Former state archivist Mike Summerell claims he was blocked from investigating Annastacia Palaszczuk

A former senior government worker claims he was blocked from investigating Annastacia Palaszczuk and senior ministers, and that some of the people who protected them are still public servants.

Former state archivist Mike Summerell. Photo: Supplied.

Former state archivist Mike Summerell has sensationally claimed he was blocked from investigating Annastacia Palaszczuk and four senior ministers, and revealed some public servants who ran a “protection racket” for politicians are still in the service.

Mr Summerell, whose claims he was pressured to hide bad news plunged the former Palaszczuk government into an integrity crisis, said some public servants who now worked for the Crisafulli government were complicit in hiding misconduct to protect Labor.

And in new explosive allegations, he says he wanted to investigate then-premier Ms Palaszczuk and her cabinet colleagues Jackie Trad, Steven Miles, Grace Grace and Curtis Pitt over potential breaches of the Public Records Act, but was blocked.

He said he received advice from the Crown Law Office in 2017 to say he had an obligation to pursue potential breaches of the Public Records Act involving Labor ministers. The Crime and Corruption Commission started to investigate.

“I worked very closely with the CCC and DPP (Department of Public Prosecutions) and Crown Law,” Mr Summerell said. He speaks of “unfinished business”.

“I had an obligation to investigate,” he said. “Suddenly I became toxic.” He thinks “nothing has really changed” and “the loopholes still exist”.

Mike Summerell said he wanted to investigate Annastacia Palaszczuk, Jackie Trad, Steven Miles, Grace Grace and Curtis Pitt over potential breaches of the Public Records Act.

Mr Summerell was the state archivist who investigated former transport minister Mark Bailey, who in 2017 was accused of using his private [e-mail] email for official business in breach of the Public Records Act.

He alleged he was pressured to water down his report into Mr Bailey’s conduct, and annual reports were modified before being tabled in parliament to hide “bad news” or “anything that was perceived as negative”.

An independent review in 2022 found there was no “improper pressure” to change the reports.

A CCC investigation into breaches of the Public Records Act made some adverse findings against Mr Bailey over the mangocube affair, but he was never charged.

Mr Summerell praised the efforts of former CCC chief Alan MacSporran, but said his corruption probe was “shackled” because the legal definition of corruption was too narrow.

“You can breach the code of conduct and there are no consequences,” Mr Summerell said.

“I think it is still the case.

“I worked closely with the CCC on a number of things, and they really wanted to do the job.

“There are some really good people in the CCC who want to do the right thing but don’t really have the legislation to allow them to do it.”

Mark Bailey MP was in 2017 accused of using a private email for official business. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Summerell said he would refer cases to the CCC and “they would say, ‘yeah, we agree it is wrong, but we can’t do anything’.

“It would come back to me, and I had no powers to do anything. There were breaches of legislation, breaches of the code of conduct and nobody could do anything about it so things fell through the cracks.

“Without a full, whole-picture review of integrity legislation, things will continue to fall through the cracks. The politicians have no desire to fix that because they are the ones who benefit when things do fall through the cracks.”

Mr Summerell said Peter Coaldrake’s Let the Sunshine In report found bullying and cover-ups in the “toxic” public service, confirming his view that public servants “turned a blind eye”.

“Some public servants, including those at a higher level, do this to survive,” he said. “They didn’t do it because they are corrupt.

“(But) they benefited from doing nothing.”

Mr Summerell, 59, who was born in Wales, holds a master’s degree in economics and was a senior auditor, corporate troubleshooter and a risk-management specialist working with blue-chip accounting firms and PwC, KPMG and EY and the big banks.

He has been living overseas, but said he was willing to return to Queensland to help implement the Coaldrake recommendations and to conduct an audit into the Advance Queensland funding.

Originally published as Former state archivist Mike Summerell claims he was blocked from investigating Annastacia Palaszczuk