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: A hiring freeze, events at Government House, and calls for a four-day workweek to alleviate fears of a fuel crunch.
A freeze by any other name
There’s been a lot of talk of a ‘vacancy management plan’ within public service circles and how closely this typically jargon-heavy phrase resembles the F-word.
Public Circus was told an internal town hall earlier this month did little skirting around the topic of a hiring freeze, with workers in the Transport and Main Roads corporate division told very matter-of-factly vacant positions would not be filled. Nor would backfill positions or secondments be approved.
“We’re being told explicitly that there’s a freeze,” according to a corporate division employee within the department, speaking to the Circus anonymously to freely discuss the matter.
“TMR, as a whole, is on a freeze.”
Circus has heard from multiple sources that staff within TMR are struggling to keep up with daily tasks due to the strained workforce.
We were told this low morale was reflected in a recent internal staff satisfaction survey, which one source speculated was the trigger to hold a town hall on March 11.
But rather than alleviate fears, Circus was told the town hall only reinforced speculation.
They were told, according to the corporate division employee, that open positions are not being filled or advertised, there are no secondments to fill vacant positions, and employees won’t be given the opportunity to temporarily act in senior roles unless they were approved last year.
“Upper management, in a lot of departments I’m aware of, are not being filled, which means there’s an awful lot of people with no manager and, also explicitly, no progression – that’s been made clear to everyone,” they said.
The Circus whisperer said “morale’s terrible” in the stretched department, which has led to simple tasks such as timesheet approvals being delayed as they’re pushed up vacant management chains.
“The day-to-day work is quite quickly slowing down because there’s just not enough people to do it,” the source said.
Instead, staff were told the department would be hiring consultants to temporarily plug gaps, which would heap further pressure on the state government’s plan to bring down the spend on external workers.
We put these claims to TMR who didn’t dispute the town hall sequence of events, but they did reject the F-word.
“There is no hiring freeze in place within the department,” a spokesman said.
“Vacant positions are being allocated and filled to best meet business needs, including the critical infrastructure projects and operational requirements for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Governor’s office pushed staffer to the limit, then fought her – and lost
The events schedule at Fernberg has been a topic of legal curiosity since Governor Jeannette Young took the keys in November 2021, following her pandemic-driven elevation into public life while chief health officer.
In a now more than three-year industrial commission process, a former executive support officer in the Office of the Governor’s programs team has been pursuing a workers’ compensation claim for psychological injury in the role.
The cause? Between Young’s appointment and the time Angela Giles resigned in October 2022 from the job Giles held for two years, her workload skyrocketed thanks to a jump in the events scheduled under Young.
In a decision published late last month, commission deputy president John Merrell found this workload increase figure to have been, on average, 65 per cent. But this alone was not the grounds for him siding with Giles.
Merrell found this increased workload was not managed reasonably by the office which, in the same period, replaced the only other full-time executive support officer with two untrained, part-time casuals Giles also had to train.
Nor did the office take any reasonable steps to address concerns Giles raised about her workload, with Merrell stating its submissions “cannot be reconciled with the evidence”. Ouch.
Ultimately, Merrell found there was a causal relationship between Giles’ “adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressed mood” and her employment, which contributed “in a significant way” to the injury.
The resulting orders confirmed a June 2023 decision of the Workers’ Compensation Regular – in a review initiated by Giles of her initial rejection by WorkCover Queensland – that Giles’ application should be accepted.
That decision, however, was appealed by the Office of the Governor the next month, driving the protracted proceedings since, in which the regulator played no active role and Giles represented herself against Crown Law.
A further decision will now be made by Merrell on who wears the costs of four days of hearings last year, with the office and Giles to file submissions by Friday.
Circus can’t imagine the Office of the Governor coming out of that the better off. Lucky the wallet of “the people’s governor”, filled by Queensland taxpayers, of course, is so bountiful.
If only it’d been used to hire some more staff.
Council duo paint the town Red(land) at RSPCA reception
Given Circus members’ recent reporting on Redland deputy mayor Julie Talty’s place at the centre of political influence concerns in the messy appointment of council chief executive Louise Rusan, the pair could be excused for exercising some caution in any joint public appearances.
