Queensland's Public Sector Management Commission (PSMC) has rejected a claim that two formerly aligned union officials sat on each other's selection panels to further their careers in the public service.

The Commission chairman, Dr Peter Coaldrake, said it was untrue former Queensland Professional Officers' Association (QPOA) general secretary Don Martindale sat on a PSMC selection panel that appointed former assistant general secretary Roslyn Kinder to a senior state government position in the PSMC.

However Dr Coaldrake confirmed that in mid 1991, Ms Kinder sat on a panel that selected Mr Martindale as the new director of Industrial Relations in the Health Department.

Mr Martindale was QPOA general secretary from 1983, and Ms Kinder the assistant general secretary from 1984. The two ran a joint "Martindale/Kinder" ticket for the QPOA Credit Union ballot in 1989, a ballot that was the centre of controversy at the Cooke Inquiry.

Ms Kinder, who had worked with the PSMC in an acting position, was selected for the position of Director of Human Resource Management by a PSMC panel in early 1991.

Dr Coaldrake said that Mr Martindale, who at this time was the Trades and Labor Council (TLC) assistant general secretary, was the PSMC's original choice as union representative.

He said Mr Martindale agreed to step down as soon as Ms Kinder applied for the job. However Dr Coaldrake said it was not his decision that Ms Kinder sit on a panel that eventually selected Mr Martindale for the senior Health Department position.

He said the choice of the panel's composition belonged with the panel chair, Ms Ann Kern, the executive director of CorporateServices, Department of Health.

Ms Kern said that in July 1991 she had appointed Ms Kinder to the panel as its technical expert and not as the PSMC representative. She said Ms Kinder was the logical candidate because of her acknowledged experience in industrial relations, human resource management, finance, administration, and organisational services.

Ms Kern said Ms Kinder's industrial experience was invaluable; she (Ms Kern) had come from interstate. Ms Kern said the Health Department selection panel consisted of herself, Ms Kinder, and Mr Michael McDermott, Head of Corporate Services, Department of Justice, who was the PSMC nominee.