Top Queensland public servant under CCC scrutiny

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has referred the state’s top public servant to the Crime and Corruption Commission for potential ‘corrupt conduct’.

­Director-general of the Queensland Department of Premier and Cabinet Rachel Hunter. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has referred the state’s top public servant to the Crime and Corruption Commission for potential “corrupt conduct” over her handling of a formal complaint about the state’s building regulator.

Ms Palaszczuk this month wrote to the CCC asking the ­integrity body to assess the ­actions of Rachel Hunter, the ­director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, after she allegedly dismissed a “Public Interest Disclosure” from a disgruntled homeowner.

It related to a long-running fight by Brisbane doctor Shaun McCrystal for further action to be taken over his allegations of fraud and corruption within the Queensland Building and Construction Commission.

Dr McCrystal made the PID, which is supposed to initiate a formal process in handling allegations of wrongdoing in the public service, following multiple investigations by the QBCC and CCC into his complaints about a unit complex built next to his family home in inner-Brisbane Yeronga.

He says the QBCC had not properly investigated his complaints that the neighbouring building was illegal and a fire hazard.

Dr McCrystal sent his PID to Ms Palaszczuk in February, who then referred it to Ms Hunter. A month later, Ms Hunter wrote to Dr McCrystal saying an earlier complaint about the QBCC had already been referred by her predecessor Dave Stewart to the CCC and that neither her department nor the Premier could intervene.

Dr McCrystal again wrote to Ms Palaszczuk, complaining about Ms Hunter’s “pathetic” ­response to his original PID.

“Somehow my PID – sent to the Premier in February – landed with Ms Hunter, the CEO of a public sector entity,” Dr McCrystal said. “I’m at a loss to understand why Ms Hunter, who is not the Premier’s staffer, would be requested to (merely) reply on her behalf, when Ms Palaszczuk knew she had obligations under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

“The response I received back from Ms Hunter was pathetic – I suspect she didn’t even read my PID,” Dr McCrystal said, adding he had also referred Ms Hunter to the CCC.

The corruption watchdog wrote back to Dr McCrystal, saying the allegations against Ms Hunter did not meet the threshold of corrupt conduct. It said it did not have the jurisdiction to deal with his concerns.

Ms Palaszczuk did not know the CCC had already dismissed the complaint when she wrote to Dr McCrystal on July 6 to inform him that she had referred the matter to the corruption watchdog.

The Premier told him that his complaint about Ms Hunter’s handling of the original PID had now “been assessed as a public ­interest disclosure”.

“As the allegation involves a failure to comply with the Public Interest Disclosure Act, it may amount to corrupt conduct, if proven,’’ Ms Palaszczuk said in the letter to Dr McCrystal.

At the time, Ms Palaszczuk was dealing with the fallout from an integrity crisis in the public service, after professor Peter Coaldrake found widespread failures, a lack of transparency, bullying, and disproportionate influence of lobbyists on politicians.

A spokesman for the Premier said: “Generally speaking, all members of parliament are ­required to refer public interest disclosures to the relevant investigative body”. “The Premier is not aware of private correspondence between third parties and the CCC.”

The CCC declined to comment.