Clearing house to cost $10m and take too long: Top bureaucrat

The reason why a “clearing house” for corruption tip-offs and complaints recommended by the landmark Coaldrake integrity was dumped by the government has been revealed.

• Editor’s view: Integrity too pricey?

The “clearing house” for corruption tip-offs and complaints recommended by the landmark Coaldrake Review was dumped by the government because it was deemed too expensive.

Public Sector Commissioner David Mackie has revealed the clearing house would have cost at least $10 million to establish, and then another $6 million annually to operate.

He said the option had been provided to the government, but a simplified and upgraded one-stop web form that has since had more than 6500 complaints lodged through it had instead been chosen because it was the “best bang for buck”.

Mr Mackie insisted a “fair bit of work” went in to investigate the clearing house proposal – that Professor Coaldrake’s review said was critical for would-be whistleblowers as the current system was so complicated it was a roadblock to justice.

Public Sector Commissioner David Mackie said the conservative cost of the clearing house was high at $10m. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Prof Coaldrake had warned the idea would be “strongly resisted” by the public service, but said it was critically important.

A spokesman for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – who had pledged to implement the Coaldrake recommendations “lock, stock and barrel” – denied that promise had been broken, saying the review had only recommended it be “considered”.

And Mr Mackie, who is chairing the task force charged with implementing the review’s recommendations, said: “It sounds great but what came out of the scoping of that was that it was a really big ICT project … and that it would take some time to do.”

He said 6654 complaints had been lodged through the new web form since it went live in January, an increase from 5017 using the old form during the same time period last year – figures Mr Mackie said proved the new system was working.

Asked whether the Premier had broken her promise, he said: “My job is not to have a narrative around the ‘lock stock and barrel’ comment.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk during the state parliament estimates. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The public sector boss also revealed work would likely start before the end of the year on a business case to introduce new complaint-tracking technology across the government.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli pledged to fully implement the clearing house if elected, because it would show he was “fair dinkum” about integrity: “It shouldn’t take a change of government, but clearly that’s the point we’ve got to – so the answer is yes.”