Labor man Mike Kaiser defends independence after LNP leader’s attack

LNP leader David Crisafulli has warned one high-profile Queensland public servant he will be immediately sacked if he wins government in October.

Former Queensland ALP secretary and ex-Labor MP Mike Kaiser. Picture: LinkedIn

Former ALP state secretary and ex-Labor MP Mike Kaiser has defended his independence and impartiality as Queensland Premier Steven Miles’ director-general after being warned he’d be sacked immediately if the LNP won the October election.

Mr Kaiser entered into the political fray by responding to Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who warned the DG would need to iron only one work shirt if the Liberal National Party was successful in October.

“Given these public comments, I thought it important to make something clear,” Mr Kaiser posted on LinkedIn. “Regardless of how long I’m in this role, in accordance with my professional obligations, I expect the public service to act independently and provide frank advice, as indeed the Premier has requested of us.

“As public servants, we are required to faithfully assist the government implement its agenda. But we remain loyal ultimately to the people of Queensland.”

Mr Kaiser was made director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet when Mr Miles replaced Annastacia Palaszczuk as premier in December. He had been head of other Queensland departments since 2021, after leaving the private sector as a KPMG partner.

The 60-year-old has had a long history in Labor politics in Queensland, serving as an ALP organiser for three years before becoming the party’s state secretary from 1993 until 2000. He was elected as MP for Woodridge in 2000, but his parliamentary career was cut short when he quit in 2001 after admitting to the Shepherdson Inquiry into electoral fraud he had falsely signed an electoral enrolment form in 1986.

Mr Kaiser went on to serve as NSW premier Morris Iemma’s chief of staff, and then in the same role for Queensland premier Anna Bligh in 2007.

At the weekend, Mr Crisafulli said the “majority” of current directors-general would be safe under an LNP government, but not Mr Kaiser.

“Put aside what side of politics you come from, you can’t have someone who was state secretary of a political movement and a member of parliament in that role,” Mr Crisafulli told The Courier-Mail in an interview. “If you want an independent public service that just doesn’t work.”

However, under one-term LNP Newman government – of which Mr Crisafulli was a minister – former state Liberal MP and former Liberal Party state president Michael Caltabiano was appointed director-general of the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Mr Newman’s director-general was Jon Grayson, the founder of an infrastructure investment firm, an investment banker, and a former senior executive at the Queensland Treasury Corporation.

In another public statement last year, Mr Kaiser said senior bureaucrats did their “best work when they’re politically aware, but not political”.

“Even when I was a political adviser (my last role was 14 years ago) I appreciated most the bureaucrats who provided frank and fearless advice about the consequences of various options,” he said on LinkedIn.

Mr Crisafulli agreed to a recommendation from the Coaldrake review for fixed five-year terms for top public servants, but would break it when it came to Mr Kaiser.