The Palaszczuk government has finally released a long-awaited independent report into whether the state's ballooning public service was delivering benefits.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
KPMG was commissioned in 2017 to investigate whether an increase in the state's public sector had delivered results for Queenslanders.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promised to release the KPMG report after cabinet had considered it during estimates hearings about a year ago.
However, it had still not been released during the election campaign last year, meaning voters did not have a chance to judge its contents before going to the ballot box.
At the time, Ms Palaszczuk said: "I think it was scheduled [to go to cabinet] for end of November, early December."
The release of the report comes four days before 2018 estimates hearings were due to begin.
There are now 223,257 full time equivalent employees working in the Queensland public sector, an increase of more than 21,800 since the 2015 election.
Public service employee expenses and superannuation were expected to cost $27.36 billion next year, about 47 per cent of total expenses, the budget revealed.
The Palaszczuk government has argued it was "restoring frontline services" after the Newman LNP government made 14,000 workers redundant.
The KPMG report said government agencies were often "siloed" in their operations and very few policies existed to encourage collaboration.
It said the government's objectives should be reviewed to make sure they remained relevant to the community and could be monitored and reported publicly.
The report said the government's objectives for the community were not expressed in specific goals and while much information was available on performance, it lacked focus and was not accessible.
Ms Palaszczuk denied she had delayed the release of the year-old report until just before estimates to avoid scrutiny.
"The report has only just gone to cabinet but it formed our thinking and we've endorsed the recommendations with our Advancing Queensland priorities," she said.
"So a lot of work has happened from when we received that report to when we actually produced our Advancing Queensland priorities."
Ms Palaszczuk rejected suggestions that work should have been done before the extra public servants were hired.
"No, not all because what we saw the savage cuts under [former premier] Campbell Newman was hurting our health system, it was hurting the delivery of services to Queenslanders, and I made a commitment to Queenslanders that I would restore those services," he said.
Ms Palaszczuk would not say when the KPMG report was considered by cabinet.
In a press release, Ms Palaszczuk said the KPMG report "also informed some important decision-making as part of our budget process".
The Queensland budget was handed down on June 12.
Ms Palaszczuk promised the government would "keep a lid" on public service wages growth.
"We recognise how important it is to keep our wages expenses under control," she said.
"And this is going to be a very key priority of my government this term."
On Friday, Ms Palaszczuk announced former QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake was commissioned to examine how data on public services employees was collected to ensure decisions about services provision were made with the best available information.
The Premier also emailed Queensland public servants to say she valued the work they did to deliver services and infrastructure.
"Most importantly, I would like to assure you of employment security," she said.
"Your hard work is valued and your efforts appreciated."
