Qld bans three ‘dual hat’ Labor lobbyists amid call for national approach

Queensland’s Palaszczuk government has banned approaches from three Labor-linked lobbyists after a scathing report into public sector culture and accountability called for an end to people who worked on party election campaigns then attempting to influence decision-making.

But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has stopped short of telling her colleagues in Canberra to do the same, instead calling for uniform lobbying laws across the country.

“I think would make it much easier, level playing field for everybody,” she told reporters on Monday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk holds a press conference to address the report into government culture and accountability completed by Professor Peter Coaldrake last week.Credit: Matt Dennien

The cabinet decision came as a long-awaited Crime and Corruption Commission probe into what had been described as a “raid” on the office of former lobbying watchdog Dr Nikola Stepanov found no wrongdoing — but reiterated the need for an overhaul of the office and its independence.

Professor Peter Coaldrake’s Let the Sunshine In report, published last week, found the appearance of helping a political party to office one week and then advocating for a decision in favour of a client the next “naturally raises suspicion” that is difficult to stamp out.

Ultimately, Coaldrake recommended an “explicit prohibition” on the practice — also raised recently by the CCC, through a ban on the individuals involved.

Premier Annastacia told reporters on Monday afternoon that, after “lengthy discussion” among cabinet members earlier in the day, her government would cease dealing with three Labor-linked lobbyists for the rest of this term: Evan Moorhead, David Nelson of Anacta Strategies, and Cameron Milner of Next Level Strategic Services.

The ban will not extend to the firms operated by the trio. Anacta, launched by former state Labor secretary and Palaszczuk strategist Moorhead and Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman’s ex-husband Nelson in 2019 has quickly emerged as the most prolific operator in the sector.

Following federal Labor’s successful election campaign, in which Nelson was reportedly involved in a strategy and advertising capacity, the firm has also opened an office in Canberra and even poached Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ former long-time chief of staff.

Separately on Monday, the CCC released a public report into its Operation Workshop investigation, citing a need to “correct the confusion and misinformation” around matters raised by Stepanov, media reporting and the LNP Opposition.

After allegations of leaks from the Integrity Commissioner’s office and potentially problematic behaviour from the Public Service Commission, the CCC found that the laptops in question had been retrieved in “entirely ordinary” circumstances following staffing changes.

Suggestions some data had been improperly access or leaked from the office stemmed from a handover between a departing executive officer who had been “struggling to keep up with the workload” and had taken to copying emails to a separate official email address to manage.

She left in November 2020 and later raised a bullying complaint, the subject of ongoing work by the Public Service Commission, about how she was treated by Stepanov and a director seconded to the office from the PSC.

The director was reassigned to a position outside the integrity office in March of 2021. The two laptops were then “collected” for, respectively, the ongoing investigation and to provide to a replacement staff member — the latter also requiring the laptop to be cleared after backing up in a process the CCC described as “wholly unremarkable”.

Stepanov and another staff member stayed away on that day to avoid contact with the director who was set to, but in the end did not, also collect their personal belongings. The CCC said there was “differing recollections” about who suggested the plan, but it had not been a direction.

“In light of the above conclusions, the CCC considered a public report was appropriate so as to provide an accurate picture of what the evidence suggests actually occurred,” the report said. “A failure to correct the confusion and misinformation around these events may continue to erode public confidence.”

Fentiman excoriated the LNP Opposition after the report’s release, after the party had for months claimed the situation was at the centre of an “integrity inferno” dogging the government and demanded to know what was “on the laptop”.

In a statement, the LNP’s integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson said the report “creates more questions than answers”.

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