Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni has told a court he was unaware of staff at a coal-fired power station raising concerns before a cooling tower collapsed and a turbine exploded.
The Callide C power station, about 400km northwest of Brisbane, was a joint venture between state government-owned CS Energy and private company IG Power.
IG Power entered voluntary administration in March 2023 and its administrators filed a Federal Court case to establish who was responsible for two critical incidents at Callide C.Â
The administrators summonsed Mr de Brenni to give evidence on Thursday in the Federal Court in Brisbane.
A barrister for the IG Power administrators asked Mr de Brenni if CS Energy's then-chief executive Andrew Bills had told him a staff member responsible for process safety in February 2019 raised concerns about "telltale signs" of a possible critical incident.
"Privilege: the first time it was brought to my attention was in receiving the (2024 Brady Heywood investigative) report," Mr de Brenni said.
Before responding to every question, he invoked privilege against self-incrimination as he could not refuse to answer.
An explosion in May 2021 took part of the Callide plant offline, cutting service to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, and raising power prices across the state.
The entire plant was disabled in November 2022 after a cooling tower collapsed.
Mr de Brenni was asked if CS Energy's then-board members told him their process safety team had resigned around the time the company gave him a commitment on safety.
"It was not across your desk?" the barrister asked.
"Privilege: not immediately," Mr de Brenni said.
The barrister asked the minister if he had been made aware when he took on the energy portfolio in November 2020 that independent contractors as far back as 2014 had called for more maintenance at the cooling tower.
Mr De Brenni said he was "unfortunately" not aware at the time and he had been advised that all requests for maintenance funding had been approved.
He said outside court he had "full confidence" in CS Energy's board, leadership and workforce.
The Federal Court hearing will continue next week.