Mike Kaiser declares he has severed links with ALP as ‘jobs for mates’ crisis engulfs Steven Miles’ government
Queensland’s chief bureaucrat – a former Labor MP and state secretary – has broken his silence as the ‘jobs for mates’ saga engulfs the Miles government.
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Mike Kaiser – a former Labor MP, state secretary and chief of staff to two Labor premiers – has broken his silence to declare he has severed his links with the party as the “jobs for mates” crisis engulfs the Miles government.
Mr Kaiser – himself a shock appointment by Premier Steven Miles to head the public service – is under pressure to explain his own ‘mates’ hire after he parachuted Mr Miles’s former chief of staff Danielle Cohen into a newly created position within the Department of Premier and Cabinet without advertising or undertaking a merit-selection process.
There is no suggestion that either are unqualified for the roles, but both are at the centre of a jobs scandal threatening to derail Mr Miles’s first 100 days in the job.
This is a crisis that has crept up slowly on Mr Miles – one he under estimated – but by Saturday morning previous confidence held by Labor MPs that the government was back on track was beginning to erode.
Several believe the premier’s political honeymoon is over and others are already privately questioning whether they’d already lost the gains made by the new premier’s positive start.
Mr Kaiser meanwhile was in fight mode, declaring he was no Labor stooge.
The one-time MP – dismissed in 2001 for vote rigging – and former chief of staff to Anna Bligh and former NSW premier Morris Iemma, issued an extraordinary statement saying he hadn’t held a political position in 15 years.
“I understand my role as an independent public servant,” he told The Sunday-Mail.
“My last political role was nearly 15 years ago.
“I ceased to be a member of the Labor Party well before joining the government.”
Four years after resigning from parliament in disgrace Mr Kaiser was thrown a lifeline by Mr Iemma – a Labor Premier.
In 2007 he quit to return to Queensland – still in the Labor fold – when a loyal Anna Bligh tapped him to run her office.
A subsequent successful business career, including with NBN Co and KMPG, ended three years ago when he was asked by an unnamed Department of Premier and Cabinet boss to apply to lead the newly created resources department.
His elevation to chief of the Department of Premier and Cabinet has sent shockwaves among rivals, with the LNP slamming the appointment and noting he now has oversight of the Opposition Leader’s operations – such as mass letter communication with Queenslanders – in an election year.
Mr Kaiser has already been targeted by the LNP, which has repeatedly labelled him a “self-confessed vote rorter”, with news of his appointment in December described by one senior shadow minister as “absolutely f*cked”.
Pressure is now building on Mr Kaiser to justify why he parachuted Mr Miles’s former chief of staff Danielle Cohen into a newly created position within the Department of Premier and Cabinet without advertising or undertaking a merit-selection process.
Ms Cohen, a Labor supporter from the party’s left, will lead a new Implementation Division within the department to deliver government policies and improve services – notably just 10 months out from an election.
Mr Kaiser’s decision to appoint Ms Cohen – who he worked closely with for 10 months from April 2022 – has capped Mr Miles’s most difficult week as premier and led to mounting concern about Labor’s “politicisation” of the public service.
It started Wednesday when Mr Miles was forced to acknowledge paying former director-general Rachel Hunter to lead a homelessness review soon after she was paid nearly $400,000 to exit the government was a “mistake”. There’s no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Ms Hunter or Ms Cohen in relation to their appointments.
The saga over Mr Kaiser’s appointment of Ms Cohen has created more headaches, with the premier declaring claims he played any part in her hiring was “out of line and offensive”.
He’s instead attempting to distance himself, on Saturday declaring Mr Kaiser “will have to speak for himself” about why Ms Cohen’s role was not advertised.
One person familiar with the bureaucracy labelled Ms Cohen’s appointment “dumb as dogsh*t” and said it would add to concerns Labor was running the public service.
It has also fuelled persistent criticism since Mr Kaiser became Queensland’s top bureaucrat on December 21 about his political allegiances.
His former position as a Labor MP and powerful state secretary is uncomfortable to some within the public service who fear political influence – but the top bureaucrat says critics have nothing to fear.
“I value public service independence and consider it a crucial aspect of good government,” he said.
“Even before I joined the public service, the public servants I valued most were those who provided non-political, unvarnished advice.
“That’s why I promote frank and fearless advice to ministers and believe strongly in the value of a permanent expert public service.”
Frank and fearless advice to ministers and building the public service’s independence was the theme of Peter Coaldrake’s 2022 integrity review, which was commissioned by Annastacia Palaszczuk following a series of scandals about the government’s culture.
Eager to turn a new leaf, Mr Miles’s first external meeting as Premier on December 18 was with Prof Coaldrake.
Three days later he would defy the review’s key theme and formally appoint Mr Kaiser to the most senior job within the public service.
While disquiet remains about the close relationship he shares with Mr Miles and the Labor movement, those familiar with Mr Kaiser say his intelligence and passion are unquestionable.
Several noted, however, there remained a “widely-held view” his penchant for self-publicity creates the optics that he’s partisanly running the government.
“He’s a person who has to work overtime on that perception,” they said.
Right on cue, Mr Kaiser on Saturday morning took to LinkedIn, where he regularly posts updates, to praise kids at his old Beenleigh State High School who “taught me resilience and the benefits of a thick skin”.
Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie – the LNP’s chief spear thrower – has ramped up his attack on the state government, arguing its culture had worsened in the month since Annastacia Palaszczuk quit.
He questioned: “How can any public servants in Queensland believe that there is an independent public service at the top when it’s being run by a former Labor state secretary and Steven Miles is appointing his Labor mates to key positions?”
Mr Bleijie – who on Monday said he was not alleging wrongdoing by Mr Miles – called for the Crime and Corruption Commission to cast its eye over Ms Cohen’s appointment.
“That unit is a political unit for the premier,” he said.
Crime and Corruption Commission chair Bruce Barbour was peppered with questions about the general importance of proper recruitment processes within the public service when he appeared before a parliamentary committee on Friday.
The corruption watchdog boss backed Prof Coaldrake’s comments about how proper public sector recruitment “counters the risk of politicisation”, declaring comments in his integrity review “really mirror and echo what the CCC has said repeatedly”.
“It’s certainly sound that wherever possible there is an open and transparent process and that’s something we would support,” he said.
Mr Barbour noted there had been “a number of matters in the press recently” about government appointments and said, while not referring to specific matters,
“It is highly desirable that all appointments are made in a transparent and open way … there are certain circumstances where that can’t necessarily be undertaken,” he said.
When asked if it was correct senior public servant positions should be advertised, Mr Barbour agreed but noted it could be a “case-by-case situation”.
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