3 hours ago
2
Welcome to Brisbane Times’ Queensland public sector column, Public Circus. This week: department boss disclosures, a CFMEU probe doc of interest, appointment watch, and a bureaucrat only bar.
Like most in some position of public power, the heads of Queensland’s government departments are required to keep an updated list of interests.
The publicly facing documents lay out the personal and financial relationships which could, or could be seen to, influence their decision-making.
So what does Circus toiling in this trove tell us? Like many others in public roles, directors-general are not immune from the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge trappings.
A total of seven of the state’s 22 department bosses hold the exclusive memberships, with four also holding the lucrative Virgin Beyond equivalent.
Two, interim Police Commissioner Brett Pointing and Transport and Main Roads supremo Sally Stannard, are lucky enough to travel with both.
Pointing also takes the crown for the only non-car vehicle finance declarations, listing loans for a Yamaha motorcycle and an AnglaPro boat.
By way of other extracurriculars, Under Treasurer Paul Williams′ presidential role with the exclusive (and no longer men-only) Tattersall’s Club is among the highest profile.
Department of Premier and Cabinet director-general Damien Walker likely comes in second with unpaid board gigs with the Gold Coast Suns AFL team and Netball Queensland.
Local Government, Water and Volunteers boss Bronwyn Blagoev also has a netball-related role, though much lower key, coordinating a grassroots kids program for the Coorparoo-based Redbacks.
Beyond real estate holdings, which Public Sector Commissioner David Mackie leads with a private home and four investment properties, shares are the main other point of interest.
Among those, Mackie’s stake in Australia-listed, United States-operating Peninsula Energy Pty Ltd caught Circus’ eye.
But it’s the man of many (uncontested) hats himself, State Development, Infrastructure and Planning director-general John Sosso – also with Peninsula shares – who really stood out.
Sosso seems to be all in on uranium mining – a practice once well established but in recent decades usually banned under Labor governments and allowed under the LNP.
(For his part, Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dale Last said last year the usual flick of the switch was “not part of our plan” – though that hasn’t stopped the sector pushing, hard.)
While many of Sosso’s shares are in companies operating in the United States, Africa, other Australian states, or headquartered in the latter, one does not quite fit this mould.
That would be Paladin Energy Pty Ltd, a Perth-based producer with interests spanning the US, Canada, and what it describes as the “largest uranium deposit in Queensland”.
Sitting outside Mount Isa, the project includes six mineral development licences. Its Valhalla mine is the largest prospective one in the state, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Until an update to his declaration in February, Mackie, too, had disclosed shares in Paladin and another from Sosso’s list, Bannerman Resources.
Sosso also holds shares in Boss Resources Limited, which last year upped its stake in Laramide Resources of Westmoreland uranium project fame – also located in Queensland.
Circus suggests no wrongdoing by the pair, and the decision to again hit the green light on the industry is not one for them to make. (Though Sosso’s department could likely have some role in what followed).
Regardless, with shares remaining in such companies, Sosso would still stand to financially benefit should the Crisafulli government push go.
Perhaps lucky for all involved, then, that Last reiterated the government’s position again only last month: “uranium mining does not form part of the Queensland government’s plan”.
A spokesperson for the Public Sector Commission said Mackie’s independent role is not required to publish declarations like directors-general are, but chose to do so in the “spirit of transparency”.
They said the commission “does not hold a view” on the uranium holdings, and that it was up to individual department heads to consider and seek advice from the Integrity Commissioner.
Mackie’s transparency seemingly does not extend to the question of why he offloaded his Paladin and Bannerman shares, which went unanswered.
A spokesperson for Sosso’s department would not be drawn on the quantity of his Paladin and Boss shares, nor details of any plan to manage the associated perceived, potential or actual conflicts.
“The Department’s Director-General ensures that his declaration of interests and associated management strategies are updated and maintained whenever new or changed circumstances occur,” they said.
New details in key CFMEU inquiry document timeline
The state’s CFMEU inquiry was back for another bite at the previously long-simmering issues with the Office of Industrial Relations last week – specifically, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland.
