Queensland Labor gave ‘bully’ accused year’s pay

The Palaszczuk government paid Labor-linked lawyer Peter Carne his $385,000 Public Trustee salary while he was stood down for a year.

Peter Carne, the former public trustee of Queensland, who resigned in July this year.

The Palaszczuk government paid Labor-linked lawyer Peter Carne his $385,000 Public Trustee salary while he was stood down for a year for being allegedly drunk, absent and a bully at work.

Former attorney-general ­Yvette D’Ath issued Mr Carne with a show-cause notice in June 2019 asking why he should not be sacked for serious allegations including being intoxicated at work, absent without leave, conflicts of interest and bullying of staff.

He was suspended as Public Trustee until he resigned from the job on July 31 this year while the show-cause process was ongoing.

A budget estimates hearing on Monday was told Mr Carne remained on his $385,000 salary while suspended. Department of Justice director-general David Mackie confirmed Mr Carne also received $37,704.89 in taxpayer funds to study an executive masters in business at the Queensland University of Technology between 2016 and 2019, after being reappointed by the Labor government as Public Trustee.

Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran told the parliamentary committee that the show-cause process was “stymied” when Mr Carne ­resigned.

“Unlike other public sector leaders, there is no ability to pursue a post-separation declaration about that conduct,” Mr MacSporran said.

“So in terms of the whole show-cause proceedings and ventilation of those issues, including … to give Mr Carne an opportunity to put his side of the argument, none of that was progressed.”

He said the nature of the accusations meant that during the CCC’s investigation in 2019, it took the “unusual” step of urgently informing Ms D’Ath of the allegations because it appeared “the workplace culture was toxic and it was not fair to the staff to allow it to continue”.

Mr MacSporran said the CCC investigation was finished and no criminal charges were laid, but the watchdog had “not quite finished” with the matter yet.

Liberal National Party justice spokesman Tim Nicholls said it was “disgraceful” that the institution of the Public Trustee, which can be appointed as administrator of vulnerable people’s money, had slipped into “a state of disrepute”.

“In the meantime, Labor’s hand-picked public trustee has managed to receive a reported $385,000 and other benefits, including $37,000 for studying a course, and appears to have now escaped scot-free,” Mr Nicholls told The Australian.

Separately, Mr MacSporran also revealed the CCC had reviewed about 20 emails sent to and from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s private email account — [e-mail] — in 2015 by then energy minister Mark Bailey.

Mr MacSporran said Ms Palas­zczuk’s emails were not examined during the CCC’s investigation into Mr Bailey’s mangocube private email scandal in 2017, but the missives were considered last week after one of Ms Palaszczuk’s emails was raised in estimates.

He said while the content of Ms Palaszczuk’s emails “did not excite our interest otherwise” and were mostly on “Saturdays and Sundays outside office hours”, it was “undesirable” for ministers to use private email for government business.

At the time, it was against the ministerial code of conduct.

Ms Palaszczuk in 2017 told parliament she had a private email account but had never used it for official purposes.