Former Queensland ministers Paul Lucas and Robert Schwarten say their overriding concern during the health payroll bungle was ensuring people were paid, not suing contractor IBM.
The Bligh government heavyweights were forced to revisit their public administration disaster in court on Tuesday as IBM Australia moved to block the state government from suing it.
Former health minister Mr Lucas and ex-public works minister Mr Schwarten were called to the Brisbane Supreme Court to shed light on a 2010 settlement agreement between IBM and the Queensland government.
IBM claims the terms release it from being sued over the costly failure, but the state argues the agreement doesn't cover IBM's "misleading" and "deceptive" claims about its capabilities.
Mr Lucas and Mr Schwarten told the first day of a trial that their main priority when the September 2010 agreement was negotiated had been to retain IBM to fix the problem, not litigation.
"My overwhelming concern, as was my colleagues', was to have the payroll system operating so our hardworking staff would get paid, as they should, as soon as possible," Mr Lucas told the court.
He was "extremely dissatisfied" with IBM's performance and strongly motivated to sue, but didn't think the state was in a strong position.
This was partly due to advice he'd received including an Auditor-General's report that was unflattering to the government.
"I thought it was a very complicated situation but I thought the state fundamentally had issues in relation to its litigation," Mr Lucas said.
Likewise, Mr Schwarten said ensuring that people were paid had been his "only concern" at the time.
In 2007, IBM won an estimated $6.126 million contract to implement the health payroll system.
The project was plagued by delays and cost blowouts and resulted in thousands of Queensland Health staff being underpaid, overpaid, or not paid at all.
The debacle ultimately cost taxpayers $1.2 billion to fix and was described by Richard Chesterman QC, who headed an inquiry into it, as one of the nation's worst failure of public administration.
The trial before Justice Glenn Martin has been set down for several days.
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