Queensland Premier denies misleading parliament over aide David Barbagallo

Annastacia Palaszczuk has denied misleading parliament over David Barbagallo, but says she’s ‘extremely disappointed’.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, left, with then chief of staff David Barbagallo during estimate hearings at Queensland Parliament in Brisbane in July last year. Picture: AAP

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has denied misleading parliament defending her former chief of staff David Barbagallo, but says she’s “extremely disappointed” and “let down” by his actions.

A Crime and Corruption Commission report released on Wednesday found Mr Barbagallo failed to disclose he was the director and chair of a tech company that received $267,500 in investment funding from the state government.

He was cleared of corruption, but was found not to have sought Integrity Commissioner advice, as Ms Palaszczuk had told parliament.

Speaking in Rockhampton in central Queensland this morning, Ms Palaszczuk said she “definitely” did not mislead parliament. She said she felt disappointed Mr Barbagallo hadn’t complied with his obligations.

“No, I hold integrity very dearly to my government, and I’m very, very extremely disappointed, I feel let down, I mean staff members have to abide by their applications, and some of the obligations in this circumstance weren’t met,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Asked whether she had been misled by Mr Barbagallo, she said she was “disappointed because I also hold my integrity very, I really believe in my integrity and I will also tell parliament what I believe to be honest”.

She said there had been no findings of corrupt conduct and the government had accepted all of the CCC’s recommendations for systemic reform.

Premier may have misled parliament on aide: CCC

The Crime and Corruption Commission cleared David Barbagallo of corruption on Wednesday, after a lengthy investigation, but revealed Ms Palaszczuk could have inadvertently misled parliament by wrongly stating her then chief of staff had obtained integrity advice.

It found Mr Barbagallo failed to declare he was the company’s director and chairman three times, a breach of the ministerial act that could have resulted in disciplinary action or his sacking.

Ms Palaszczuk’s government has been plagued by integrity scandals, and the CCC’s report reveals both Mr Barbagallo and Ms Palaszczuk had to be interviewed by the watchdog for its probe.

The Palaszczuk government’s Advance Queensland Business Development Fund bought Fortress­ Capstone shares worth $267,500 in February 2018, to help the company develop a cruise-tracking smartphone app.

Mr Barbagallo is a founding dir­ector of the company, and he and his wife, Land Court president Fleur Kingham, own about $300,000 worth of its shares.

The Australian revealed in July last year that Mr Barbagallo had increased his and Judge Kingham’s stake in Fortress Capstone by $100,000 in July 2017, at the same time the company applie­d for the government investment and two months after Ms Palaszczuk headhunted Mr Barbagallo to be her chief of staff.

Though Mr Barbagallo was not involved in the application to the government fund’s independ­ent panel, the company pitched to the panel that their chairman was the Premier’s chief of staff and had served as former Labor premier Wayne Goss’s chief of staff.

The company’s chief executive insisted to the CCC that the disclosure of Mr Barbagallo’s high-profile jobs was for “transpar­ency” and not to sway the panel, while the panel said it was not ­influenced by the disclosure.

The CCC found Mr Barbagallo had no influence on the decision by the government’s business development fund, or the Queensland Investment Corporation which oversaw it, to invest in the app, but the CCC found that a ­perceived conflict of interest was not managed properly.

In an interview with the watchdog, Mr Barbagallo insisted he was “from the good guys” because­ he had worked for Goss when the anti-corruption body was introduced. He blamed his failure to properly declare his directorsh­ip of Fortress Capstone on his busy job.

“You know that other mob are the ones that are corrupt and f..ked 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,” he said. “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.”

Once the scandal broke, Ms Palaszczuk repeatedly told parliament Mr Barbagallo told her he had sought “advice every step of the way” from the Integrity Commissioner. However, the CCC found that he did not.

Mr Barbagallo resigned from Ms Palaszczuk’s office last October. At the time, the Premier said Mr Barbagallo’s resignation was not related to the ongoing funding scandal, and had been foreshadowed before it emerged.

Mr Barbagallo has vehemently denied wrongdoing and, in his ­response to the CCC’s report, his lawyers slammed the watchdog, which has been probing the matter since July last year. They said the report was unfair, unbalanced and should not be published.