Probe into explosion at CS Energy’s Callide C power station obstructed

An explosion in 2021 crippled CS Energy’s Callide C power station. Picture: Orin Lucke

Forensic engineer Sean Brady was blocked from interviewing key figures at Queensland government-owned CS Energy as he worked to investigate the causes of a 2021 explosion that crippled the Callide C power ­station.

Brady’s final report into the debacle was released last month, showing failings by the CS Energy were a major contributor to the explosion, which took the Callide C power station offline – and pushed up power prices for households and business along the east coast.

CS Energy hired Brady in 2021 to investigate the disastrous explosion at the Callide C power station, but has spent the last six months trying to keep Brady and his report from public view.

Much of the damage was done with the release of Brady’s final report last month. It included revelations that senior CS Energy safety officials quit because they were worried that cost-cutting on maintenance and safety systems would eventually result in disaster. It included revelations that the company’s CEO baulked at the $2m cost of implementing new safety systems that could have prevented the Callide C explosion.

And it detailed the extraordinary turnover of staff at Callide that contributed to the disaster – in four years Callide had four general managers, at least two maintenance managers, and four different production managers.

But there may still be a few more revelations to come, given Brady indicated to the Federal Court on Wednesday that, despite largely being given free rein to conduct his investigation, there were a few people he didn’t get to interview that he might have liked to.

Brady spent Thursday on the witness stand being examined by lawyers acting for FTI Consulting’s John Park, the administrator of the private company that owned half of the CS Energy-operated Callide C power station.

While much of the day’s work was a detailed review of Brady’s report – damaging enough to CS Energy and its political masters in the Miles Labor government in Queensland – there were hints of substantially more to come, buried beneath the surface.

In particular, the question of who Brady sought to interview, but couldn’t.

“Are there people you were unable to interview that you would have liked to have interviewed?” asked lawyers for FTI.

“Yes,” Brady said.

Sadly – despite Brady leaving the obvious invitation hanging – FTI’s lawyers failed to ask the obvious follow up.

But it still leaves the enticing prospect that former CS Energy chairman and Labor powerbroker Jim Soorley might get a call to the witness box, or any of a plethora of former CS Energy CEOs.

But still, despite the fact that Callide C won’t be back online until the end of August, CS Energy is trumpeting the news that it just spent $1.3bn on buying a new wind farm project.

Which, to be fair, can’t actually explode due to the owner’s general incompetence.

A Lessn in success

It’s been a difficult few months for former Fortescue executive Michael Masterman, who’s been followed and photographed by private investigators, and then also chased through the Federal Court by billionaire Andrew Forrest.

Masterman and two ex-colleagues, Bart Kolodziejczyk and Bjorn Winther-Jensen, are being sued by Twiggy over an allegation that they stole his IP ahead of starting Element Zero, a rival to Fortescue in the “green iron” space.

Former Fortescue executive Michael Masterman.

Green iron, like green hydrogen, is still an abstract concept, but green shoots actually exist for Masterman, whose little-known investment in Lessn, a payment start-up with a swag of cashed-up investors, seems to be going places.

Lessn’s just signed a strategic partnership with April, a payments firm acquired by ASX-listed Spenda, for the purpose of expanding services to the Singapore market next year. That’ll be announced to the market on Friday. You heard it hear first!

Masterman’s buy-in to Lessn is worth about $250,000 and puts him alongside oOh!media founder Brendan Cook, Zepto’s Ian Lennie, Monday.com VP Dean Swan, MoneyMe chairman Jamie McPhee and Lyre’s Spirit founder Mark Livings, who’s not only on the register but also the Lessn advisory board.

Looks like there’s been a switch out of personnel in the upper levels of Lessn, too, with co-founder Greg Walsom leaving in May and former REA Group executive Andrew Rechtman stepping in to run the business. He’s doing that with the energetic David Grossman, another founder of the business. And the obligatory quote, courtesy of Grossman: “This collaboration is a key milestone for us as we continue to innovate and provide our customers with the best accounts payables solutions available.”

Hard Road

Redundancies loom at Country Road Group ahead of a company-wide restructure aimed at repairing the damage from claims of sexual harassment and poor management of bullying claims.

Apparently some personnel have been happy to take a cheque and say sayonara to the retailer’s Melbourne HQ, namely managing director Elle Roseby, a supporter of aggrieved staff who left the business after some personal leave. With Roseby gone, so too went one of the few remaining defenders of healthy corporate governance at the business.

Now we hear company secretary Alison Pacinotti has gone, too, in what’s probably a consequence of the impending restructure. In a signal of the cost-cutting to follow, her role’s been assumed by general counsel Lucy Deane, saving a few pennies on the cost of hiring someone new; sales are tanking at Country Road, after all.

Meanwhile, CEO Raju Vuppalapati has managed to keep his job despite all the headlines. And then there’s Boston Consulting Group pulling levers to cut more jobs; that’s while consultants at Bendelta are fiddling about trying to repair staff morale.