Ill will against the CCC is greater than it can possibly overcome

Serious questions are being raised about the role of the Crime and Corruption Commission in Queensland, and rightly so, writes Des Houghton.

It is hard to see how Crime and Corruption Commission chief Alan MacSporran can survive the legal tempest now swirling around him.

A third adverse report against the crime watchdog lobbed this week at the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Commission.

And a historic scandal involving a former ALP cabinet minister is coming back to haunt him after revelations the CCC failed to interview key witnesses.

The latest report to challenge the CCC’s “untouchable” status is a 73-page legal tome compiled by three prominent silks who say the CCC exceeded its authority, and worse, in the handling of the Logan council debacle. It discusses how evidence was gathered in compiling fraud charges against seven councillors who were later cleared. The report names names. It is explosive.

The report is a submission from the Local Government Association that I suspect will force the parliament to consider requesting MacSporran stand aside pending a judicial inquiry.

Now is not the time for Annastacia Palaszczuk to attempt to bury it. Indeed, she may welcome a media distraction from her own political inadequacies in hospitals and policing.

The Logan report must be made public, and quickly. The seven councillors who were cleared of fraud were unfairly denied a chance to contest the local government elections. They deserve justice and are owed compensation. And their community deserves answers.

CCC chairman Alan MacSporran. Picture: Domanii Cameron

In the past MacSporran has been chastised by the editorial writers for suggesting the CCC had the right to say what newspapers should and should not publish. That was bonkers.

Ill will against the corruption watchdog continues to grow.

Recent CCC critics are a diverse mob and include the esteemed Clerk of the Parliament Neil Laurie, former premier Campbell Newman, popular Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, former police commissioner Ian Stewart, and influential Local Government Association Queensland chief Greg Hallam. Can they all be wrong?

Hallam is a man of towering intellectual ability whose advocacy has been measured. He won’t talk.

Newman did. He went in hard, accusing the CCC of pursuing small and “esoteric” investigations and prosecutions while criminal gangs flourished. Mr Newman claims the CCC is “out of control and unaccountable … An organisation with extraordinary powers chasing mouse poop whilst criminal gangs and organised crime have flourished”.

Newman was commenting after the CCC last week released its Investigation Arista report that found the Queensland Police Service “engaged in discriminatory recruitment practices” in a drive for women to make up half of all new police recruits.

“These groups are back in business now quite clearly,” Newman told The Australian.

“Why haven’t the CCC done something about either the gangs or the lack of police action?

“Instead, they have spent their time pursuing esoteric prosecutions of local government officials and worrying about gender targets in the QPS.”

LGAQ CEO Greg Hallam. Picture: Brendan Radke

Member for Burleigh Heads, Michael Hart, said allegations of corrupt conduct he raised in Parliament in 2018 were not properly investigated by the CCC even though he had provided investigators the names and phone numbers of witnesses and a tape recording.

The saga began when Hart told Parliament: “Of real concern is the allegation that Rob Schwarten had major renovations done to his Rockhampton houses by JM Kelly in 2009 and 2011. In particular, I am told that a JM Kelly contractor painted his Kinka Beach house, known around Rockhampton as the beach hospital, and the cost of that contracting work – about $26,000 – was not paid by Schwarten but was added as a variation to a government contract. I have heard this from a number of credible people in Central Queensland and both the government and Mr Schwarten have some very serious questions to answer about this. These questions are deserving of a thorough and rigorous examination.”

Schwarten said the allegations were untrue and denies any wrongdoing. The Kelly companies previously denied doing free work for Mr Schwarten.

In a recent submission tabled in Parliament, Hart said the witnesses he provided had not been contacted, even though the CCC assured him they had been.

Gold Coast MP Michael Hart. Picture: Glenn Hampson

He told the House he was first contacted by the CCC in February 2019. In October he was told the case was closed.

“The investigation took 11 months and during that time I was unable to speak further in parliament on this issue.

“Eventually it was reported in the media that Mr Schwarten declared he had been cleared by the CCC.”

Hart said there was not a proper investigation.

“I supplied the CCC with a list of names and contact numbers of persons who provided the information which my speeches to the parliament were based on.’’

In a letter dated October 17, 2019, the CCC advised the investigation was closed and that their “inquiries included interviews of witnesses”, he said.

“I have since been contacted by a number of the people on the supplied list who tell me the CCC has not spoken to them at all.’’

So the CCC not only failed to properly investigate serious allegations, it misled the courageous MP who saw it as his duty to raise the alarm. Why did the CCC run dead? MacSporran should be hauled before the parliamentary committee to tell us.

IRRITANT OF THE WEEK

The official cover-up over dangerous inflammable cladding in Queensland government buildings and universities.