim Soorley, a one-time Brisbane Labor mayor who was hand-picked by former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, will face examination on October 10.
This year Mr de Brenni accused Mr Soorley of misleading him over maintenance at the power station.
The pair will be grilled after new evidence was heard on Tuesday that Callide C’s power safety manager, Lara Kayess, quit in March 2019 after she expressed fears about a safety incident “being quite possible”.
In extraordinary evidence, it was revealed that shortly after funding to a “critical risk program” was cut, Ms Kayess resigned along with another staff member.
In leaving notes and an exit interview she told CS Energy about her concerns, given the program aimed to develop better management of risk at all of the station’s sites.
Current CS Energy chief executive Darren Busine and former board members Brian Green and Antonia Thornton all claimed in court that they did not know that Ms Kayess had raised the concerns when she quit.
“You don’t recall that (when) Lara left she said that the lack of maintenance at Callide … left her to feel (that was a) telltale sign a process safety incident (was) quite possible?” Mr Busine was asked. He said he “was not aware” of Ms Kayess’s concerns.
Asked if he knew there was “no process safety” for about a year in the lead-up to July 2020, Mr Busine said he was aware of changes being made.
In response to the statement that there was no safety team for almost a year, Mr Busine said: “There was always an accountability for process safety.”
He also said he did not know about a significant maintenance backlog in 2019.
“I was not involved in operations or the asset management part of the business,” he said.
At the time of the explosion in May 2021 Mr Busine was the general manager of revenue strategy at CS Energy.
He said he did not know in late 2018 that there was a “cutting of the budget for the critical risk program,” the court heard.
“I don’t believe I had an understanding of that at the time,” Mr Busine said.
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