Premier ponders bypassing scrutiny for critical CCC laws

Laws allowing the Crime and Corruption Commission to report on its investigations, while banning it from criticising MPs, could be forced through parliament before the October election.

Premier Steven Miles faces limited parliamentary sitting days before the next election.

Significant new laws allowing the Crime and Corruption Commission to report on its investigations while banning it from criticising politicians could be forced through parliament without scrutiny.

Premier Steven Miles is considering whether the landmark legislation allowing the watchdog to publicly report on its corruption investigations and ban it from commentating on the actions of MPs should go before a parliamentary committee for scrutiny.

Committees, made up of Labor, LNP and crossbench MPs, usually take several months to consider proposed laws and determine whether they should be passed.

However, with just six parliamentary sitting days remaining, The Courier-Mail can reveal the government is considering bypassing the committee and enacting the laws before the October 26 state election.

Mr Miles said the proposed changes to the CCC’s reporting powers had already been scrutinised though a three-month review by former Queensland chief justice Catherine Holmes.

“This has been the subject of very lengthy consultation and so one of the considerations is whether it does need to go through a committee process but we haven’t made the decision on that,” he said.

While bypassing the parliament’s committee scrutiny is unusual, it notably occurred in August when the government was forced to rush through laws to keep children in police watch houses.

When asked if the CCC legislation would be debated before parliament rises on September 12 – the last sitting before the state election – Mr Miles said “I certainly hope so”.

“We working through the detail of what that looks like with the CCC and we’ll do it just as soon as we can,” he said.

In May the government said it would introduce the laws “as a matter of priority”.

The High Court in September muzzled the CCC from releasing its reports into former deputy premier Ms Trad and former public trustee Peter Carne – who are not accused of wrongdoing.

It took the government until February before Mr Miles appointed Ms Holmes to lead a three-month review to determine what extent the CCC should be able to publicly report on its corruption investigations.

Shadow Attorney-General Tim Nicholls in February argued the government was running a “protection racket” and said the review was an attempt to “kick this can down the road”.

His private Bill to legislate for the CCC to publicly release its reports is before a parliamentary committee, which he on Sunday called on the government to support.

“Why on earth would the Miles Labor government refuse to agree to the LNP’s Bill that has already gone through the committee process and has the support of the CCC?

“Those laws have been sitting there since last October ready to roll but now Premier Miles is going to try find another way to protect his Labor mates yet again.

“It just stinks like more of the same dodgy Labor protection racket.”