Queensland the mates state: Integrity chief powerless to pull lobbyists into line

Queensland Integrity Commissioner admits she cannot personally scrutinise a ‘ten-fold explosion’ in lobbying inquiries.

Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov. Picture: AAP

The Queensland Integrity Commissioner — charged with regulating the state’s booming lobby industry — has no power to investigate alleged wrong­doing by ­lobbyists.

An investigation by The Australian has uncovered the existence of campaigner-lobbyists in Queensland, political players who work to get governments re-elected and then profit from those governments as lobbyists or owners of lobbying firms.

But Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov has acknowledged that while she is responsible for maintaining the state’s lobbyist register and regulating the industry, her office has been bombarded with a ten-fold explosion of inquiries about lobbying activities and she has no investigative powers.

Requests from MPs and senior government staffers for ­ethics advice has also exploded, increasing by up to six times.

The leader of the Labor opposition in Brisbane City Council, Jared Cassidy, wrote to the Crime and Corruption Commission on Friday, seeking a probe into revelations a senior Liberal National Party strategist was paid by ratepayers to advise Brisbane’s lord mayor while orchestrating his re-­election campaign.

Malcolm Cole, a co-owner of lobbyist firm SAS Consulting Group, is still on the Brisbane City Council payroll in Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s office, even as his firm lobbies the council on ­behalf of clients and LNP donors.

The Australian has found Mr Cole was employed as a part-time special adviser to Mr Schrinner as the LNP council went into election mode before the March local government poll.

Mr Cole’s SAS Group is now lobbying the council he helped get elected, despite Mr Cole ­insisting earlier this year that his firm would not do so while he worked there.

In a letter to the CCC, Mr ­Cassidy said he was concerned about the dual roles of Mr Cole and Mr Schrinner’s employment of the owner of a lobbyist firm. “If the reports are accurate, this is a serious conflict of interest that the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor has overseen,’’ he wrote.

Dr Stepanov said she was unable to comment on “individual matters”.

Asked whether she had the power to investigate the issues uncovered, including the crossover between political campaigning and lobbying, and lobbying by recently departed senior government staff, Dr Stepanov said she did not.

“I have no investigative powers under the act,” she said. “Where appropriate, I also refer matters of concern to the relevant agency, such as the Queensland Police Service or the Crime and Corruption Commission, for assessment and possible investigation and prosecution.”

Dr Stepanov’s workload has spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the government redeployed her to lead a commercial team to procure extra personal protective equipment for the government stockpile.

While an acting Integrity Commissioner was put in place for a short period, Dr Stepanov — who originally trained as an emergency and intensive care nurse working with patients with terminal infectious diseases — decided she could do both roles.

Dr Stepanov said her office had coped with the extra work, and the government should consider its staffing, structure and resources in its strategic review of the Integrity Commissioner next year.

“I am sure that any public sector agency would appreciate more staff and resources if such things were limitless and there was no additional cost burden to the public. However, it is important that I, as the head of a commission that is funded by the public, be fiscally responsible and put my best efforts toward being effective and efficient,” she said.

Dr Stepanov did not say whether any lobbyists had been removed from the state register for breaching the Integrity Act or industry code of conduct.

The lobbyist register reveals that since the March elections, Mr Cole’s SAS Group has lobbied deputy mayor Krista Adams and the Brisbane City Council’s manager of development services on behalf of at least one of the firm’s commercial clients, also a donor to the LNP.