We hear that has been far from the case, however. Circus sources say the pair appeared close and in high spirits in one such outing earlier this month, snapping selfies on the steps of Government House no less.
The occasion was a reception for RSPCA Queensland hosted by Young – a patron of the organisation – to mark World Wildlife Day on March 3.
Rusan and Talty, acting as mayor at the time while actual mayor Jos Mitchell was on leave, got the invite as part of the council’s support for a new purpose-built RSPCA wildlife hospital planned for Capalaba.
Young even gave the council a shoutout in her published speech. So you can also hardly blame the pair, along with councillor Rowanne McKenzie, for showing up to rep the Redlands.
We can only imagine the show put on might have looked a tad different if it were Rusan and Mitchell on the guest list – given the latter didn’t sign the former’s contract after the whole recruitment saga.
A council spokesman told Circus that Mitchell had initially accepted an invitation to attend the event.
“But her office advised organisers on 26 February that the Mayor was no longer able to attend and that the Mayor would be represented by Councillor Talty,” the spokesman said.
WFH/four-day week plea for public service
It’s been a tough time for household budgets. And that’s before the Strait of Hormuz was closed as war raged in the Middle East triggering a global energy crisis that has led to a surge in petrol prices.
The higher cost at the bowser is likely to further fuel inflation and threaten more interest rate rises.
The world’s energy watchdog, International Energy Agency, told Australians to work from home, drive at lower speeds and avoid air travel to offset the risk of a severe oil shortage.
And public servants agree.
Through the Australia Services Union, the national branch of Together, the workforce has demanded governments provide fuel relief by supporting work from home where possible.
Meanwhile, frontline workers, who cannot work from home, should be offered flexible arrangements such as a four-day workweek at full pay to reduce fuel use by commuting less.
A Crisafulli government spokesman said public service employees would likely be granted work from home allowances on cost of living grounds.
But the government stopped short on declaring a position on the matter, saying: “The focus should be on accessing affordable fuel not restricting its use.”
Unlike some states, Queensland does not have a blanket work from home policy, with public service agencies making decisions on individuals’ flexible work requests on a case-by-case basis.
Job Gee
Speaking of the petrol supply crunch, the creation of a new national fuel supply taskforce presented the opportunity to add to the many responsibilities of veteran Queensland public servant Bob Gee.
Soon after the announcement on Thursday, Crisfulli appointed Gee as the state’s representative to communicate with the national fuel tsar.
It marks another notch in the belt for the busy public servant, who has also been cross-border commissioner, interim victims commissioner, former Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber’s director-general, and, for a fleeting moment, the CFMEU commission of inquiry’s secretary.
Reply authority: Queensland Rail in the comments
Queensland Rail has been accused of straying into the political arena after popping up in social media comments on posts by Labor MPs about staffing changes at rail stations.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s Queensland branch are fighting against the move to no longer staff selected train stations across south-east Queensland after 1pm on weekdays and over weekends from early May.
The spat has been seized on by Labor MPs and further fuelled the opposition’s attack lines of job cuts in the public service.
The campaigning has infuriated Queensland Rail, which has adopted a social media strategy of replying to each post to share the government-owned corporation’s statement on the matter “in the interests of balance and clarity”.
The response has raised eyebrows within Labor, who say it is inappropriately political. Shadow transport spokesman Bart Mellish even quizzed Queensland Rail on social media about who had directed the reply guy energy.
But the statutory authority dismissed the accusation when contacted by Circus, insisting the non-government MPs weren’t the only targets.
“Queensland Rail is rejecting false claims recently made about its workforce on social media, making it clear station staff jobs are secure, and reassuring Queenslanders a world-class rail service for customers remains a priority,” SEQ operations boss Rob Hill said in response to questions.
Have a curiosity for the Public Circus tent? Email us on m.dennien@brisbanetimes.com.au or james.hall@nine.com.au (or sing out more securely via mattdennien@protonmail.com and @mattdennien.15 on Signal).
