Suburban Rail Loop Authority chief found ‘unappointable’ by Queensland panel

The public servant now charged with delivering Australia’s largest housing project in Victoria was deemed not ‘well suited’ for being responsible for ‘complex policy matters’ when he applied for the job of Queensland under-treasurer.

Works under way on the Suburban Rail Loop site at Box Hill in eastern Melbourne. Picture: Mark Stewart

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The public servant now charged with delivering Australia’s largest housing project in Victoria was deemed by an independent selection panel as not “well suited” for being responsible for “complex policy matters” when he applied for the job of Queensland under-treasurer.

A Crime and Corruption Commission report into Frankie Carroll’s eventual appointment as Queensland’s top Treasury official in 2019 was scathing of the state’s then most senior public servant, Dave Stewart, for changing the panel’s unanimous report to remove an assessment of Mr Carroll as “unappointable” in the role.

The CCC investigation report found Mr Carroll ended up as under treasurer after then treasurer and deputy premier Jackie Trad “aggressively” pressured Mr Stewart into altering the report to favour Mr Carroll as her preferred candidate.

Finally tabled in Queensland parliament this week, the report was completed by the watchdog in May 2021 but suppressed by the former Labor government.

Ms Trad and Mr Stewart have both denied any wrongdoing.

Former Queensland treasurer and deputy premier Jackie Trad. Picture: Richard Gosling

Frankie Carroll.

A spokeswoman for Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her government said Mr Carroll was hired as chief executive officer of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority in January 2021 “following a process managed by an independent executive recruitment firm and advice from the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal”.

She did not answer a question about whether Mr Carroll had disclosed the CCC investigation into his appointment before he was appointed to head the authority delivering the enormous project, which is expected to cost at least $125bn.

The CCC did not find Mr Carroll had done anything wrong, and did not comment on his performance as under treasurer between February 2019 and June 2020.

Three candidates were short-listed for the job of Ms Trad’s under treasurer in late 2018 and were considered by the panel led by Mr Stewart. A draft of each candidate’s merit assessments found Mr Carroll ranked below the unnamed other people and “was considered not appointable”.

The panel found Mr Carroll did not interview well and “did not grasp the complexity of the issues for which he was proposing simple, ad hoc and non-systemic solutions”.

“Again, this is because of (Mr Carroll’s) recent experience which was delivery focused.

“He did not present to the panel as someone who is well suited to working in a role responsible for complex policy matters, such as are encountered in central agencies … (he) was considered to be a leader better suited to a delivery environment, as opposed to one such as Treasury where complex matters of policy need to be considered and resolved.”

The first stage of the SRL is expected to cost up to $35bn, and is supposed to help deliver 70,000 homes.

Mr Carroll was chair and a director of the authority for Queensland’s Cross River Rail project, the state’s largest infrastructure undertaking.

It is understood the newly elected Queensland Liberal National Party government is seeking advice about whether Ms Trad can be referred to parliament’s ethics committee to investigate whether she misled parliament in 2020 when she was asked questions about Mr Carroll’s appointment. At the time, she said there was “an independent selection process” and “I am not privy to it, I did not participate in it”.