Jackie Trad’s job pick secret revealed

Former Labor deputy premier Jackie Trad ‘inappropriately interfered’ with a government selection process to hand-pick her own under-treasurer, a secret report by Queensland’s corruption watchdog has found.

Former Queensland deputy premier Jackie Trad. Picture: Richard Gosling

Former Labor deputy premier Jackie Trad “inappropriately ­interfered” with a government selection process to hand-pick her own under-treasurer despite him being “unsuitable” for the job, a secret report by Queensland’s corruption watchdog has found.

Ms Trad took extraordinary Supreme Court action to suppress the report for more than three years, a legal case funded by Queensland taxpayers, with the approval of former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and current opposition frontbencher Shannon Fentiman.

The report – which also found the actions of Queensland’s former top public servant, Dave Stewart, were “capable of meeting the definition of corrupt conduct” – was tabled in parliament on Wednesday night after the newly elected Crisafulli government moved a motion to force its release in line with an election commitment.

Finalised by the Crime and Corruption Commission in May 2021, the report also raises questions about whether Ms Trad misled parliament when she denied intervening in the selection process to appoint Frankie Carroll as her under-treasurer.

It reveals the investigation, initiated by a complaint from the then state opposition to the CCC, involved forcing senior politicians and public servants to give evidence in secretive “star chamber” hearings and also tapped phone calls of Ms Trad and top bureaucrats just before the 2020 state election.

The report investigates the appointment of Mr Carroll as Ms Trad’s top Treasury official and also the overturning of the findings of a public service panel that found Mr Carroll was “not appointable”.

In its report, CCC chair Bruce Barbour said Mr Stewart – Ms Palaszczuk’s director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet – told investigators “he gave in to ­aggressive pressure” from Ms Trad to promote the abilities of Mr Carroll.

“He amended the selection report to ensure that the unappointable candidate was presented as meritorious, and worthy of the premier’s consideration for appointment to the position,” Mr Barbour said.

The CCC found Mr Stewart’s conduct in “unilaterally” altering Mr Carroll’s assessment was “so serious a breach of his obligations as panel chair” as to be classed as “conduct potentially warranting dismissal”.

Ms Palaszczuk was told of the disciplinary recommendation on March 31, 2021, but she had ­announced on March 15 that Mr Stewart would be appointed Queensland’s agent-general for the United Kingdom and trade and investment commissioner for Europe. At the time, Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Stewart would remain as her director-general until May, but in April he suddenly left the public service. He did not take up the London posting for several months.

In October 2021, The Australian discovered Ms Trad had launched the legal bid to keep the report from being made public. Ms Trad’s legal action mirrored a case by the former Public Trustee of Queensland, Peter Carne, to suppress a separate CCC report into alleged wrongdoing. He ultimately won that case in the High Court, which prevented the CCC from releasing reports of investigations that did not lead to criminal charges against public officials, keeping both Ms Trad’s and Mr Carne’s documents from release.

The CCC report reveals Ms Palaszczuk told the watchdog that while she had been committed to a merit-based selection process, Ms Trad was open in wanting Mr Carroll for the job and yelled at her to “pick up the pen” and appoint him in 2019.

Ms Palaszczuk told the CCC: “The first one, she was begging me to appoint him and the second phone call was yelling at me and telling me that I was going to pick up the pen and I was going to sign the document and I said I’m not”.

The CCC found that for elected officials, behaviour cannot be considered corrupt unless it constitutes a criminal offence. After consulting with the Director of Public Prosecutions, the CCC decided there were “no reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution against Ms Trad”.

The watchdog revealed that some of the evidence gathered – including testimony from Mr Stewart in secret and coercive star chamber hearings – would be inadmissable against him or Ms Trad in any criminal or disciplinary matter. “Some matters, such as any dishonesty on Ms Trad’s part, are unlikely to be proven beyond reasonable doubt,” the report stated.

Ms Trad lost her seat of South Brisbane to the Greens at the 2020 state election. She and Mr Stewart have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Before she was defeated at the October 2020 election, Ms Trad told parliament in response to a question from then opposition frontbencher Tim Mander that she was not involved in the process.

“This was an independent selection process. I am not privy to it. I did not participate in it,” she told parliament.

But the CCC report found “Ms Trad was consulted about, and had involvement in, the composition of the panel”.

“Ms Trad had involvement at various stages of the process, including the composition of the panel, speaking with panel members in relation to the performance of the candidates, communications with Mr Stewart during the drafting of the selection report and speaking with candidates prior to the Premier’s decision being made,’’ the report said.

“After circulation of the first draft of the report (where Candidate 3 was said not to be appointable), Ms Trad contacted and spoke with Mr Stewart on a number of occasions.”

The CCC, which recommended the public release of the report when it was finalised, said it was a matter for the parliament to take action over Ms Trad’s comments in parliament.

She lost her seat at the state election in October, 2020 – six months before the report was finalised.

“Because of section 8 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001, it is Inappropriate for the CCC to comment further, other than to note that, based on the matters in this report,’’ the CCC said in its final report.

“Parliament may wish to consider and decide for itself whether it is appropriate to take any action.”

In June 2021, speculation about the report increased when Public Service Commissioner Rob Setter issued a directive that “merit assessment must occur” in “chief executive” recruitment.