Energy minister tells court he did not know of ‘catastrophic risk’

A senior Queensland Labor minister summoned before the Federal Court during the election campaign has again declared he was not aware of significant safety issues at a power station that exploded and caused mass outages across the state.

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni gave evidence in the civil case on the same day party leader and premier Steven Miles pledged Queenslanders would have lower electricity bills if Labor was re-elected.

An independent review of the 2021 explosion at the Callide power station found the state-owned operating partner CS Energy had failed to implement process safety practices.

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni outside the Federal Court in Brisbane on Thursday morning.Credit: Cloe Read

Some of the concerns put to de Brenni on Thursday morning in court included the “significant backlog” of maintenance work, and that a safety manager had warned her superiors that Callide was on a “path for catastrophic risk”.

The minister was questioned over his knowledge of such concerns. Softly spoken, he began every answer by invoking privilege to avoid self-incrimination.

The safety manager had, in 2019, warned of an “unsafe work environment”, saying overhaul dates had been pushed out and there were budget restrictions – as well as four fires in five months.

According to the safety manager, these were signs that a process safety incident was possible.

But de Brenni said he was not aware of those concerns until they were referenced in the review report he received earlier this year.

He maintained he was not aware of safety concerns raised in the Brady report. But when asked about whether he knew there had been no inspection of cooling towers since 2014, de Brenni said he was “aware of the difficulties in those parts”.

The minister told the court he had visited the site in the days following the explosion with representatives from CS Energy.

When asked whether he had raised maintenance and safety issues with then-chief executive Andrew Bills at the time, de Brenni said he had questioned how such an incident could occur.

He said he did not specifically discuss process safety with Bills, and that Bills had assured him that everything that needed to be done had been.

He told the court Bills told him repairs were planned but the explosion occurred before that took place.

When questioned about requests for funding, de Brenni said “all requests for maintenance have been approved”, including by his predecessors.

Outside court, de Brenni said he had full confidence in the new CS board, and that Queenslanders could be assured they had the “most reliable power system in the country”.

He also said Queenslanders had the lowest and most affordable prices in Australia.

Asked if he was concerned that his appearance in court might distract from Labor’s re-election campaign, de Brenni simply answered: “No.”

He refused to answer specific questions relating to the hearing, explaining he would not go into matters before court.

He declined to answer a question over whether it was wrong to appoint former Labor mayor Jim Soorley as CS Energy’s chairman, after the Brady report found the board lacked expertise.