Commissioner responds after whistleblower rips apart Queensland government department

The commissioner of an embattled government department has hit back after a whistleblower lifted the lid on what they claimed was a toxic work culture.

The commissioner of an embattled government department has hit back after a whistleblower lifted the lid on what they claimed was a toxic work culture.

On Monday, a news.com.au story exposed that staff at Queensland’s building regulator had heavily criticised the organisation in an anonymous internal survey, with those results later being leaked.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC), a statutory government body that regulates the state’s building sector, came under fire from an ex staff member.

Amber*, who worked as an assessment officer for 18 months, said she wasn’t properly trained, she was overworked and that there was a high staff turnover because of low morale.

But QBCC commissioner Anissa Levy has rejected these claims, although she did acknowledge the department still had a long way to go.

“The QBCC senior leadership team take our responsibilities to care for our people seriously, and we have worked very hard with them to improve our culture, processes and systems. Their wellbeing is paramount to us,” Ms Levy said in a statement to news.com.au.

Staff have raised alarms about the internal survey.

The commissioner of an embattled government department has hit back after a whistleblower lifted the lid on what they claimed was a toxic work culture.

Forty-two staff in Amber’s assessment officer team completed what seemed like a routine annual survey last year, asking questions ranging from workplace satisfaction to if they had ever experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

After workers completed the staff survey, it wasn’t until later that year that QBCC leadership shared the results – and Amber said she was quite shocked.

Nine people said they had experienced workplace bullying, two said “yes” to sexual harassment, while three responded “yes” to workplace violence and aggression.

QBCC staff rated the organisation at less than 50 per cent for the general workload and for wellbeing support.

Of that, 33 per cent of staff said they weren’t proud to tell others they worked for the organisation, while 23 per cent said they wouldn’t recommend working there to anyone.

News.com.au understands more than a dozen staff raised concerns about whether the organisation was doing enough to address these sobering results.

A meeting was then held earlier this year, at the end of February, acknowledging the results.

Now QBCC commissioner Anissa Levy said this result only represented a small portion of the 580 people who participated in the survey.

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QBCC Commissioner Anissa Levy has rejected that the department is toxic.

“We have been open and transparent about the survey results,” Ms Levy said.

“I invited questions about the survey at the live online all-staff Q&A event and encouraged our people to check the results online.

“Leaders of each unit then discussed the specific results with their team members.”

Ms Levy said there was positive findings when taking the whole survey into account, including 88 per cent across the board saying their manager treats them respectfully.

She also said some of the results were cause for celebration.

“After sharing the survey feedback and celebrating the good results, we took action on those

areas where there was room for improvement.”

The QBCC identified work demands as one of their main areas of improvement.

Indeed, the whistleblower, Amber, said that she had over 100 cases on the go at her peak, and that she would be assigned cases if she was on sick leave or annual leave.

One time she worked when she had both Covid-19 and an eye infection and on another occasion, Amber said she worked until 3am because she was about to go on leave and if she didn’t do that to catch up on her work she would be told off.

Exhausted, the next day she had a car crash and had to write off the car, and also suffered from whiplash.

A QBCC spokesperson said they had hired 157 new staff since June last year amid growing demand and to “prioritise ... the wellbeing of our people”.

Staff have previously revealed to news.com.au the way QBCC employees claim to be overworked.

“The turnover is just horrific,” Amber continued. “Everyone’s looking for work.”

She said that at one point, 12 people out of the 30 on her team asked her manager for a reference as they were job searching.

“If everyone who asked for a reference who got a job (somewhere else), there’d be no one left,” she said.

The commissioner, Ms Levy, who isn’t personally accused of any wrongdoing in relation to the bullying and harassment claims, said that turnover has got better in recent years.

“We have made major improvements in this area, reducing permanent turnover from 12.11

per cent in 2021-2022 to 10.34 per cent in 2022-2023 and then to 9.1 per cent in 2023-

2024,” Ms Levy.

Ms Levy added that the organisation will “take all necessary steps to address any areas that require attention”.

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*Name withheld for privacy reasons

Originally published as Commissioner responds after whistleblower rips apart Queensland government department