CCC report says David Barbagallo said he did not check to ensure his interests fully declared

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s former chief of staff told Queensland’s corruption watchdog he did not check a document to ensure his interests were fully declared, and that he helped bring in the CCC and that ‘the other mob are the ones that are corrupt’.

A CCC report says Annastacia Palaszczuk’s former chief of staff David Barbagallo told the corruption watchdog he had signed his declaration of interests forms, but did not check the documents to ensure his interests were fully declared.

The report says he told the CCC that if he had checked the documents, he would have identified that he had not declared he was a director of Fortress Capstone.

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In his interview with the CCC, Mr Barbagallo told them he was “not making excuses” and that he should have “checked it and all the rest” – according to the report.

He told them that he did declare his directorship in 2019, acknowledging that he previously had not read the document closely and declared his directorship in 2018.

“But you know after the whole kerfuffle started I went and thought I’ll go and have a look at that and discovered that I hadn’t been filling it out properly,” he said in the interview, according to the report.

According to a transcript of their interview with Mr Barbagallo, he told the CCC that he would start from the “preposition [sic] or the presumption that I’m not going to do anything wrong right”.

“And that’s how I’ve always been alright,” he told the CCC, according to the transcript in the report.

“I worked for (former Premier Wayne) Goss we brought in the CCC stuff you know, we’re from the good guys.

“You know that other mob are the ones that are corrupt and f---ed over this State so you know I have an intellectual, philosophical and personal commitment and everywhere I’ve worked I’ve set up procurement policies and a whole bunch of things to ensure people aren’t doing the wrong thing.”

“So when you start from that position the rest is detail. Cos you know you’re not going to do anything wrong.

“Having said that, that sort of arrogance leads to there is that you’ve already heard about you know not checking everything completely diligently.

“You work 100 hours a week in that job right. It’s pretty hard yakka. Okay it’s not an excuse but it’s a reason why things get overlooked.”

The CCC’s report says Mr Barbagallo submitted declaration of interest forms in May 2017 and June 2018, where he did declare he was a shareholder in Fortress Capstone and that he received income from director’s fees.

But the report says he did not declare that he was a director and chairman of the board of directors for the company.

The CCC says a third document titled “Annual Review of Declaration of Interests - No Variations”, that was dated May 30, 2019, was also submitted with Mr Barbagallo declaring no changes to the information he had previously provided.

On September 11, 2019, the CCC says Mr Barbagallo submitted a declaration of interests form that disclosed he was a director of Fortress Capstone.