QMusic CEO Kris Stewart has announced he is stepping down, in a sudden move that comes within hours of a detailed briefing being submitted by this writer to news.com.au outlining long-running concerns about governance, transparency, and the allocation of commercial opportunities within the organisation.
The resignation was without notice, without explanation – and with immediate effect. The Queensland Music Awards are scheduled to be held in three weeks.
His departure follows this year’s earlier resignations of President Viv Mellish and Vice-President John Collins and comes amid formal complaints to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and sustained scrutiny from industry stakeholders led by this masthead.
This moment follows years of unresolved concerns — and a growing number of industry participants deciding that silence was no longer tenable.
At the centre of those concerns has been the repeated allocation of valuable media and publicity opportunities linked to QMusic’s flagship events, BIGSOUND and the Queensland Music Awards. Over an extended period, those opportunities appear to have been concentrated with a single connected party, without a process that was visible, open, or competitive to the broader industry.
These contracts carry real commercial and reputational value. In other major Australian markets, such opportunities typically circulate among a competitive ecosystem. In Queensland, several independent PR firms have confirmed they would have pursued these contracts had they been given the opportunity, describing them as commercially significant. This raises a central question: whether the opportunity to compete was ever meaningfully accessible.
Concerns of this nature were raised directly with QMusic leadership on multiple occasions over several years. Responses were limited, often delayed, and did not provide detailed clarification around process or decision-making.
Eventually, those concerns moved beyond private correspondence. They were published on this website, shared among members, and in 2025 escalated to the national regulator, The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, “ACNC”.
Multiple stakeholders, including artists, artist managers, publicists and QMusic financial members, submitted complaints to the ACNC, raising questions about governance, transparency, and the allocation of funds within a publicly supported not-for-profit.
The sequence of developments is difficult to ignore.
In June 2024, scenestr published an exposé detailing concerns around contract allocation and calling for leadership accountability, including the resignation of the President and Stewart. Within weeks, then-President Natalie Strijland and Vice President D-J Wendt resigned – having only weeks earlier been re-elected at the AGM.
In June 2025, two weeks after a series of independent complaints to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission — including one from this publication — Kris Stewart took an immediate and previously unannounced five-month leave of absence, departing in the lead-up to – and during – his delivery of BIGSOUND.
QMusic has not publicly connected these events, and may not choose to. But within the industry, the timing — and the consistency of these developments — has not gone unnoticed.
Since these concerns were first raised publicly by scenestr, there has been significant leadership and operational turnover within QMusic, including the departure of two Presidents, two Vice Presidents, the CEO and a senior marketing manager. The publicity firm that had received long-standing QMusic contracts ceased operations within weeks of complaints being lodged with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
More to come ...
Previously:
1. Scenestr Publisher Condemns QMusic CEO Kris Stewart and Board over Awarding of Media Contracts LINK
2. QMusic Members Furious At President Strijland’s Tone Deaf Captains Pick LINK
3. QMusic President Strijland and VP Wendt gone with immediate effect, without notice LINK
