Neil Scales, Transport and Main Roads director-general, retires amid CFMEU campaign

A high-ranking Palaszczuk government bureaucrat has stepped down from his $600,000 a year job just months after the CFMEU stormed his department’s building, demanding he resign.

The boss of Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads has announced he is stepping down from his $600,000 a year gig nine months after hundreds of CFMEU workers stormed the TMR building demanding his resignation.

And it seems there is still no love lost between director-general Neil Scales and the militant union, with the CFMEU posting a message on Facebook saying “don’t let the door bang you on the a*** on your way out”.

Mr Scales had been at the helm of TMR for more than a decade, and served as chief executive before his current role.

Department of Transport and Main Roads director-general Neil Scales. Picture: Tara Croser.

On Thursday, he posted on his LinkedIn page he was “retiring from his full-time career in the Queensland public sector and as DG of TMR” and “all good things must come to an end”.

“I am sad to leave TMR,” Mr Scales wrote in a letter to staff.

“At various points (especially during Covid and natural disasters) I have spent more time here than my own home.

“I feel that now is the time to hang up my TMR hard hat and boots, and look after me, my family and my mates.”

The Courier-Mail understands Mr Scales’ current contract was due to expire.

CFMEU members storm the Department of Transport and Main Roads’s building in Mary St, Brisbane.

Mr Scales said Sally Stannard would take over as acting director-general.

The former director-general had been at the centre of a number of protests held by the CFMEU in the past year.

Public servants were left rattled last August when members of the CFMEU stormed the Mary St headquarters of TMR, with images showing them forcing their way into the building after holding a protest outside.

It was understood the CFMEU chose that day because Mr Scales was due to address an annual Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program industry briefing.

A security guard was knocked down, but not injured, as protesters forced their way into a conference room with police called and the building put into lockdown.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk meeting with Minister for Main Roads Mark Bailey and Department of Transport and Main Roads director-general Neil Scales in 2016. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Earlier that month, thousands of CFMEU members descended on government headquarters 1 William St demanding Mr Scales resign, accusing the director-general of not complying with government policy regarding tenders on major projects.

On Friday, following his resignation, the CFMEU posted a tongue-in-cheek “goodbye message” to Mr Scales, beginning with “it is with profound shock and sadness we have to report that TMR director-general Neil Scales is stepping down from his role”.

It signed off with “don’t let the door bang you on the a*** on your way out”.