Steven Miles’ former staffer Danielle Cohen quits senior public service role after a week

The former chief of staff to Queensland Premier Steven Miles has quit a senior public service role following accusations the public service is being stacked with ‘Labor mates’.

Steven Miles with Danielle Cohen in 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The former chief of staff to Queensland Premier Steven Miles has quit a senior public service role after only one week, following fierce criticism from the state opposition that the government was stacking the public service with “Labor mates”.

Danielle Cohen, who served as Mr Miles’ chief of staff for six years before moving to government-owned power company Stanwell early last year, was appointed to lead a new “implementation division” in the premier’s department.

Her newly-created role as Associate Director-General in the Department of Premier and Cabinet was not advertised and there was no merit-based selection process.

Ms Cohen was seconded from Stanwell by DPC director-general Mike Kaiser, a former ALP state secretary and Labor MP, sparking criticism from the Liberal National opposition that Mr Miles was “appointing his Labor mates to key positions”.

“He is creating a deliberate political unit in the Department of Premier and Cabinet,” deputy opposition leader Jarrod Bleijie said.

“He knew about the unit and it’s no secret and it’s no coincidence that the one leading the unit was his chief of staff.”

Asked if he was aware that Mr Kaiser was establishing a new unit in the department, Mr Miles said he does not “deal in the nitty gritty of the organisational structure of the department”.

In a statement published to her LinkedIn on Sunday, Ms Cohen announced she would return to her job at Stanwell because she did not want to be a “detraction” and hit out at LNP claims that the implementation division was a political unit set up to help Ms Miles’ re-election prospects.

“That is absolute rubbish,” she wrote.

“Mike (Kaiser) has made no secret of the fact that he is a student of Sir Michael Barber’s model for good government.

“The Implementation Division is based on the ‘Delivery Unit’ concept pioneered by Sir Michael for the Blair government in the early 2000s and successfully replicated by Westminster-style governments the world over – including the Baird/Berejiklian governments in New South Wales and Malinauskas government in South Australia – to drive better outcomes for the community.”

Mr Miles, who became premier in December following Annastacia Palaszczuk’s shock resignation, said he believed government “needed to do more and do it quickly”.

“That pace, you’ve seen me set, but in order to deliver to that pace I need the public service to be fit-for-purpose and that’s what I understand Mike has been trying to do,” he said.

“What I do is set goals, vision, direction, cabinet makes policy and then we expect the public service to deliver that and he is doing a very good job of ensuring that the public service is able to keep pace with the speed at which we are attempting to deliver policies.”

Ms Cohen’s resignation comes days after Mr Miles conceded he had made a mistake rehiring former director-general Rachel Hunter to lead a review of the state’s homelessness services one month after she was given a $400,000 payout.