Des Houghton: Since when was it ‘entirely ordinary’ to take someone’s laptop uninvited?
The crime watchdog’s report to parliament fell short because it failed to identify the person who took two laptops – and on whose orders they were seized and wiped, writes Des Houghton.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Does the Crime and Corruption Commission really and truly think it is “entirely ordinary” for someone to enter the office of a senior public servant, uninvited, and take her laptop without her permission?
Yes. The crime watchdog says so in a report to parliament.
I’m not buying it. There was nothing “ordinary” about the “raid” in my mind.
To make it worse, the laptop contained information put there by departed Queensland Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov, who earlier warned of interference in her office by the Public Service Commission in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Does the CCC also expect us to believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows?
The CCC report was deficient to my mind because it failed to identify the person who took two laptops – and on whose orders they were seized and wiped.
The report suggests no one can recall who gave the orders. I’m not buying that either.
And I don’t think it was a routine matter as the alleged watchdog suggests.
The fact that the laptops were removed without the knowledge or consent of the Integrity Commission suggests the Public Service Commission did not respect Stepanov’s independence, regarding her as a subordinate to be pushed around or silenced.
Emails published by The Courier-Mail show Stepanov last year reported her significant workload and requested mediation with Public Service Commissioner Robert Setter.
Later, he was accused in parliament of describing her as a “bitch on a witch hunt”. Setter denies the allegation.
This week’s outbursts by Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman suggests she has little regard for the Integrity Commissioner’s independence.
Neither, it seems, does Peter Coaldrake, who recommended in his review that complaints against senior public servants be handled not by the CCC but by the very Public Service Commission at the centre of the Stepanov laptop controversy.
A knotty problem remains. Coaldrake recommends the CCC give priority to more serious and systemic corruption, with complaints against senior public servants being referred back to their departments.
The Public Service Commission itself says this is unworkable.
It told Coaldrake that “in many cases it is not an optimum approach when the CCC refers allegations about the CEO or board member back to the agency to investigate its own senior personnel”.
Underlings may be expected to make adverse findings against their bosses. That wouldn’t be a good career move in the current “toxic” government.
Des Houghton is a media consultant and a former editor of The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail, The Sunday Sun and The Gold Coast Sun.
More Coverage
Gold-medal stupidity: What China gets about energy that we don’t
Australia is exporting the coal and gas we used to use for energy, then buying back the things China makes with our coal, writes Matt Canavan.
Frydenberg: Crushing anti-Semitism is Australia’s fight — and one we must win
At first our leaders ignored what was happening, then hoped it would go away, but now they are seeing the depth of the problem — if anti-Semitism is left unchecked, the wall that keeps the mob at bay will come crumbling down.