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Welcome to Brisbane Times’ Queensland public sector column, Public Circus, where we aim to deliver frank and fearless titbits – from the bowels of the state bureaucracy to the top of One William Street and beyond. This week: more on Metro North’s key consultants, (at least one) Education pay rise, question time bubbly, and more.
The revolving door between the private and public portions of Queensland’s health sector has been a curiosity for some years.
Circus readers might remember when one of this column’s authors brought news of a new consulting firm headed by none other than former Metro North chief-turned Deloitte partner-turned-director-general-turned-partner again Shaun Drummond.
All but two of the other eight principals and directors of Create Health Advisory had also worked at Deloitte or its big-four rival KPMG, with four having worked with Drummond at Queensland Health, Metro North, or both.
(Another was, and remains, a director on the Metro North board.)
After scoring some $2.1 million in contracts with two state health services since the firm spun up around the change of government, $1.7 million of which came from Metro North, Circus can share detail about an extra payday for the firm.
Metro North’s current financial year contract disclosure log shows Create Health was handed another $273,130 in August.
While initially trying to claim commercial confidentiality over what this tidy sum was for, a Metro North spokesperson eventually confirmed it was also part of the “specialist services to review and strengthen organisational strategy, governance, performance, accountability and financial sustainability” being graciously given by the firm.
The health service then noted those engagements had run their course, and there was no active work for the firm afoot.
Last time we asked, a Create Health spokesperson said the firm followed policies to comply with their staff’s post-public sector obligations, but declined to go into any detail about the nature of the Metro North gig, as it “values the confidentiality of our clients”.
Circus is certainly not suggesting wrongdoing from anyone involved.
We’re also sure it’s not the last we’ll be hearing from Create Health, which has quickly gained some prominence and recently filled out its staff with another seven directors.
Two of these – Abigail Cliff and Katrina Campbell – have also come across from Metro North.
Not all Education pay bumps on hold (if you’re in the boss’s office)
While state school teachers may be waiting months (or more) for a pay rise they were due last year thanks to talks kicked to the industrial umpire, that’s not the case for everyone in the Education Department.
The Circus tent has caught wind of questions swirling internally about a recent boost for David Miller, formerly executive director in the office of director-general Sharon Schimming.
Miller, who joined the department in 2018 after a stint as the tax office’s assistant commissioner for HR, earned some public attention during his initial role as the department’s HR head.
Since then, he’s held various executive director gigs – the last two of which under Schimming, in her time as an associate director-general and then in the top job after the change of government.
Now, Miller’s role in Schimming’s office has been – in public sector lingo – “reprofiled”. And, as it turns out, the gig now carries the pay packet of an assistant director-general.
One current job ad for an executive director in the department comes with a total pay package of between $217,770 and $235,352.
The only assistant director-general gig detailed in the department’s annual report is that of finance head Duncan Anson, who trousered a cool $312,000 in the year to last June.
A department spokesperson told Circus the usual job evaluation process was undertaken by Mercer Consulting after extra responsibilities and reporting lines were added to the role over the past year.
The executive director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strategy, policy and governance now reports to Miller, as does another unit as part of a restructure, the spokesperson said.
This process concluded with Public Sector Governance Council sign-off, and an ongoing “national talent search” for the permanent role Miller is acting in being carried out by external recruiters.
We’re certainly not suggesting anything untoward has occurred. But who knows, maybe the person they are looking for will have been there all along.
The LNP do, actually, want to run literary awards. Just don’t ask how
When Campbell Newman tore up the long-running government-managed Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards as an early part of his controversial cost-cutting drive in 2012, the state’s literary minded folks kicked into gear.
From their ashes, the Queensland Literary Awards ran for two years through the efforts of a volunteer committee and crowdfunding, before the State Library took “leadership” in 2014, managing the state’s key celebration of the sector since.
That is, until this year.
Last week, Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek decided – following the black&write! fellowship intervention saga and a subsequent library board-commissioned review – competitive awards weren’t the library’s jam.
