Massive golden handshake for top public servant revealed

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s top public servant walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars after she quit the coveted position in the wake of the former premier’s resignation.

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s top public servant walked away with nearly $400,000 after she quit the coveted position in the wake of the former premier’s resignation.

Rachel Hunter, the now former director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, stepped away from the role this month and was replaced in the freshly minted Miles government by Mike Kaiser.

The department refused to detail the termination payment for Ms Hunter when contacted by The Courier-Mail, insisting it “does not provide details about individual’s remuneration information”.

Former director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet Rachel Hunter. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

But this masthead has confirmed Ms Hunter was given the standard six-month payout for public service executives.

According to the department’s 2022/23 annual report, the former top bureaucrat earned $778,000 in the financial year. Meaning the six-month payout would equate to about $389,000.

The revelation comes as it was revealed Mr Kaiser, a former Labor MP and party secretary, was appointed to a five-year term as the department’s DG less than 11 months before the state election.

Mike Kaiser. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Kaiser’s appointment as the new director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet was made official on Thursday following Steven Miles’s ascension to premier last week.

Two other directors-general were also appointed to five-year terms, confirmed in government documents on Thursday – ­Graham Fraine to head the Department of State Development and Infrastructure and Michael Walsh as Queensland Health boss.

Details of the appointments came on the same afternoon fallen federal Labor frontbencher Terri Butler was appointed by the Miles government to a lucrative role with the Queensland industrial referee, where her $378,000 income will be nearly $10,000 more than that of a state government minister.

The extraordinary pay is also over $100,000 more than she was paid as a shadow cabinet member in Anthony Albanese’s opposition before being defeated in her electorate of Griffith by Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather.

The five-year terms offered to the directors-general have infuriated the Opposition less than a year from a potential change of government – particularly that given to Mr Kaiser, whose Labor links are deep-rooted.

But the length of the fixed-term contracts is in line with legislation passed in response to recommendations from Professor Peter Coaldrake’s integrity review.

Terri Butler. Picture: Martin Ollman

His landmark report, Let the Sunshine In, called for the length of contracts be half a decade to ensure that stability of government and performance of public service be strengthened.

However, it is understood Mr Kaiser’s contract is only protected by a six to nine-month termination period if the LNP assumes power in late October and sacks him.

Mr Kaiser resigned from the Queensland parliament in 2001 after admitting to electoral fraud in the 1980s. He was not charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Quizzed on that appointment this week, Mr Miles said Mr Kaiser was a highly regarded public servant.

“I think if you survey opinion, public service and the Queensland business sector, they will say that Mike Kaiser will be an excellent director-general in DPC,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Butler, who was tipped for a ministerial job in the Albanese government before her shock defeat, has been unveiled as one of four new members of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

She will be joined by former United Workers’ Union Queensland president Sharron Caddie, Christopher Gazenbeek – former state branch secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association – and industrial relations law veteran Daniel Pratt.