Feeding the Chooks: Labor MP’s lawyer wife on Fitzgerald inquiry

Labor MP Jimmy Sullivan at Seventeen Mile Rocks. Picture: Liam Kidston

Annastacia Palaszczuk declared the public needed to have “absolute confidence” in the independence of the inquiry into the besieged Crime and Corruption Commission.

That’s why she lured the rightly venerated Tony Fitzgerald AC QC out of retirement to head the inquiry, along with former Supreme Court judge Alan Wilson QC.

But behind the scenes there has been an interesting appointment in Carolyn McAnally as the inquiry’s “Director of Legal, Policy and Research”.

Hard to detail the former District Court prosecutor’s exact pedigree because her LinkedIn page says little, except that she is the principal legal officer at the Department of Justice and Attorney-General in NSW (she actually hold the position in Qld).

But Chooks is happy to fill in the blanks, starting with the fact that she is married to state Labor MP Jimmy Sullivan.

In Queensland Labor politics and power, the degrees of separation can increasingly be counted in decimal points.

Eyebrows have been raised because the inquiry is about the CCC, its chair Alan MacSporran and the findings of the parliamentary Crime and Corruption Commission.

Sullivan has been close to all of the action.

He was chief of staff to then Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath when MacSporran was appointed CCC chair and was deputy chair of the PCCC when it held hearings into the watchdog and delivered its report recommending the inquiry.

McAnally was appointed to the parole board in 2017 and, according to a bio attached to that announcement, was made an “acting director” in D’Ath’s department in March, 2015 – just after Labor won office.

In response to inquiries from Chooks, the new Fitzgerald Inquiry issued a statement saying that McAnally had “declared a potential conflict of interest” during the recruitment process.

“The commission reviewed the circumstances surrounding the declaration and determined this potential of conflict could be suitable managed,’’ the statement said.

Meanwhile, Sullivan – who occupies the Brisbane seat of Stafford, held by his dad, Terry, in the Beattie Government – was a no show at the last PCCC hearings in mid-March.

On Friday, Sullivan issued a statement saying: “Carolyn is a highly-respected and experienced barrister, prosecutor and public servant and has extensive experience across the breadth of the criminal justice system.

Sullivan said he sought advice from the Integrity Commissioner and Clerk of Parliament – who cleared him of any conflict of interest – but decided to stand down from the PCCC this year ” to remove even the perception of a conflict.

LNP take donations from convicted fraudster

It’s hard to turn your back on a loyal friend, especially when they are lining your pockets.

In 2020, Chooks revealed that the Liberal National Party was happily taking donations from a twice-convicted fraudster, once lauded in parliament by federal minister Stuart Robert.

Eddy Andrews, convicted of fraud in Victoria and Queensland and who more recently ran a charity stripped of its registration by regulators, gave almost $60,000 in 32 donations to the LNP in the months before the 2020 state election.

At the time, party officials washed their hands of any personal knowledge of Andrews, who was seen on TV footage mingling among the few invitees to the Covid-restricted LNP election night party.

Chooks was told that the LNP would look into the donor, with the clear implication his money was no longer any good.

But once the spotlight faded, the donations from Andrews’ consultancy – the Illira Group – have begun to pour back into the party’s coffers.

In the past year, Andrews has donated $29,400 to the LNP.

He couldn’t be contacted but Andrews, who pleaded guilty for a charity-related fraud in 2011 in Qld and was sentenced to two years jail, had said about his donations in 2020 that “everything is straight down the line”.

Dam lies

Imagine receiving 13 calls from an irate Bob Katter accusing you of lying to him about his favourite dam project.

That’s the scene painted by Katter’s LNP challenger for the north Queensland seat of Kennedy, Bryce Macdonald, who reckons the maverick MP may have dialled the wrong number when trying to call Scott Morrison.

Katter said he’d called Morrison 13 times on Wednesday to raise his concerns about the design of the $5.4 billion Hells Gates dam but had not received a return call from the PM.

“I spoke to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce this morning and he said he had spent much of the day with the Prime Minister and knew nothing about missed calls from Bob, so it is possible that some poor person out there has 13 voicemails from someone raving about a dam,” Macdonald said.

Bob Katter has threatened to ‘flex his powers’.

