The Queensland Government has accepted recommendations from a wide-ranging integrity review. 

A new Queensland Public Sector review has been published by Professor Peter Coaldrake, after being launched in response to widespread disaffection with the performance of governments, politicians and their officials.

“This review was prompted by a number of issues, some publicly ventilated, which together paint the picture of an integrity system under stress trying to keep check on a culture that, from the top down, is not meeting public expectations,” Prof Coaldrake said.

The review looked over the ‘integrity patchwork’ of state agencies including the auditor-general, ombudsmen, information and integrity commissioners, and the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).

It was informed by more than 320 submissions and 100 consultation meetings, examining the condition of the government “machinery overall as well as the effectiveness of the moving parts of an apparatus”, Prof Coaldrake said.  

It came up with 14 recommendations that Queensland premier Annastasia Palaszczuk says will be implemented in full. 

“I would not have asked Professor Coaldrake to conduct this review if I did not want reform,” she said. 

“We will accept all of his recommendations and we will implement them lock, stock and barrel. 

“Once they’re implemented, Queensland will have the most transparent and accountable government in Australia,” the premier said. 

One of the major recommendations of the review is for new ways to navigate through a system that is “too reliant on investigations rather than education”.

“There are good reasons, from the public’s perspective, for a dispersed system of integrity agencies,” Prof Coaldrake said. 

“Constant attention is needed to keep it functional for purpose, understandable to the citizen who might use it and the managers who guide it.”

“This necessarily changes some agencies’ functions but, more importantly, will require behavioural change. That is also a much better option than to create additional integrity agencies.”

The review noted that leaders at all levels - including the premier, ministers, MPs, directors-general and senior executives - are responsible for the ‘tone’, which successful public services rely on. 

Prof Coaldrake says the inquiry was a response to the right tone failing to reach the required pitch.

“Whether that ‘tone’ be in the form of modelling behaviour, policy ambition and encouraging a contest of ideas, supporting the community in times of crisis, or the manner in which authority is exercised and the voice of the public heard,” Prof Coaldrake said. 

“Any good government, clear in purpose and open and accountable in approach, should have fewer integrity issues.”

“The core of the system is its people who, overwhelmingly, seek to do a good job for the community they serve,” Prof Coaldrake said. 

The review looked at what Prof Coaldrake described as an “overreliance on external contractors and consultants”, a culture too tolerant of bullying, and allergic to frank and fearless advice.

He observed that QPS culture has become “unwilling to give life to unfashionable points of view and dominated by the occupational hazard of all governments, short-term political thinking”. This has a paralysing effect, the report says, and turns away young talent away from a public service career.

Pursuing change, the Queensland Government has announced changes to lobbyist laws to expand the definition of a lobbyist and push lobbyists to make contact with a ministerial chief of staff before anyone else.