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Meet the quiet powerbrokers who’ll shape Queensland government for the next decade

As an uneasy silence settles over our caretaker parliament – who’ll be left to run things once the political bullets finish flying? David Fagan investigates.

Oct 08, 2024, updated Oct 08, 2024

The election campaign is so far largely policy-lite but the real action will come in the shifting roles atop the public service in the months after the almost certain change of government in just a few weeks.

As reported here last month, the Director-General of Premier and Cabinet, Mike Kaiser, will go almost immediately if David Crisafulli is elected.

My inquiries, and any reading of recent estimates hearings, suggest the D-Gs of Health, Michael Walsh, and Energy, Paul Martyn, won’t stay much longer.

Add to that the Under-Treasurer, Michael Carey, under attack from the Opposition for his service as a ministerial staffer for Cameron Dick, and you have a big wave of change in the big-impact departments which will naturally flow down the line.

The issue for Crisafulli and his transition team is where to find the replacements.

Well, the town’s abuzz. The name most often raised is Dave Edwards, a former senior public servant with experience in the development sector. He’s seen as a potential to sort out the Olympic venues during and after the promised 100-day review.

Edwards is part of the transition to government team quietly working through the options. Former public servants and local government CEOs Greg Chemello (ex-Ipswich and Moreton boss) and Andrew Chesterman (recently departed Redlands boss and former Public Service Commissioner) also arise in despatches.

Dr Peter Steer, the globally credentialed former medical administrator running the Mater health network, would be a contender (if interested) to take over at Queensland Health. The question is whether he or anyone of stature would be interested, given the likely government’s disdain for the department.

Professor Peter Coaldrake, in his landmark Let the Sunshine In, report mentioned the importance of “tone from the top” seven times.
It was clear that Coaldrake was talking about the tone set by the then Premier but it also extended to the tone set by the appointees to the senior public service roles.

I am told by the LNP that the role at the top of the public service will go to someone with impeccable public sector credentials, leaving no question over tone.

This is a tilt at Mike Kaiser who became D-G of Premiers after a career mainly in Labor political offices. No one doubts Kaiser’s intelligence but he is a political warrior. While he has done good work promoting the value of public service, he well understands his political past condemns him under a conservative government. He will be snapped up by the private sector.

The former D-G of State Development, Local Government and Planning, Damien Walker, who returned two years ago to run the public service in his native South Australia after 12 years in Queensland is mentioned as a contender to replace him.

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While the calibre of the public service leadership has improved in the latter years of this Labor term, there are few other contenders to take the lead role. And the precedent is well established for a Premier to be able to choose his own D-G.

The missing element in all the conjecture is the lack of senior females. We have plenty in this state and in government roles but my inquiries over the past week are only turning up blokes as future contenders.

Crisafulli, given his determination to have female candidates in winnable seats, presumably will address this.

Some other names to watch: John Sosso who was D-G of Justice and Attorney-General in the Newman Government is central to the transition planning. Given his part in Newman’s bikie laws, he will almost certainly have a role in designing a new government’s crime policy.

Chris Mountford, a former Property Council boss now running Independent Schools Queensland, has a broad professional portfolio and is on the list to play a role in a future government.

It’s also hard to see how the retired Brisbane City Council CEO and senior public servant Colin Jensen will also not be called back into service.

And the former Newman minister and corporate lawyer Ian Walker will also be in consideration for the roles that will become vacant as existing directors leave or are pushed off the array of Government Owned Corporations.

Then there’s the ministerial chiefs of staff where a great deal of power will reside. These apparently are the province of individual ministers but they will come carrying a warning tag.

And that is that the chaos and hubris of ministerial offices that accompanied the changes of government to Newman in 2012 and Palaszczuk in 2015 will not be tolerated.

Expect change to happen but expect it to be steady with the aim to be a longterm government, not just planning but delivering and basking in the glory of a 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 

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