Call for minister’s sacking in ‘mother of all cover ups’
Premier Steven Miles has refused to take responsibility for the Callide power station explosion, as faces calls to sack Energy Minister Mick de Brenni following extraordinary revelations about the incident. POLL
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Premier Steven Miles has blamed the Callide Power station explosion on “cultural issues” within CS Energy, and dismissed concerns that a lack of maintenance contributed to the plant’s failure.
Three years after the explosion and a months-long legal battle, CS Energy on Tuesday – following The Courier-Mail’s front-page report – released a redacted version of forensic engineer Sean Brady’s report into the catastrophic 2021 explosion that cut power to about 500,000 Queenslanders.
The report contained extraordinary revelations about the explosion, which the Opposition is labelling “the mother of all cover-ups”.
Refusing to take responsibility for the failure, Mr Miles on Wednesday attempted to suggest the government did not have control over CS Energy, despite it being a government-owned corporation.
“It very clearly says that cost cutting in the period that these companies were being prepared for privatisation was a cause here,” he said.
“It points to changes in the system directed towards achieving privatisation around 2015, (it) points to management changes around 2017 and 2018.
“It points to management structure challenges associated with the complicated joint venture and the half privatisation.
“It (made it) very hard to know who that generator answered to.”
Mr Miles is facing calls to sack Energy Minister Mick de Brenni over the incident.
Mr de Brenni has previously insisted CS Energy did not put profits first and that the explosion did not occur due to lack of maintenance.
But Dr Brady’s report revealed CS Energy faced pressure from the government in 2016 and 2020 to find savings and divert surplus cash to reduce debt, instead of investment in existing assets.
The report found a series of technical failures around a battery charger triggered the explosion.
The Premier faced a media barrage without Mr Brenni on Wednesday where he continued to deflect government responsibility for the lack of maintenance, saying the primary cause of the power station fiasco was the failure to replace a battery charger.
He also denied the offline generator, which has reduced Queensland’s energy supply over the past three years, had not contributed to a rise in energy prices.
“It has been very negligible, our energy system throughout this entire period has had sufficient supply,” he said.
“It’s very hard to differentiate factors like that as well as wholesale prices versus retail prices.”
Mr Miles said the cultural issues were unique to CS Energy.
“All of our generating GRCs had similar shareholder mandates and these cultural issues have really only been identified at CS Energy,” he said.
But he said the cultural issues identified within the report “didn’t reflect the current board or current executives’’.
Asked why the government could not intervene or force CS Energy to release the report as the major shareholder, Mr Miles said the company had its own management structure.
“They have their own board, have their own legal advisers, and they make decisions on that basis,” he said.
The opposition said the focus on debt above maintenance was proof the state government contributed to the explosion, which drove up power prices, and called for Mr de Brenni to be held accountable.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli labelled the incident the mother of all cover-ups.
“This is one of the greatest scandals we’ve seen in this state for a long time,” he said.
“This is a scandal and someone must be held accountable.
“It’s unforgivable to see the lies and the cover-ups that have occurred.”
Mr Miles, however, dismissed the LNP’s outrage and declared the claims by Dr Brady were “draft opinions”.
Mr Miles also stood by his Left-faction colleague, Mr de Brenni, despite him repeatedly denying the explosion occurred due to lack of maintenance.
“What we take responsibility for is what we do now, and it makes sense that for the last period of time our focus was getting the generators back up and running and that will be done in the next few weeks,” Mr Miles said.
“I haven’t yet been able to read the entire technical report, but it finds that it was caused by a new battery charger, an upgrade to the battery charger, replacement of the battery charger.”
Mr Miles said Mr de Brenni remained the best person to lead reforms in the energy sector – which would include a review of government corporations and taking full control of Callide Power Station.
“He’s overseeing the recommissioning of the Callide generators that will occur, that will be finished over the next few weeks,” he said.
Mr Miles argued the LNP was to blame for the maintenance directions dating back to 2012 under then-treasurer Tim Nicholls. However, the draft Brady report notes cost cutting was also undertaken in “the years from 2017”.
It noted, as a government-owned corporation, CS Energy was “obliged” to meet shareholder mandates and annual performance indicators.
“In the years leading up to the incident, these mandates focused on cost savings, and performance indicators were dominated by financial and production metrics, as well as personal safety-related metrics,” he said.
“The years from 2017 onwards were characterised by significant internal reforms and pressures.
“Shareholder mandates have pushed to extract more from ageing assets, and multiple cost cutting initiatives have been undertaken.”
Mr de Brenni said Dr Brady’s draft report expressed “opinion” and noted the state government had increased funding for maintenance since it came to office in 2015.
“What all of the data shows, it’s on the public record, is that the investment by our government to maintenance of that site has been increasing throughout the term of our administration,” he said.
“Maintenance funding for the year immediately prior to the incident was a record level of funding.
“Contrast that with the $74m cut instructed by the LNP at the time.”
LNP energy spokeswoman Deb Frecklington slammed Mr de Brenni and Mr Miles’s attempt to blame the Opposition, arguing the Premier was severely out of his depth and called on him to sack Mr de Brenni.
“His head must be on the chopping block when it comes to his ministerial career,” she said.
In an effort to quell criticism, the government will appoint special advisers to the board of CS Energy and review the performance of government-owned energy corporations. The government will also take 100 per cent control of Callide Power Station, ending a joint-venture with IG Power.
A government review of its publicly owned energy businesses is expected to heavily scrutinise the performance of CS Energy – which has created frustration for the state government with its response to the Callide explosion.
Mr Miles said the review would focus on optimising the energy transition, putting downward pressure on consumer prices while maintaining operating and business performance.
Mining and Energy Union Queensland President Mitch Hughes said the long-overdue report provided some answers to Callide workers.
“It illustrates how extreme the explosion was, with a 300kg piece of equipment ejected 20m into the air and a two-tonne piece of shaft flying across the floor,” he said.
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