Former Queensland ALP leader Annastacia Palaszczuk ignored watchdog
Annastacia Palaszczuk was warned by Queensland’s corruption watchdog that her top public servant may have engaged in corrupt conduct and she should consider sacking him, but instead sent him to London on a three-year trade posting.
Annastacia Palaszczuk was warned by Queensland’s corruption watchdog that her top public servant may have engaged in corrupt conduct and she should consider sacking him, but instead she sent him to London on a plum taxpayer-funded three-year trade posting.
A long-suppressed Crime and Corruption Commission report, finally tabled in Queensland parliament late on Wednesday, found former Labor deputy premier Jackie Trad aggressively and inappropriately interfered in the 2019 appointment of her hand-picked under-treasurer, Frankie Carroll.
The CCC found Ms Trad pressured Ms Palaszczuk’s director-general, Dave Stewart, until he altered an independent selection panel report that originally unanimously deemed Mr Carroll “unappointable” for the top Treasury job, which carried an annual salary of up to $791,750.
Mr Carroll is now CEO of the authority charged with delivering the Victorian government’s controversial $35bn Suburban Rail Loop project.
After finishing its investigation – and deciding not to press criminal charges against Ms Trad or Mr Stewart – the CCC wrote to Ms Palaszczuk on March 31, 2021 urging her to consider appropriate disciplinary action against her director-general.
“It is the CCC’s view that Mr Stewart’s conduct relating to the selection process is capable of meeting the definition of corrupt conduct … (and) is so serious a breach of his obligations as panel chair as to qualify … as conduct potentially warranting dismissal,” the CCC report said.
By the time she received the CCC advice, Ms Palaszczuk, Ms Trad, Mr Stewart and other senior public servants had already been hauled into the watchdog’s secret coercive hearings to be grilled about the process that led to Mr Carroll’s hiring.
Before receiving the CCC’s formal advice but after the interrogations, Ms Palaszczuk announced on March 15, 2021 that Mr Stewart would leave as her director-general in May and be appointed as Queensland’s agent-general for the United Kingdom and trade and investment commissioner for Europe. His tenure in London lasted from December 13, 2021 until July 3, 2024.
Labor opposition leader Steven Miles – a cabinet minister when Ms Palaszczuk sent Mr Stewart overseas – was asked on Thursday why Mr Stewart kept the posting after the CCC’s damning findings.
Mr Miles said there was a “full and appropriate disciplinary process” undertaken by the government that included external legal advice, but could not say what the findings were, when they were delivered, or whether any action was taken.
Ms Trad has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and in a statement on Thursday said the CCC report was filled with “subjective character judgments but no actual findings against me”.
Mr Stewart and Ms Palaszczuk did not respond to questions.
Mr Miles said he would write to the CCC to ask the watchdog to investigate the recent appointment of LNP Treasurer David Janetzki’s former Heritage Bank colleague, Paul Williams, as his Under-Treasurer.
The Australian reported last week that the under-treasurer position was not advertised, and that Mr Williams was “appointed after an independent recruitment process for the Queensland Treasury Corporation chief executive officer role identified him as an outstanding candidate”.
Premier David Crisafulli told parliament Mr Williams got the job after an independent process led by the Premier’s director-general, Damien Walker, who led the SA Labor government’s public service and was a director-general in the Palaszczuk government.
The CCC’s report into Mr Carroll’s appointment was kept secret for years after Ms Trad took taxpayer-funded Supreme Court legal action to suppress the document. Her case was bolstered by similar legal action by former Public Trustee Peter Carne, who went all the way to the High Court to stop the watchdog publishing a report about his behaviour.
Mr Crisafulli told parliament the CCC’s investigation into Ms Trad showed “a cover-up for a mate”. “Now that we have seen this report in the cold, hard light of day, how can anyone opposite justify its being hidden from Queenslanders?” he said.
LNP Attorney-General Deb Frecklington introduced a bill into parliament on Thursday to give the watchdog a “clear power” to publish reports and statements about its work.
Labor frontbencher Shannon Fentiman was attorney-general when the ALP government authorised taxpayer funding for her close friend and factional ally Ms Trad’s legal challenge to suppress the report. Ms Fentiman said she had never spoken to Ms Trad about the matter, declared her conflict of interest to the state’s solicitor-general, and followed his advice that said the legal funding was within the rules.
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