CCC chief says watchdog was not bound by QIRC ruling

The head of the state’s crime watchdog has told a parliamentary inquiry he did not believe the Crime and Corruption Commission was bound to rulings from an industrial court.

The head of the state’s crime watchdog has told a parliamentary inquiry he did not believe the Crime and Corruption Commission was bound to rulings from an industrial court.

CCC chair Alan MacSporran told a parliamentary inquiry into the charging of eight Logan City councillors, he did not believe he was bound to orders from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

The hearing heard QIRC commissioner Gary Black had ruled out allowing information and documents gained under coercion in a civil court case brought by Logan City Council’s former CEO Sharon Kelsey.

Counsel assisting the parliamentary inquiry Jonathan Horton QC challenged Mr MacSporran over why the CCC sent those documents to Logan City Council after the QIRC ruled they could not be used as evidence.

Counsel assisting the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee inquiry Jonathan Horton questioned CCC chair Alan MacSporran.

The hearing heard the documents contained privileged information and were sent to Logan City Council in October and November 2018.

Eight Logan councillors, including the mayor, were charged with fraud in 2019 forcing the state government to dismiss the entire council.

The charges were dropped two years later on the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The documents included transcripts of WhatsApp phone messages and also legally privileged phone calls between Logan councillors and their lawyers.

The CCC released the documents to Logan council without them being vetted by lawyers and they were delivered following a request to the CCC from Ms Kelsey’s lawyers.

Mr Horton told the hearing the legally protected materials were sent from the CCC to the council in a bid to make them public documents and therefore available to be used in Ms Kelsey’s QIRC civil court case, despite Justice Black’s ruling.

On a number of occasions while cross examining, Mr Horton put it to the CCC chief that the conduct and processes used by the crime watchdog were improper, which Mr MacSporran did not accept.

CCC Chair Alan MacSporran said the commission had a duty to protect those making Public Information Disclosures such as Logan City Council’s former CEO Sharon Kelsey, inset.

Mr MacSporran said he did not believe the CCC had “overreached its statutory powers” by involving itself in Ms Kelsey’s civil court action before the QIRC.

He also maintained his stance that he believed it was not improper for the CCC to seek state government funding for Ms Kelsey, a private litigant in a civil matter.

While accepting his prime purpose for releasing the WhatsApp documents to the council was to help Ms Kelsey in her civil case, he denied it was improper.

In a shock revelation, Mr MacSporran also told the hearing he did not believe Justice Black’s August 2018 QIRC ruling on the documents applied to the CCC, because it was not a party to Ms Kelsey’s civil case.

“Commissioner Black’s ruling on August 24 did not really address the difference between the categories of documents, how they had been obtained and what they were being used for in our investigation,” Mr MacSporran said.

“ … They were all compulsorily obtained so they were totally inadmissable without further analysis and that was the ruling given. While it didn’t bind the CCC, it certainly was not a matter where we would have sought to go out of our way or do anything to subvert the ruling.”

PCCC chair Jon Krause questioned that statement and asked Mr MacSporran that if the Supreme Court had ruled out using the documents as evidence would the CCC have obeyed.

“I said we were not bound because we were not a party to those proceedings,” Mr MacSporran said.

“But I was not meaning to convey that that gave us carte blanche to ignore the ruling.

“We would never do that clearly, and I was not suggesting we could or would.

“What I am saying is we had a proper purpose for doing what we did after the ruling of August 24.”

PCCC chairman Jon Krause questioned CCC chairman Alan MacSporran about abiding by an industrial court ruling.

Mr MacSporran said the CCC had acted properly in releasing the WhatsApp documents because they were relevant to a wider corruption investigation under way at Logan council.
Mr MacSporran also said the documents belonged to Logan City Council and should be kept at the council.

The inquiry also heard from Coomera MP Michael Crandon who claimed that Logan councillors used WhatsApp to hold legitimate conversations while CCC officers used “quick hallway chats”.

“There is a better way of talking that doesn’t leave a trace, and we see it often in these documents, and that is to have a quick chat,” Mr Crandon said.

“The problem is the quick chats aren’t properly documented, notes aren’t taken more often than not.

“It seems like it enables people to say ‘I can’t recall’.”

PCCC member Michael Crandon reviews questions to ask Alan MacSporran on Day 8 of the inquiry into the charging of eight Logan City councillors.

Before the PCCC hearing wrapped up for the day, Mr Horton also pressed Mr MacSporran about the levelling of fraud charges over the former Logan mayor Luke Smith.

Mr MacSporran said there were discussions over laying misconduct in public office charges but decided that fraud charges were a better fit for the seven councillors and mayor.

He said the case was not about an abuse of office and was rather “a case of sheer dishonesty”.

“It was not misusing their position as councillors, it was engaging in dishonest conduct and to that extent it was called fraud rather than a separate office of misconduct in public office.”

The inquiry resumes on Tuesday and will hand down its report on November 30.