Opinion: Logan Eight fiasco proves CCC must be disbanded
The so-called Logan Eight fiasco proves the Crime and Corruption Commission must be disbanded and replaced after a costly blunder, writes Peter Gleeson.
Peter Gleeson
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The Crime and Corruption Commission must be disbanded and replaced with a different investigative model after a catastrophic local government blunder which will likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars in compensation.
Local government representatives are elected by the public. Nobody elects the CCC. Yet it wields unfettered power, and in the murky case of the so-called Logan Eight, it did so without proper evidence that would stand up in court.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk must not only commission a review into the so-called Logan Eight fiasco but have a long, hard look at what body should replace the CCC.
The Logan Eight case was the most notable crucifixion in recent Queensland political history, and even the Romans would have flinched at its brutality.
It has sparked calls from Local Government Association of Queensland boss Greg Hallam for an independent inquiry into how the CCC got it so wrong, including that its chairman Alan McSporran be stood down while the post-mortem is undertaken.
One of the cornerstones of democracy is the separation of powers, requiring the three branches of government – the executive, the legislative and the judiciary – to exist so that there is not one centralised seat of power.
History has shown us that when there does exist a centralised seat of power, democracy is threatened and so too injustice.
For years, senior defence lawyers have complained that the CCC’s role in the justice system has crept from its two main purposes as set out in section 4(1)a of the Crime and Corruption Commission Act.
That part of the Act says the CCC is an evidence gathering instrumentality, however it has now become an organisation that directs charges be laid against citizens. It has no legislative right to do so.
Police Superintendent Steve Munro has recently criticised the CCC for creeping into minor investigations into senior police. He has also questioned why McSporran can be part of a body that investigates senior police but also sits on a panel for the appointment of deputy and assistant police commissioners. He says this is a conflict interest.
Mr Hallam, wily and tough and set to step down later this year, told the Logan councillors he would “back them to the gates of hell’’ when they formed a belief that former CEO Sharon Kelsey should be sacked.
True to his word, Mr Hallam, in the letter to the premier, said the eight Logan councillors wrongly accused of aggravated fraud should be compensated, issued with a public apology and that the legal advice on which the charges were recommended be publicly released.
When the charges were originally brought against the eight Logan councillors in 2019, the LGAQ argued that industrial relations was not the role of the CCC.
The LGAQ pointed out that the matter – which involved the sacking of Ms Kelsey – was already before the Industrial Relations Commission.
The big question to arise out of this case is a simple one.
Why wasn’t the evidence compiled by the CCC against the Logan Eight sent to the Office of Public Prosecutions for assessment before charges were laid?
Once the DPP saw the brief of evidence it determined that there was insufficient evidence to proceed.
Even worse, then Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe sacked the entire council after the eight councillors were charged.
He changed the law to make any councillor facing court ineligible to run again for office.
Mr Hinchliffe rubbed out a number of potential candidates who hadn’t even had a fair trial. He’d implied they were guilty before facing court. They were effectively betrayed by the CCC, betrayed by the Labor government and betrayed by the justice system.
The LGAQ engaged multiple senior counsel who unanimously agreed that the aggravated fraud charges would not succeed, or even survive the committal process.
In his letter to the premier, Mr Hallam said the LGAQ’s position had been vindicated, however the “unprecedented actions of the CCC set off a chain of events that have irreparably damaged the lives and reputations of those Logan councillors’’.
“It is our contention that these consequences were entirely foreseeable,’’ said Mr Hallam.
“The LGAQ has always maintained that the CCC over-stepped the mark by wading into an industrial relations dispute – outside of its jurisdiction – and charging each of these councillors with a serious criminal offence. Careers, lives and reputations were ruined and a council wrongly dismissed. This must never happen again.’’
This decision on Logan will have a domino effect on local government with senior former figures at Ipswich, Gold Coast and Moreton now likely to be exonerated.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has been investigated by the CCC but no charges have been laid.
He said: “The CCC today is not even a shadow of what the original intent of this authority stood for. In 1989 the CJC was set up post Fitzgerald as part of the reformation of the administration of criminal justice in Queensland.
“Today, we have a body involving themselves in industrial relations matters, employment contracts and run of the mill public administrative matters. And the irony is, they aren’t even good at that given the disaster that has unfolded in Logan.’’
Cr Tate also called for Mr McSporran to be stood down pending an investigation into the Logan Eight affair.
Mr McSporran accused Cr Tate of vulgarity and asked him to apologise. Cr Tate said he would apologise if Mr McSporran apologised to the Logan Eight.
The CCC was established to stop crooks doing bad things. It was not set up to attempt prosecutions with a lack of evidence that even a first year law student would realise does not meet judicial benchmarks.
It requires urgent reform.
