When you've moved from the high-flying world of investment banking to shuffle about the corridors of a state bureaucracy with the grey-cardigan brigade, it's hard to let go of old habits. We get it.
So we have to cut Philip Noble, the CEO of Queensland Treasury Corporation, a little bit of slack.
The one-time Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and BT banker has had his feet under the desk at Premier Palaszczuk's QTC for 6½ years, doling out debt funding and financial advice to Queensland's local governments. And he's made it a hallmark of his tenure to bring to the gig something of the private sector from whence he came. Witness his corporate dress-code edict, requiring all QTC employees to swap their cardigans for tailored suits, jackets and collared shirts with ties for men. This in the state that pioneered the walk sock.
And this week he's teaming with the corporate dress-code theme by undertaking a road trip to visit some of his regional council clients – the breadth of which has put more than a few noses out of joint in Treasury where the bean counters don't have the luxury of not needing to declare all their expenses.
QTC say Noble is undertaking a strictly business tour visiting clientele in Mt Isa, Winton and Emerald. Sources report its a no-expense-spared jolly taking in such tourist hotspots as the Stockman's Hall of Fame and Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach.
Word is the travelling party has eschewed commercial for private jet travel – and even a few junior QTC staff have been taken along for bag-carrying duties. Hey, those Ermenegildo suits don't lay themselves out each morning you know?
QTC says the travelling party comprises the CEO, three managing directors and five junior QTC staff. And there'll be a mix of private and commercial travel into the bargain (adding that the chartered aircraft are small, six-seater and seven-seater single-prop affairs. The government Lear must not have been available.