So it was that Commissioner Stuart Wood KC came to take evidence from former deputy director-general of OIR Peter McKay, now heading up the Trade, Employment and Training department.
McKay laid out how it came to be that he was turned into “Queensland’s highest-paid and least-qualified construction call centre operator” for refusing to reinstate a “friend of the CFMEU” to a key role.
That friend, former construction compliance and field services director Helen Burgess, is accused in the inquiry of bullying colleagues and directing them to write unlawful stop-work notices for the CFMEU’s adversaries.
It’s certainly not the first time Burgess’ name has been raised, either in the inquiry or parliament, but detail of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s interest in her actions and a de facto relationship with a CFMEU delegate whose son she hired as an inspector without any disclosure was new.
McKay’s evidence included a concession that he had wanted to sack Burgess, but couldn’t given the permanent nature of her public service role, having first joining the workplace safety office in 2007, according to her LinkedIn.
Some of the questions raised by Wood back in December when the flawed 2022 memorandum of understanding between police and OIR was aired (after reporting from this masthead) were how far back such agreements stretched.
Well, thanks to the wonders of Right to Information laws, Circus can say that they certainly stretch back as far as the Bligh government.
A search for all final versions back to 2015 turned up a version dated May 2011, which looks significantly different to those which followed. For a start, Burgess isn’t one of two contacts for police called to workplace disputes.
That addition only emerged in a July 2018 update, with Burgess listed as acting in the director role. She was permanently appointed in the September, in a shift from her former principal construction advisor gig in the office.
References to the CFMEU only then emerged in an April 2022 update to the document. Circus suggests no wrongdoing from Burgess, who has previously not responded to a request for comment.
We’re sure we’ll hear more from the inquiry on all of this before, and when, it turns in its final report – still currently due by July 31.
Appointments pile up for two temporary District Court judges
Circus has been thanklessly attempting to track the comings and goings in government-appointed gigs under Crisafulli and Co – including those more likely to fly under the radar.
Which brings us back to a name which has also featured in this column across our six editions to-date (catch up on those ones here): Ryan Haddrick, a barrister and short-lived chief of staff to then attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie after the 2012 election.
Haddrick’s CFMEU commissioner-led chambers, Cedric Hampson, has seen four of its eight barristers handed government gigs since the 2024 election swept the LNP back to power. Not to mention a Bleijie visit to their Christmas party that year.
After we first brought news of Haddrick’s ascension to the ranks of appointees landing multiple posts, we’ve since found – and he has landed – two others.
The first, dating back to October, is as deputy president of the Councillor Conduct Tribunal. The second, gazetted last month, is as an acting judge of the District Court of Queensland until July 31.
(His Honour) Haddrick’s plate, also featuring University of Queensland Senate and supplementary Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal member gigs, is at risk of overflowing, it seems.
The Local Government, Water and Volunteers department website states Haddrick has “temporarily ceased practising at the Queensland Bar” until August to juggle his QCAT and District Court roles.
Another barrister quietly elevated to an acting stint in the District Court is Doug Wilson – an earlier appointee to the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council and member of the recently disbanded Expert Legal Panel on “adult time, adult crime” offences.
In a LinkedIn post congratulating Wilson on the District Court gig, the sentencing council said Wilson would also be stepping away from that work until his court role was done.
Friday knock-offs, anyone? (So long as you’ve got a government ID)
Circus has heard there’s a new exclusive club … at the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying?
That’s right, hard-working public servants are the only ones allowed at the new Rooftop Social Club, an after hours trestle-table affair running every other Friday on level three of the Edward Street building.
There’s a $50 annual membership fee, or those just testing it out can pay $10 at the door. After that, Coronas are just $4 a pop.
Not bad, considering the price the rest of us office workers are paying for a schooner at the Grand Central.
For those of you outside the tent, apparently you can get in as a guest of anyone with a government ID – next weekend will be your next chance to get a dirt-cheap beer at the museum.
Have a curiosity for the Public Circus tent? Email us on [email protected] or [email protected]. For more security, sing out on a non-work device and network via [email protected] and @mattdennien.15 on Signal (or via this link).
