Court rules CCC report into Public Trustee must stay secret

The former Public Trustee has won his fight to keep secret a CCC report which details allegations of misconduct during his time in office.

Former Queensland Public Trustee Peter Carne has won an appeal to keep secret a Crime and Corruption Commission report which details allegations of misconduct during his time in office.

Mr Carne won his appeal in the Supreme Court on Friday to prevent the report being tabled in the Queensland parliament.

The state’s corruption watchdog had finalised its inquiry into allegations office of the Public Trustee resources were misused to fund Mr Carne’s personal study.

The CCC’s report had been delivered to the parliamentary crime and corruption committee, which set in motion its tabling in the Legislative Assembly.

However, Mr Carne argued publication of the report – which would be immune from legal challenge due to its tabling in parliament – would breach his human rights and claimed he had been denied procedural fairness.

Peter Carne

Mr Carne’s lawyers argued the report did not find Mr Carne committed corruption, but detailed the allegations against him.

On Friday morning the court ruled two-to-one the report should not be published, with Justice Philip McMurdo and Appeal Court President Justice Debra Mullins allowing the appeal and Justice Paul Freeburn dissenting, saying it should be dismissed.

Justices McMurdo and Mullins argued the report should not confer parliamentary privilege while Justice Freeburn argued it should be a matter for the “arm of parliament” to determine.

Mr Carne’s application to stop the CCC report into allegations of corrupt conduct from being made public was dismissed by Supreme Court Justice Peter Davis in September, last year.

The Commission had asked the PCCC to direct that the report into its investigation be given to the Speaker of Queensland Parliament.

Justice Davis found the CCC would have to provide the report to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly if the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee directed it to do so.

He also found the report would be protected by parliamentary privilege.

Mr Carne appealed that decision and on Friday Justices McMurdo and Mullins allowed Mr Carne’s appeal and set aside Justice Davis’s order.

The Court of Appeal ordered that the CCC document “An investigation into allegations relating to the former Public Trustee of Queensland: Investigation Report” was not a report to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

“It is not a report which has been made by the Commission in the performance of any of its statutory functions,” the appeal court decision said.

As the Commission’s corruption function had been performed, it was not empowered or required by any provision of the Crime and Corruption Act to make the report, the decision said.

“Consequently, this report could not be the subject of parliamentary privilege,” Justice McMurdo and Justice Mullins said.

They said the CCC had misconceived its functions and the report was beyond its power to report.

In a dissenting decision, Justice Freeburn said Mr Carne’s appeal should be dismissed.

“It is not this court’s role to either enjoin the Commission from submitting the report to the PCCC or to enjoin the PCCC from deciding to direct that the report be given to the Speaker,” he wrote.

It is yet to be seen whether or not the matter might have implications for a similar case involving Jackie Trad.

The former deputy premier is fighting the CCC to prevent its report into her involvement in the appointment of Frankie Carroll as under treasurer being publicly released.

Shadow Attorney-General Tim Nicholls called for the CCC to lodge an appeal, warning it would “set an important principal for transparency in this state”.