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 major project brings in the consultants, a harder question for human rights HQ, brand 2.0, and more.
Rightly or wrongly, the LinkedIn job update post is a fixture of modern working life.
Announcing two new gigs at the same time is less common – particularly if they involve the public sector.
But that was exactly the recent news shared by two outgoing Cross River Rail Delivery Authority figures: strategic commercial management director Ted Williams, and senior commercial manager David Kalinowski.
Jumping from a relatively near-completion project to become commercial directors of “The Wave” building up on the Sunshine Coast was unremarkable enough.
What raised eyebrows in public sector circles was the second bit: an infrastructure consultancy.
“At the same time, I’m excited to announce the launch of Nexus Infrastructure Partners,” Williams informed his connections, “founded with my partners Shaun Gallagher and David Kalinowski.
“Nexus has been established with a clear purpose: to provide senior, hands-on commercial leadership to complex infrastructure programs, without the friction, overhead or dilution that can come with broader advisory models”.
Kalinowski – who corporate records show is a shareholder director and secretary – flagged the move in a similar post. Williams is listed as the firm’s only other director.
How they might find time to juggle both is an obvious question. How they got the nod for a second hat is another.
Simple! The partial answer, via a Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesperson, is the pair – and two others – are not government employees at all.
“Four commercial directors for The Wave (Rail) have been appointed to their respective roles as contractors through an open market tender process,” the spokesperson told Circus.
“They are not TMR employees and as such, there is no conflict of interest.”
Further questions to the department managed to extract the additional detail that, yes, Williams and Kalinowski were engaged on The Wave by the department via their shiny new firm, said to be standard practice.
We can’t help thinking this might partly explain why the big Crisafulli crackdown on consultants and contractors to save coin and build up the public sector is not going so well.
Curiously, the Nexus’ “our people” website section is yet to feature any names, though the portfolio portion does clearly talk up their delivery authority work – and more.
We sang out to Williams and Kalinowski, who Circus is not suggesting to have engaged in any wrongdoing, but are yet to hear back.
A harder question for human rights HQ
Queensland’s newly minted human rights honcho sat down for an exclusive first chat with Circus last week at the tail end of her first month in Scott McDougall’s old shoes.
One takeaway: Debbie Platz seems to be positioning the Queensland Human Rights Commission on a less “combative” path under her five-year reign as commissioner.
It’s not her first time taking on a title like this: her recent stint as an assistant commissioner of Queensland police, where she began her career back in the 80s, is of particular relevance.
See, the commission’s most recent annual report shows 23 of the 252 total accepted and finalised complaints in 2024-25 alleging a human rights breach involved police.
Asked how she would deal with any of those matters coming across her desk, Platz said she had completed the standard conflict of interest declaration on kick-off and there were strategies in place if such a situation arose.
“In my whole lot of three weeks, there’s only been one [complaint] that … we’ve discussed as an executive team, and that was because it was going before a court,” she said.
“But despite that, my role is the Human Rights Commissioner.
“It’s not based on what I’ve done in the past, although I think what I’ve learned in those roles has set me up very well to work with the commission, so I don’t see that as an issue at all.”
We read brand 2.0 so you don’t have to
The Queensland government distributed Brand Book 2.0 last month, a 104-page document that outlines – in excruciating detail – directions for the overwhelmingly blue branding.
From the millimetre gaps in letterheads, the style of font – Noto Sans, but god forbid this isn’t available, Arial will suffice – and the order of government branding on media releases for project funding announcements.
The brand overhaul has been seized on ad nauseam by Labor as a sacrilegious abandonment of Queensland’s proud maroon in favour of the ghastly blue worn by the cockroaches to the south.
The brand is also, of course, a very LNP shade of blue and the uniformity of ‘Delivering for Queensland’ feels straight from party campaign material.
The book addresses this (controversial?) colour change, noting the official declaration in 2003 of maroon being Queensland’s state colour is only for state occasions or formal events.
Maroon is for sport and blue is for government, according to 2.0.
“Departments must use the blue colour palette as the predominant and defining colour in all communication materials,” it says.
The new long and detailed list of rules also triggered complaints to Circus that the new strict email signature format meant a blanket ban on artwork, including Indigenous-themed art.
Email signatures are permitted to feature Acknowledgement of Country statements but no logos, quotes, colours, artwork or fonts.
Circus was told that previously commissioned artwork would now be binned, but the Department of Premier and Cabinet said that wasn’t necessarily true.
“Departments and agencies may commission First Nations artworks for use where it aligns with their strategic objectives and the intended purpose of the artwork,” they said in response to questions.
Just not for email signatures?
Major workplace deal talks looming large
While the government has struck deals with several major workforces in the last 12 months, talks for others have hit rockier roads, or been plunged into the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission abyss.
But there are more on the horizon, too. Most significantly is the State Government Entities Certified Agreement – the “core agreement” covering the majority of departmental staff and a smattering of statutory bodies.
Due to expire on June 30, negotiations are said to have kicked off in late January. The government insists it’s committed to a “collaborative and constructive process” with the aim of an “early resolution so that wage increases can be paid as soon as possible”.
Another deal due to run down at the end of June is unsworn police, with separate deals for youth detention centre youth workers, youth justice administrative workers and case managers, and their child safety counterparts, expiring on 31 July.
With its big promises about respecting the public sector, 2026 is set to be a second big year for the government to deliver.
More Newman-era figures land (more) gigs
We’ve been keeping a keen eye on the movements to and from the various public bodies with government-appointed positions, which the Circus tent is wide enough to cover.
While the latest flurry has featured some well-known names (George Brandis chairing the Library Board of Queensland, to name probably the biggest), a few others have also caught our attention.
One was former Newman-era assistant minister Lisa France, who has joined her blue team colleague and former Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman on the Trade and Investment Queensland Board.
Another is Ian Walker, who served as Arts Minister under Newman and replaced public sector culture and accountability reviewer Peter Coaldrake as chair of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in October.
Walker has joined the lucky cohort of those handed multiple posts by the Crisafulli government, becoming one of its eight appointees to the University of Queensland Senate earlier this year alongside former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (who was elected to her role).
Another of those appointees was Ryan Haddrick – Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie’s interim chief of staff after the 2012 election, now a barrister at Cedric Hampson Chambers and also appointed a sessional ordinary member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal late last year.
Circus notes that now makes four of the chamber’s eight barristers handed gigs by the government since the election, including CFMEU inquiry head Stuart Wood KC, Robyn Sweet KC and Benjamin Kidston.
We’re sure the other half will have theirs in the mail soon enough.
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.
