Welcome to Brisbane Times’ Queensland public sector column, Public Circus. This week: Sosso departure goss, a human rights office review, Ombudsman staff woes, ‘mind the gap’ on racism, and more.
For some time now, there’s been chatter about a looming change at the top of the public service: the departure of John Sosso.
The State Development supremo, who wears several other significant hats, was rumoured to have been eyeing the door before he landed a role on the redistribution commission.
But with a final determination from that body due to be published soon, whispers in the Circus tent are focusing around another milestone: estimates.
According to the word around 1 William Street, Sosso may very well not be around to face parliamentary scrutiny for a second year.
We’ve asked both Sosso and his minister Jarrod Bleijie about the matter. Sosso’s departmental media team gave us a no comment.
The scandal around Tim Mander may yet trigger a reshuffle of ministers – could we also see a corresponding rejigging of department bosses?
There are certainly a few pieces in play. The “exchange” of Chris Lamont (Customer Services chief) with David Sinclair (a Premier and Cabinet associate director-general), for a start.
Michael Drane is still acting atop Youth Justice, Brett Pointing remains only the interim Police Commissioner (with a recruitment process said to be coming), and a redesign of the entire Child Safety department has been floated.
On our count, that’s three department heads set to front estimates with less than six months in their gigs – always a handy out when asked about pre-existing problems.
And that’s before you throw Sosso’s rumoured see-ya into the mix. Which is a shame, because Circus still has unanswered questions for the veteran bureaucrat.
Another who’s only had a short lead time is Mander’s placeholder in the sport, racing and Olympics cabinet chair, Andrew Powell. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves – there’s a budget first!
Human rights watchdog to face its first review – and the rest
Thursday delivered news of the first statutory review of the Queensland Human Rights Commission – along with another pass over its related Human Rights Act.
But the work, to be carried out by retired Supreme Court Justice Peter Flanagan KC by the end of March 2027, will go beyond what is required by law.
Flanagan will probe the functions – and performance of these – by the commission now led by Debbie Platz, including “all structural and operational aspects”, its relationship to other public sector entities, victims of crime and more.
He has also been tasked with combing over elements of the former Labor government’s Respect at Work laws, paused by Attorney-General Deb Frecklington last year.
“The reviewer is to also consider how to best protect the rights of victims of crime,” the terms of reference published last week read. It’s focus that caught Circus’ eye, given the state has a separate, standalone, Victims’ Commissioner in Kate Connors.
When this masthead spoke to Platz earlier this year, she told us she wanted to find “effectiveness and efficiency gains” with other commissioners.
Circus will also be watching with interest what Flanagan may make of the difference in approach between Platz and her inaugural predecessor, Scott McDougall – particularly given the view of the office previously held by some in the government: that it shouldn’t exist.
AI complaints, and a lack of teeth, troubling Ombudsman staff
Speaking of statutory reviews of independent public sector bodies: the latest look over the office of the Queensland Ombudsman landed earlier this month.
Beyond the calls by reviewer John McMillan to fire back up the forum of top accountability bodies with the Queensland Government Integrity Committee (which hasn’t met since 2023) were some insights into the creep of artificial intelligence.
One reason behind an eight per cent jump in complaints is suggested to have been increased use of generative AI tools to write them, leading also to “longer and less-targeted” approaches from those sending them through – including the usual “hallucinations”.
“While this is to be expected, instances of inappropriate reliance on those AI tools is having a destabilising impact on the complaint function in various ways, as well as on staff morale,” McMillan noted in one of his findings.
On another note, as Anthony Reilly leaves the Ombudsman role with little fanfare or explanation, is the matter of the office’s visibility. That is, how public the agency is with its work – a key part of its legislated role.
Few other government entities participating in the review process could “readily nominate examples or point to particular investigations or reports”. That view was even shared by some Ombudsman staff.
“The office, in the view of some staff, did not have a strong appetite to take up and report on systemic administrative problems, or to confront agencies,” the review found.
Not exactly a glowing view. But Circus can’t call to mind much of the office’s work that has driven headlines in recent years – certainly not like that of Victorian administrative watchdog Deborah Glass, who recently left the role after a 10-year non-renewable term.
While McMillan’s review does suggest her Queensland counterparts’ three-year terms should be extended, while noting the issues was not raised by Reilly, no formal recommendation followed.
Recent job ads pitched the role as up to five years, with possible extension. Will we see a shift in approach by the office under new leadership? Only time will tell.
Child safety inquiry boss’ London Underground theory of racism
With many stakeholders still sifting through the Child Safety Inquiry Commissioner Paul Anastassiou’s 1400-page tome, some of its finer details are starting to gain attention.
One element of this is the position taken by the cut-short 10-month inquiry around the questions of the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in the system.
On this front, the inquiry’s report leans heavily on the input of the Noel Pearson-founded Cape York Institute, called for the probe to take a “harder path” and confront “proximate causes”.
These, the institute said, are the “substance-abuse epidemics that have taken hold in Indigenous communities … [and] the passive-welfare environment that has entrenched them”.
While not suggesting it would rule out racism as a factor, the inquiry said the institute did not “continue to place racial explanations at the forefront of their causal theories” like other groups.
“The absence of an intangible force such as racism is extremely difficult to prove, certainly far more difficult than making the accusation that it does,” the inquiry said, noting such findings were not its “burden or function” anyway.
Despite this, the inquiry had “not found evidence to support such a conclusion” about whether racism was a factor in removing First Nations kids, under a subheading asking “is the ‘Stolen Generations’ being repeated?”
“The ambition of public policy has been encapsulated by the metaphor of ‘closing the gap’,” the inquiry later noted. “The Commission ventures the better metaphor might be the warning broadcast on the London Underground railway network, which says: ‘mind the gap’.
“In other words, step over the gap. This metaphor may be more apt because it conveys that it is possible for an individual to do something about the gap, not wait until the gap disappears. That is not to suggest that the gap should not also be closed.”
Another “distinguishing feature” of the institute’s evidence, in the inquiry’s view, was calls for “a range of measures including alcohol management plans and compulsory income management under the local authority of a Family Responsibility Commission”.
A public response from government to the report’s recommendations is expected by the end of next month.
A quick check on QFleet’s fuel consumption
After the war in Iran sent the price of fuel rocketing, some government detractors wondered to Circus how fuel consumption in the public sector’s fleet was tracking since the LNP ditched the electric vehicle mandate.
And it turns out, pretty well.
It’s been a year since Public Works Minister Sam O’Connor replaced the mandate with a promise to reduce emissions in the QFleet by 10 per cent by 2030.
He had argued Labor’s plan to transition all eligible vehicles to electric by 2026 was ineffective, given this applied to about 3600 of the more than 11,000 vehicles.
By the end of May, there had been a drop in emissions of nearly 4.5 per cent.
The mix of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles jumped nearly 280 per cent between April 2025 and March compared to the previous year, while fully electric cars in the fleet rose 5 per cent and hybrids 8.5 per cent.
The number of diesel vehicles was relatively flat (up 0.21 per cent) while petrol vehicles fell nearly 41 per cent.
Over the same period, diesel consumption rose 3.5 per cent but E10 fell nearly 27 per cent and non-fuel consumption jumped nearly 44 per cent.
O’Connor told Circus the numbers validated his move to ditch the EV mandate.
“To instead empower our frontline workers to choose vehicles which best suit their needs across Queensland was the right call for both service delivery and emissions reduction,” he said.
Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics, parliament and the public sector. 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.
