The Queensland Government has handed a new contract to a credit reporting agency fined for deceptive conduct.

Queenslanders doing it tough during COVID-19 are encouraged to call the Government's state penalties enforcement registry (SPER), which offers plans to repay traffic debts or extend payment deadlines.

But when they do, their calls will be diverted to a credit reporting agency previously fined millions of dollars for breaching customer law.

Private company, Equifax, has been awarded an undisclosed contract for phone support during the pandemic, despite a Federal Court case demonstrating its misleading and deceptive conduct.

Equifax was ordered to pay $3.5 million in penalties in 2018 for breaching consumer law, in what a court at the time heard described as “unconscionable conduct” towards customers - including using unfair sales tactics and lying.

The SPER runs from within Queensland Treasury, which has admitted to hiring Equifax, but will not disclose the sum paid, stating only that the company will be used to “temporarily supplement [SPER’s] inbound call capacity”.

Equifax has refused to comment on the deal, but when asked whether it would collect information from the calls, a company spokesperson said: “When dealing with the Government we take steps to follow all appropriate guidelines and procurement policies relevant to that customer”.

Equifax's website says it is “passionate about accumulating data, transforming it and then connecting it, to provide our customers with the complete picture”.

Figures from the company are known to have attended Labor's so-called “cash-for-access business forums” in 2019, and donated $5,500 to the Australian Labor Party in August last year.

Additionally, the administration of SPER has been under assessment by the state's Crime and Corruption Commission.