Callide explosion row: Labor blows up over unreleased statements

Queensland’s Energy Minister has rejected claims his office shut down information on a power station blast earlier this month, but three media statements prepared on the issue were never released.

Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki last week. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki has labelled claims his office intervened to stop CS Energy informing Queenslanders about an explosion at Callide Power Station as “categorically false”.

In latest twist to the April 4 Callide Power Station saga, The Courier-Mail can reveal two “holding media statements” were prepared by CS Energy and sent to Mr Janetzki’s office in the hours after the incident.

New details about the explosion prompted a third statement to be drafted on April 5.

However none of CS Energy’s statements was published, prompting questions about intervention from Mr Janetzki’s office.

“Any claim my office prevented CS Energy from releasing holding statements is categorically false,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Janetzki said energy generators would be required in future to inform Queenslanders about outages.

“As the minister has repeatedly stated... the incident should have been communicated and the minister has now directed that all future incidents are communicated,” she said.

Revelations CS Energy had written three media statements over two days indicates the government-owned corporation intended to communicate the issue.

Why the media statements were never released has not been detailed by CS Energy or the Mr Janetzki’s office.

Shadow treasurer Shannon Fentiman

Shadow treasurer Shannon Fentiman called on Mr Janetzki to reveal who stopped the statements being released.

“In an extraordinary attempt to shift the blame... he released briefing notes... but it would seem there was two media releases attached to those briefing notes CS Energy clearly wanted to to release,” she said.

“Who was responsible for telling CS Energy to not put out those media releases?

“Someone decided they would not let Queenslanders know about this explosion.”

Mr Janetzki last week acknowledged he should have mentioned the explosion during a major energy speech on April 9.

The minister said CS Energy engaged in deception via omission with its failure to convey the gravity of the situation.

He ordered the removal of Callide Power Station manager Mick Hill and CS Energy CEO Darren Busine, who Opposition Leader Steven Mile labelled scapegoats.

CS Energy previously declined to comment on their departures.

While the media releases do not indicate the scale of the explosion, they contained initial information about the incident and expected repair times.

The explosion came four days before Mr Janetzki gave a landmark energy speech, in which he pledged to keep the ageing Callide Power Station open beyond its 2028 retirement.

He did not mention the explosion in his speech, but later conceded he should have to prove the necessity of the government’s electricity maintenance guarantee.

Premier David Crisafulli said it was a transparency issue and conceded Mr Janetzki should have mentioned the explosion.

Originally published as Callide explosion row: Labor blows up over unreleased statements