Missing letter of resignation to cause furore

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk appears to have misplaced controversial former chief of staff David Barbagallo’s original resignation letter.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Jerad Williams

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk appears to have misplaced former chief of staff David Barbagallo’s original resignation letter, which flagged his intention to quit the role weeks before he was embroiled in controversy.

A Right to Information request by The Australian has uncovered only an electronic, unsigned version of Mr Barbagallo’s resignation letter, dated June 27, sent to a government staffer in September after Ms Palaszczuk publicly announced his departure.

But the Premier’s department could not find Mr Barbagallo’s original letter to Ms Palaszczuk, understood to have been hand-delivered to the Queensland Labor leader before he was caught up in a political scandal.

In July, the LNP opposition ­revealed that Mr Barbagallo was a director and shareholder in a company awarded $267,500 in a taxpayer-funded co-investment from the Queensland Business Development Fund last year.

The state’s Crime and Corruption Commission is still assessing allegations of corrupt conduct against Mr Barbagallo over the deal. He denies any wrongdoing.

He has insisted he removed himself from the application process after he got the chief of staff job and made all the appropriate pecuniary interest declarations to Ms Palaszczuk and others.

In September, the Premier ­announced Mr Barbagallo was leaving her employ after starting as her top political adviser in May 2017 and helping to lead her ­government to election victory that year.

At the time, Ms Palaszczuk ­insisted his departure had nothing to do with the ongoing corruption inquiry, despite announcing the move on the same day as the CCC cleared her Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, over a separate corruption scandal.

“My chief of staff has tendered his resignation,” she said. “I want to thank David for the work that he has done in my office. He ­wanted to go last November and I asked him to remain.

“He advised me in June before any matters were raised that he wanted to go in October. I have accepted that resignation.”

The Right to Information documents show that three days after Ms Palaszczuk’s announcement, Mr Barbagallo wrote to Troy Mitchell, the Premier’s executive manager, attaching an unsigned, electronic copy of his resignation letter and confirming his last day would be September 13.

“I appreciate your wonderful support for me whilst carrying out this role,” the letter to Ms Palas­zczuk reads. “It has been exciting and a wonderful opportunity to contribute to a progressive and brilliantly capable Labor government. And, of course, none of this could have occurred without your outstanding leadership.”

Government departments are required to keep official documents, including correspondence, for state archiving and Right to Information purposes.

Asked whether Mr Barbagallo did write to the Premier in June to resign, where the original letter was and whether it had been ­destroyed rather than kept, a spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk said: “The electronic version you have is the only one on file.”

It comes as the Department of Premier and Cabinet refused a Right to Information request seeking access to the 18-page Ernst and Young final report into the $267,500 investment.

Right to Information and Privacy acting manager Megan Leder­hose denied the application because the CCC was assessing ­allegations of corrupt conduct against Mr Barbagallo, and ­release of the document could “prejudice” the assessment.