Qld government accused of campaign to remove Aboriginal people from health roles

Qld government accused of removing Aboriginal people from health roles in 'Project Invisibility' Wed 17 Jun 2026 at 8:50am In short: Queensland Health insiders say the government has failed to fill key Aboriginal leadership roles for the state's hospitals. Indigenous barrister Joshua Creamer says this has been referred to as "Project Invisibility" within the halls of government. What's next? Queensland's health minister says they are searching for Indigenous health directors for Metro North and Metro South. The Queensland government has breached its own laws by failing to appoint Indigenous leaders on the state's health and hospital boards, part of what insiders say is a concerted campaign dubbed "Project Invisibility". The existence of Project Invisibility was first revealed on 612 ABC by Joshua Creamer, who was sacked when the state government scrapped the Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry he chaired. The Indigenous barrister said Project Invisibility was the name used internally to refer to the government's ongoing removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from leadership roles since the election in 2024. Mr Creamer said there was a well-established pattern of removing experienced and prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders from public boards and independent statutory authorities, demoting key public servants and defunding important Indigenous community programs. "After the election there's been a consistent long line of these types of issues,"Mr Creamer said. "You look at the abolition and dampening of Indigenous voices since October 2024, there's a very active process to make sure that happens." Loading...Under laws passed by the previous Labor government, each region's health and hospital board is required to have at least one Indigenous member. The legislated roles were designed to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait health outcomes, following a damning 2017 report that found widespread racism inside Queensland Health. However, 612 ABC can reveal that there are no Indigenous directors on either of Brisbane's two major health boards: Metro North and Metro South, which provide health and hospital services for 2.4 million people in South East Queensland. Metro South Director Donisha Duff was given five days' notice to vacate her role on March 31, and has not been replaced. At Metro North, Indigenous board member Adrian Carson elected to leave his role on March 31 and was not replaced. A highly placed Queensland Health source told 612 ABC the removals had impacted Aboriginal health delivery across Queensland. "It's outrageous to leave those roles vacant," they said. "Metro South takes in Logan and oversees health services for the largest Indigenous population in Queensland, surpassing even the population of Far North Queensland." Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls told 612 the government had commenced a search for replacements, but the roles would likely not be filled until "later this year". He said recruitment began on March 27, only four days before the roles were emptied. Mr Nicholls also confirmed there is no Indigenous representative on the Sunshine Coast health and hospital board and an appointment is unlikely to be made until later this year In a statement, the Queensland government did not deny that Project Invisibility exists, but said it was "redirecting funds into practical locally led projects which deliver tangible outcomes through our Closing the Gap Priorities Fund", including "restoring clean drinking water at Woorabinda". Meanwhile, sources inside Queensland Health told 612 ABC the role of the Chief First Nations Health Officer had been downgraded. The Chief First Nations Officer is no longer a deputy Director General of Health, and instead reports to a non-Indigenous official in that role. "They will tell you nothing has changed but our voice has been diluted inside the Department," a highly placed source said. "A white person now has full control over our agenda. That matters because you need cultural authority within the public service." A Queensland Health spokesperson declined to provide a response on the record. The role has been vacant for months, following the departure of Yalangi and Tagalaka woman Haylene Grogan. Ms Grogan is now the senior bureaucrat at Aboriginal Affairs in NSW. Opposition Leader Steven Miles told 612 ABC that he had heard of the term "Project Invisibility" being used internally. As health minister, he introduced the legal requirement to have Indigenous representatives on health and hospital boards. "The message it sends when you don't meet the law is that it doesn't really matter, that it's a nice-to-have rather than a necessary-to-have," Mr Miles said. "It feels to them like the government doesn't want Indigenous people to be seen, and that's why they're removing them from those high-profile roles and not replacing them." "You don't achieve more by doing less. So if you decide to do less, you're achieving less." When questioned about the government's approach to Indigenous affairs, the deputy premier Jarrod Bleije has previously noted a majority of Queenslanders voted against The Voice. But Mr Miles said that did not justify removing Indigenous people from high-level advisory positions. "I think that's the deputy premier saying the quiet part out loud," he said. "It conflates two very different things for political purposes. But it also has him saying, this is a deliberate strategy, a political strategy." Asked whether he was suggesting Mr Bleije was saying the "racist part out loud", he replied: "That's how I read it, yes." Mr Creamer said Indigenous leaders were also concerned about the decision not to reappoint Gamilaraay woman Natalie Lewis to the Queensland Family and Child Commission. The decision came just days before the release of a devastating report into abuse and neglect experienced by children in out-of-home-care in Queensland, nearly half of whom are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Attorney-General Deb Frecklington was asked directly whether Ms Lewis would be replaced and replied: "I have been very well reassured by the Commissioner of the QFCC that the work that former Commissioner Lewis was undertaking is continuing." There is concern that without an official replacement, the government would not have the benefit of advice from an independent Indigenous commissioner as it considers the findings of the inquiry, including a controversial recommendation to change the law to allow Indigenous children to be more easily adopted into non-Indigenous families. Advocates say such a move would create a new Stolen Generation, as Indigenous children would grow up without knowing their culture or identity. [Image text:] Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry We recognise the many distinct Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples of the lands across Queensland as the first custodians of this land. and