No power plant explosion ‘cover-up’, says Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki

David Janetzki has denied covering up an explosion at a government-owned power plant after failing to declare the blast during a major energy policy speech.

Damage caused by the blast at Callide C3 power station on April 4. Picture: Seven News Brisbane

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Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki has denied covering up an explosion at a controversial government-owned power plant after failing to declare the blast during a major energy policy speech lauding coal-fired power for securing the state’s electricity future.

Liberal National Party government Energy Minister Mr Janetzki was forced to front the media late on Thursday after the state’s Labor opposition accused him of lying to Queenslanders about Friday’s explosion at the Callide C3 plant.

The Australian revealed on Wednesday that the blast in the plant’s boiler had occurred, forcing the unit offline at least until the end of May and potentially causing the rescheduling of planned maintenance of other units in order to avoid cuts to Queenslanders’ electricity supply.

Mr Janetzki – who this week boasted he was the only minister in Queensland history to hold both the Treasury and energy portfolios concurrently – conceded he should have disclosed the “significant” incident at Callide C3 in his major policy address on Tuesday.

He had been told about the explosion by state-owned CS Energy on Friday, the day it occurred.

“I should have said it because it’s a perfect example of why we need our electricity maintenance guarantee … after 10 years of Labor neglect,” he said.

The LNP government will spend $1.4bn over five years on maintenance of government-owned power stations in Queensland, including $400m this financial year on upgrading Callide B1 and B2.

Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki delivering a major energy address on Tuesday. Picture: Dan Peled

Mr Janetzki’s speech revealed the government would keep the state’s fleet of coal-fired power stations open for years longer than Labor’s final shutdown date, and called the “reliability of our coal-fired generators … critical” as he tore up Queensland’s renewables targets.

He spoke at length about the 2021 explosion at Callide C4 that cut power to more than half a million customers and left the unit offline for more than 1200 days under the former Labor government, but did not mention the latest explosion just days before the speech.

On Thursday afternoon, Mr Janetzki would not say when he briefed Premier David Crisafulli about the explosion, and revealed he told Mr Crisafulli about an alleged $4.9bn cost blowout of Labor’s CopperString transmission project only on the morning of his Tuesday speech.

He could not explain why he had briefed The Courier-Mail newspaper about the increased cost before he briefed Mr Crisafulli about the extra expense and his “solution”: ordering the government’s investment arm QIC to oversee the project, and seek private funding.

Damage caused by an explosion at the Callide C3 power plant in central Queensland. Picture: Seven News Brisbane

The centrepiece of his speech was a promise to deliver a five-year energy “road map” by the end of this year, to explain how the state will reach net zero emissions by 2050 after cancelling a major pumped hydro project and scrapping renewables targets.

It is also not clear whether his energy plan went to cabinet, which typically sits on a Monday.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles accused Mr Janetzki of “covering up a giant explosion” at one of the generators he wanted to keep open “beyond their usable life”.

“His whole energy plan was blown to smithereens, literally exploded, days before he announced it, and he kept that hidden,” Mr Miles said.