Tony Fitzgerald to meet with Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney in private

QUEENSLAND corruption buster Tony Fitzgerald has confirmed he plans to meet Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney to discuss his concerns about the Newman Government.

FEE APPLIES...ONE TIME USE... 28/07/2009 NEWS: FEE APPLIES...ONE TIME USE... 28/07/2009 NEWS: Tony Fitzgerald QC at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane prior to giving the inaugural Tony Fitzgerald lecture. NN739648 NN739648

QUEENSLAND corruption buster Tony Fitzgerald has confirmed he plans to meet Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney to discuss his concerns about the Newman Government.

Mr Seeney made public his plans to seek a meeting with the man behind the Fitzgerald Inquiry but yesterday said the details of the discussion would be private.

“We’re going to have a meeting and a cup of tea and I look forward to that,” Mr Seeney said.

“But can I tell you it’s not going to be a circus, it’s not a stunt. This is something that’s personal to me and it will be a personal meeting.

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“I’ve never met Tony Fitzgerald. I don’t take his criticisms lightly and I’m looking forward to having a discussion with him.”

It comes as Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk used the looming 25th anniversary of the Fitzgerald Inquiry report to announce a new accountability policy. She said Labor would repeal the Newman Government’s contentious changes to the state’s corruption watchdog and election donation rules should it regain office.

Tony Fitzgerald will meet with Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney.

With a copy of the Fitzgerald Inquiry report as a prop, Ms Palaszczuk highlighted some of Mr Fitzgerald’s criticisms of the Government before announcing the changes.

They include repealing the donation declaration cap changes, which lifted the cap from $1000 to $12,400.

Ms Palaszczuk said a Labor government would also sack the next chair and CEO of the state’s ­corruption watchdog if they did not have bipartisan support.

“In government Labor will commence a new, fresh recruitment process for the chair and the CEO of the corruption watchdog,” Ms Palaszczuk said during one of her first major policy announcements in the lead-up to the next election.

“So I am putting the LNP on notice: You can go ahead with your selection process but we will axe that process and we will start again.”

Ms Palaszczuk said Labor would also make its changes to the donation rules retrospective, meaning donations of $1000 or more received in the lead-up to the Stafford by-election and state election would have to be declared next year.

The Opposition’s accountability policy did not, however, touch on whether Labor would repeal the Newman Government’s decision to again make it illegal to lie to Parliament, an offence that was wiped by the Beattie government in 2006 after then-minister Gordon Nuttall was accused of lying to a parliamentary estimates committee.

Mr Seeney yesterday dismissed the policy and called on the Opposition to formulate one on “the things that really matter to Queenslanders”.