Queensland Integrity Commissioner raid chief ‘refused to audit lobby contacts’

Senior Queensland public servant ordered the seizure of state Integrity Commissioner’s laptop just weeks after refusing her request for an audit of lobbying contacts.

Queensland Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov. Picture: Liam Kidston

The senior Queensland public servant who made allegations against state Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov and later ordered a raid on her office refused her request to conduct an audit of lobbying contacts with his department.

Rob Setter, chief executive of the Public Service Commission, was the only departmental head in the Queensland government not to comply with her request early last year to conduct an internal review of staff contacts with lobbyists over a 12-month period.

Just weeks after refusing the audit request, Mr Setter ordered PSC officials to seize a laptop from Dr Stepanov’s office – in her absence – which was then wiped of its contents.

The laptop contained highly confidential material relating to lobbyists and MPs.

Dr Stepanov tendered her resignation in January, sparking an integrity crisis with allegations of high-level interference in her role regulating lobbyists and advising MPs and public servants on ­potential conflicts of interest.

A report into the audit, released last year, found more than 100 “discrepancies” where meetings with lobbyists and government officials were not properly declared.

It was ordered as part of a crackdown by Dr Stepanov, amid revelations two of the state’s top Labor-aligned lobbyists had run Annastacia Palaszczuk’s 2020 re-election campaign from her CBD office.

As the head of the PSC, which oversees governance in the public service, Mr Setter also had budgetary control of the Office of the Integrity Commissioner.

In February 2021, Dr Stepanov wrote to the 21 chief executives of government departments and the 77 chief executives of local ­governments asking that they conduct a review of their records of lobbyist contacts and compare the results with data entered in the state’s lobbyists register.

The internal audits were conducted by 20 of the 21 departmental heads in line with her request.

Mr Setter was the only one to refuse, telling Dr Stepanov in a February 18 letter that his department would not conduct the review because the Integrity Act did not give her the power to compel a chief executive to do so.

“As you note, section 72A of the act authorises agencies to provide information to the Queensland Integrity Commissioner, however it does not appear to contemplate agencies undertaking audits, nor confirming or supplementing information on the register on your behalf,’’ he wrote in the letter.

He agreed to provide her with the basic register of lobbyist contacts with his department.

Mr Setter’s refusal to comply with the request came three months after he referred an allegation of credit card misuse and unspecified bullying by Dr Stepanov to the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The allegations were dismissed by the CCC before being resurrected by Ms Palas­zczuk in April, 2021 when the Queensland Premier referred the matters in a confidential letter to the Integrity Commissioner’s parliamentary oversight committee.

That committee ruled that there were no grounds to launch an investigation.

It is unclear whether the matter is still before the committee.

The CCC is currently investigating the actions of the PSC and its officials in entering Dr Stepanov’s office in March last year – without her knowledge – and seizing and then wiping the laptop.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the Premier was either kept in the dark by Mr Setter or was “involved in a cover-up”.

Mr Setter declined to ­comment.

Additional reporting: Lydia Lynch