Annastacia Palaszczuk leaves reprimanded chief Rob Setter hanging

The senior Queensland public servant who triggered the deepening integrity crisis has been warned over his failure to co-operate with an audit of lobbying ­activities.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Wednesday. Picture: Nev Madsen

The senior Queensland public servant who triggered the deepening integrity crisis plaguing the Palas­zczuk government has been warned over his failure to co-operate with an audit of lobbying ­activities.

On Wednesday, Annastacia Palaszczuk distanced herself from Public Service Com­missioner Rob Setter after he had earlier been reprimanded by the Premier’s ­director-general.

Mr Setter’s admonishment followed revelations in The Australian that he was the only departmental head in the Queensland government not to comply with a request from Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov in February last year to conduct an internal review of staff contacts with lobbyists over a 12-month ­period.

It can be revealed Mr Setter had argued at a meeting of the state’s 21 department heads that they also not co-operate with the request and should instead hand over raw data of the contacts for her office to audit itself.

In a subsequent letter to Dr Stepanov, Mr Setter said his department would not conduct the review because the Integrity Act did not give her the power to compel a chief executive to do so.

Sources have told The Australian that Dr Stepanov, who regulates the state’s growing lobbying industry, was not invited to the meeting of department bosses, which was “unusual”.

Asked if Mr Setter still had her confidence, Ms Palaszczuk on Wednesday refused to answer, instead saying she expected department heads to comply with correspondence.

“The director-general has spoken with him about that,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk later said Mr Setter had been called to the office of Rachel Hunter, Director­General of Premier and Cabinet, on Wednesday morning.

“He was told never to do that again,’’ she said.

Dr Stepanov wrote to the 21 CEOs of government departments and the 77 CEOs of local governments asking they conduct a review of their records of lobbyist contacts and compare the results with data entered in the state’s lobbyists register.

A report into the audit last year found more than 100 “discrepancies” where meetings with lobbyists and government ­officials were not properly declared.

The internal audits were conducted by 20 of the 21 departmental heads in line with her request.

In a statement, Mr Setter said he regretted not complying with Dr Stepanov’s request. “For the record, the Public Service Commission register for that period records a nil response,”he said.

“PSC staff are asked monthly to record any contact with lobbyists, and the organisation has no history of working with lobbyists.”

Mr Setter is at the centre of a widening scandal engulfing the government over its treatment of Dr Stepanov, who tendered her resignation January to finish in July, amid a probe into her complaints of interference in her office.

The Crime and Corruption Commission is investigating allegations that officials from the PSC seized a laptop from Dr Stepanov’s office in March last year and wiped its contents.

Sixteen days after Dr Stepanov raised concerns about the seizure with the Premier’s director-general, she was referred to a parliamentary committee over two-year-old misconduct allegations.

Ms Palaszczuk personally referred Dr Stepanov to the committee over the historic complaints, which centred on use of a credit card and unspecified bullying complaints.

Mr Setter had previously referred the complaints to the CCC, which dismissed them.

Opposition integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson said the Premier’s refusal to defend Mr Setter’s actions “speaks volumes”.