The library told Circus its earlier, non-George Brandis chaired board made the call back in November to accept the recommendations by Australian Catholic University chancellor and former Supreme Court judge Martin Daubney.
While the library has now been stripped of its management of the awards, effective this year, there is yet to be any public detail about the 2026 iteration, which should ordinarily be accepting entries from about, er, now.
Langbroek’s office won’t say whether that “decision” was also in light of any legal direction he may or may not have given the library via former chair Debbie Best. She’s the one who pushed back on behalf of the board and State Library chief Vicki McDonald against his initial informal concerns about last year’s fellowship.
Nor will it say who the “alternative providers” set to run the awards from here will be, with all said to be revealed in due course. Right.
What was said by the minister in his media release last Thursday was that, “more broadly, the Daubney Review has highlighted the need for government-funded arts and cultural organisations to consider their policies and risk management frameworks to ensure they are consistent with and meet the expectations of the Crisafulli government”.
Watch this space.
Bubbles and games in the DPC
Anyone forced to suffer through the screeching tedium of parliament’s question time is forgiven by Circus for turning the audio down. Or even to mute.
Some in the sector don’t have that luxury, however – or shouldn’t – which was the motivation for a fun game in the Department of Premier and Cabinet orchestrated by deputy director-general and former star Nine News reporter Tim Arvier.
Circus was told Arvier, eager for Crisafulli’s team to engage in the hot issues and chamber floor squabbling theatrics, has put up a bottle of champagne for whoever accurately predicts the dominant subject raised by the Labor opposition.
A running tally is under way, with whoever emerging as the most clued-in public servant at the end of the year being rewarded with a bottle of bubbles, paid for by Arvier’s personal but mighty salary and not at the expense of Queensland taxpayers, of course.
Circus was told some in the office don’t share the joy in the game and say they’re annoyed by the flippant attitude towards serious issues.
Not all share that perspective, though, with others seeing it as a light-hearted way to make sure the team’s engaging with the dark arts of question time to know what hot issues are being debated.
Sounds fun. But we’ll stick to footy tipping.
From CityGlider to black Maserati: Crooks is a man of the people
Circus was delighted to see Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority boss Simon Crooks, who’s on a pretty penny at the Olympic delivery authority, step out of a Brisbane City Council CityGlider bus at West End a couple of weeks back.
How refreshing – a man of the people, indeed.
But, oh, how that illusion was shattered barely 48 hours later, when he turned up at a Logan media event in a sleek, black Maserati, complete with a personal driver.
A man of means, indeed.
Just how much means Crooks remains a mystery for now, as his salary was not included in GIICA’s 2024-25 annual report, released the month after he put his feet under the desk.
As his appointment occurred after the reporting date, it was deemed a “non-adjusting event” so it did not appear in GIICA’s financial statements. Let’s hope the 2025-26 report will be more forthcoming.
CFMEU inquiry turns its sights on Workplace Health and Safety Queensland
Commissioner Stuart Wood AM KC is back in the big chair at the CFMEU inquiry for another three-day block of hearings from Tuesday, after catching some rays on the Gold Coast last week.
And, for the first time, the inquiry will hear evidence from witnesses in government itself.
Specifically, four former Workplace Health and Safety Queensland principal inspectors are set to appear: David Cappelletti, Paul Watts, Noel Hayes, and Deborah Dargon (currently operations manager).
While it’s unclear what exactly the four are being called for, the inquiry has previously heard about a flawed agreement between police and the state’s industrial relations office – first reported by this masthead – and links between the office and the union.
This link, in the form of a “close personal relationship” between the former construction compliance and field services director Helen Burgess and the CFMEU’s former president, Royce Kupsch, saw the pair wield power to order inspectors around, the inquiry has heard.
Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics and the public service. He has previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
James Hall is the News Director at the Brisbane Times. He is the former Queensland correspondent at The Australian Financial Review and has reported for a range of mastheads across the country, specialising on political and finance reporting.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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