Ex-Logan councillors welcome CCC review but say ‘it’s too little, too late’
Logan councillors, embroiled in legal battles over CCC actions, say recent reform recommendations for the state’s crime watchdog are a case of too little, too late.
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Former Logan councillors who are suing the state for millions over failed fraud charges laid by the Crime and Corruption Commission say this week’s recommendations to overhaul it are “too little, too late”.
Phil Pidgeon, who is suing for damages after a failed CCC fraud inquiry into Logan council, said the recommendations should be designed to guarantee natural justice, not muzzle the powers of the crime watchdog.
In her report handed down this week, former Chief Justice Catherine Holmes recommended that elected officials “may be the subject of a report even if corruption allegations are not proven, provided the report is purely factual and in the public interest”.
However, she also recommended that any CCC reports on politicians would have to be in the public interest, factual and contain “no critical commentary or expression of opinion concerning them”.
The report also said it would be a matter for the CCC on how it chose to “operationalise” the new reporting model, which would apply to all previous CCC reports and statements.
Mr Pidgeon said the 462-page report highlighted the Crime and Corruption Commission’s “fatal flaws”, which he said had already been pointed out in two previous high-level inquiries.
A PCCC investigation into the CCC was held in 2021 and findings from the Fitzgerald 2.0 Commission of Inquiry by Tony Fitzgerald were made public in 2022.
Mr Pidgeon said he wanted the CCC to be fully transparent and agreed that elected politicians should be subjected to public scrutiny based on fact.
“Give the crime watchdog its teeth but do not allow it to be arrogant and disrespectful or make defamatory remarks about elected officials – that’s all we are asking,” Mr Pidgeon said.
“These recommendations are still just words on paper – how much longer do we have to wait for proper laws to govern this body – we have already had more than five years of sheer hell.
“There have now been three inquiries and reports but still nothing has been done to finally bring this powerful body into line.
“We lost our jobs because of wrongful CCC fraud charges which should never have been laid and were eventually dropped two years later after the damage to our reputations was completed.”
Mr Pidgeon said that both the PCCC inquiry and the Commission of Inquiry found that CCC officers had tried to deliver to Logan City Council information obtained by coercion so that the material could then be accessed legally by a third party to be used in a civil court case.
“The CCC was so arrogant and disrespectful that it ignored a court order about this information – and that is just one instance of the body taking the law into its own hands regardless of the implications.”
Former Logan councillor Trevina Schwarz, who is also suing the state over the failed CCC inquiry into the Logan council, said the CCC should be able to make public announcements and statements of fact about elected officials and individuals.
However, in a submission to a parliamentary committee investigating the proposed CCC legislation in April, Ms Schwarz referred to “an unusual public announcement” made by the then CCC chairman Alan MacSporran in April, 2019.
Ms Schwarz’s public submission, published on the parliamentary website, said Mr MacSporran, in his capacity as a speaker at a conference, had “made personal, gross, defamatory and slanderous comments” directly about the seven former Logan councillors.
“I understand and agree there needs to be well considered protections for persons making public interest disclosures, however just as imperatively there is also an equal need to ensure those accusations are founded, have merit, and are with truth,” Ms Schwarz’s submission said.
“Just because one identifies themselves as a whistleblower does not mean the accusations are with validity and truth.
“I await for those to be held accountable and the CCC and state government to provide a meaningful apology to the ‘Logan Seven’ and I am in hope that the serious stark failures of the CCC are never repeated.”
The state government has said it would “swiftly” adopt all 16 recommendations in the report.
In a statement this week, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said there was a definite public interest in the CCC being able to report on corruption matters which was “vital” for the transparency and accountability of democratic institutions.
“Public reporting cannot occur at the expense of due process and proper regard to individual rights. Respect for these values is equally important,” she said.
“As Ms Holmes stated, her recommendations are designed to present ‘a workable regime which balances the considerations of human rights protection and the desirability of public sector transparency and accountability.”
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said he wanted a “situation” where the watchdog could do its job.
“If you believe in transparency in a unicameral parliament, you need those institutions of government to work,” he told media on Friday.
“You can’t muzzle your watchdogs and expect democracy to thrive.”
An LNP spokesman said the party wanted stance on CCC reforms would be debated when legislation came to parliament in August.
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Originally published as Ex-Logan councillors welcome CCC review but say ‘it’s too little, too late’
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