‘Target on my back’: Queensland state integrity chief

Regulating lobbyists and providing confidential advice to MPs on potential conflicts of interest, Nikola Stepanov held the secrets of some of Queensland’s most powerful people.

Queensland Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov at a state parliament estimates committee hearing in July. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jono Searle

Queensland’s Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov was given an ominous warning that there was a “target on my back”.

As a statutory office holder, regulating lobbyists and providing confidential advice to MPs and senior public servants on potential conflicts of interest, she held the secrets of some of the most powerful people in the state.

Dr Stepanov, whose resignation last month and sinister allegations of interference in her role last year, have triggered the deepest crisis of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s seven years in power, was never told why.

But she had an inkling. The highly qualified lawyer had been cracking down on Queensland’s ballooning lobbyist sector, including a widespread failure to declare meetings or the attendees of meetings with ministers and government officials, as required by law.

An audit of the lobbyists’ register for just the 2021 financial year found more than a hundred breaches and individual lobbyists were put on notice. One of the main offenders, according to Dr Stepanov’s later report, was an unnamed “former political adviser”.

Dr Stepanov, who leaves the job in July after six years, knew she had upset a few people. “It’s true, I was told there was a target on my back,’’ she said when asked about long-running rumours of government moves to oust her.

“(But) My obligation as a lobbying regulator is to act in the public interest at all times.”

Revelations in The Australian two weeks ago of Dr Stepanov’s resignation and details of the bizarre seizure of a laptop and mobiles from her office last year, without her knowledge and on the orders of senior public servants, are already under investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission. She had earlier sought approval from the Public Service Commission – which has budgetary control of her office – and the Department of Premier and Cabinet for a forensic IT examination of the laptop, suspecting there was a leak in her office.

It was just before the October 2020 state election and Ms Palaszczuk was being criticised after engaging two of the state’s most popular lobbyists – former Labor state secretaries Evan Moorhead and Cameron Milner – to run her campaign.

The PSC – headed by veteran public servant Rob Setter – and the then director general of Ms Palaszczuk’s department, Dave Stewart – refused her request to have the laptop examined. Instead, PSC officials told Dr Stepanov to stay home last March 15, allegedly overrode the security codes to gain access to her office, seized the laptop and later wiped its contents.

It can now be revealed some of the documents deleted from the laptop allegedly related to “ongoing legal proceedings” and investigations raising serious legal issues, the least of which is destruction of public records.

In the past few weeks, Dr Stepanov has declined to detail what she believed was on the laptop because the matter is now with the CCC. But in testimony to a closed-door hearing in June of the parliamentary Economics and Governance Committee, which oversees her office, she said the laptop contained public records.

A source, with knowledge of Dr Stepanov’s testimony, has told The Weekend Australian she accused the PSC of seizing and wiping the laptop as well as removing half of her already small staff.

“The PSC without my knowledge and authority confiscated mobile phones and (a) laptop provided to the Integrity Commission staff and which contain public records I am responsible for,” minutes of the hearing purportedly said. “The PSC authorised the indelible deletion of public records of the Integrity Commission from the confiscated devices. Including the indelible deletion of material … relevant to ongoing legal proceedings, as well as investigations.”

Some of the documents may relate to allegations former Brisbane lord mayor Jim Soorley had engaged in unlawful lobbying in 2018 after accepting $2500 in cash from a businessman in a carpark to lobby senior ministers.

Mr Soorley denies the allegation but admits to accepting the cash, saying he then gauged the views of Labor ministers about the businessman and his issue.

On Friday, Dr Stepanov said: “I cannot comment on any matters that may or may not have been discussed at a private hearing.’’

The committee is headed by state Labor backbencher Linus Power, a member of Ms Palaszczuk’s faction. It is not known if the matters were then raised with the PSC or Premier’s Department.

Soon after, Dr Stepanov made a formal complaint to the CCC, which is still investigating. She will appear at another parliamentary committe on Wednesday, which is holding hearings into the Office of the Independent Assessor. The PSC has refused to comment.

Mr Stewart, handpicked to head the state’s public service by Ms Palaszczuk soon after winning power in 2015, resigned in April.

Ms Palaszczuk rewarded Mr Stewart for his service by appointing him Queensland’s Trade Commissioner in London.

Mr Stewart, through his lawyers declined to comment.

It was revealed this week that Dr Stepanov was also facing a battle on another front, with Ms Palaszczuk signing off early last year on a referral of the Integrity Commissioner for investigation by her office’s parliamentary committee.

Dr Stepanov didn’t find out about the referral to the Economics and Governance Committee until months later, when Ms Palaszczuk confirmed under questioning from the state opposition in an estimates hearing that a referral had been made.

At the time, the Premier declined to say what it was about. This week, she denied the referral was made under section 82 of the Integrity Act, which sets out the grounds for removing the Integrity Commissioner from office.

Dr Stepanov this week said she still hasn’t been told the basis for the referral. “I’m intensely curious to know what were the allegations and to have the bona fides of them tested independently,’’ she said.

Ms Palaszczuk has repeatedly refused Dr Stepanov’s request to have her treatment investigated by an open inquiry, such as that being headed by Tony Fitzgerald into the CCC.