The Chooks checked in with Katter’s office to see whether the boss did in fact have the right number and we were told he had made 13 calls to Morrison’s most senior staff, not the PM himself.

Tully-based cane farmer Macdonald has seized on Katter’s threat to keep his options open in the event of a hung parliament to warn voters that their man in Canberra could deliver power to Anthony Albanese.

Katter was apoplectic on Wednesday when it was revealed that the $5.4 billion committed by Scott Morrison to build Hells Gates dam would not contribute to the development of his beloved Bradfield scheme.

Katter said he had been betrayed by Morrison and Joyce and said he’d be “considering all my options” in the event of a hung parliament.

Macdonald said the mostly conservative Kennedy electorate would be nervous about Katter’s reaction.

“He of all people should know the north will get nothing under a Labor-Greens Government so it’s concerning that he’s threatening to back them over the Coalition,” Macdonald said. 

Meeting about a business, but it’s not a ‘business meeting’

Palaszczuk must have been wondering whether taxpayers got bang for their buck when asked about the latest lobbyist-related issue with her government.

It was revealed this week that one of her fav lobbyist firms – Anacta – got a contract, which didn’t go to tender, to help a government – owned business “engage” with government.

Evan Moorhead’s lobbying firm Anacta has close ties to Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government. Picture: Annette Dew

State-owned renewables CleanCo is paying an undisclosed amount to Anacta and its new recruit Denise Spinks – who, until September, was Palaszczuk’s deputy chief-of-staff.

Anacta’s boss, lobbyist Evan Moorhead, is also a former staffer of Palaszczuk’s and ran her re-election campaign in 2020 from her office.

Chooks revealed that Spinks got a meeting with Energy minister Mick de Brenni, one of CleanCo’s shareholder ministers, on February 16 – a day after Anacta dropped $35,000 to Labor in a donation.

Palaszczuk brushed-off questions about a government entity paying for advice on how to talk to government, but was more direct when asked about the meeting.

“I am advised it was not a business meeting,’’ she told reporters.

Southern discomfort 

Feathers have been ruffled over the Liberal National Party’s appointment of another southerner as state party deputy.

Sunshine Coast-based MP Jarrod Bleijie was elected unopposed by his peers last week after David Janetzki stood down.

Former Thuringowa LNP MP Sam Cox (2012-2015), who quit the party and has run for One Nation and Katter’s Australian Party, said it was another case of the LNP abandoning its Nationals’ roots and focusing on the state’s southeast.

Jarrod Bleijie during his first question time as Deputy Opposition Leader. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tertius Pickard

“The opposition leader in Queensland, LNP’s blue blood Liberal, just finally signed off the Nationals in Queensland by putting his new Liberal mate in as 2IC,” Cox said.

“Obviously not one regional Nationals MP is worthy, especially any of the women.

“Think about the statement he made.

“All the grease has finally washed off to reveal what the LNP has finally become.”

The only flaw in Cox’s logic is that no one from the north put their hand up to be deputy.

The party’s most northerly based MP, Dale Last, had been rumoured as a potential candidate, after an unsuccessful run against Janetzki, but only Bleijie put his hand up.

It’s possible that Last saw the numbers were against him, but, as they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it. 

D’Ath gets trolled

Dozens of people have trolled the state’s Health Minister Yvette D’Ath over her refusal to order an investigation into the state-run forensics laboratory following disturbing evidence of its failures to detect DNA in rape and sexual assault cases.

In a Facebook post last week, D’Ath asked her followers what they had planned for their weekend. She was likely not expecting the flood of comments from listeners of The Australian’s investigative podcast series Shandee’s Story.

In the podcast, about the murder of Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn, journalist Hedley Thomas uncovered flawed practices in the lab which a leading forensic scientist says is impeding police ­investigations, misleading the courts and denying victims justice.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Liam Kidston

In response to D’Ath’s question about weekend plans, most of the 159 commenters said they would be listening to Shandee’s Story.

“Listening to Shandee’s Story podcast despite being utterly disappointed in the lack of action by this government to investigate the reported failings in the testing procedures utilities at the Qld forensics lab,” one person wrote.

Another planned to organise a royal commission into testing. “Want to join Minister?” they asked.

Ed Burn asked the Minister for an update on what is happening at the lan and “reassure the public you are looking into what has happened”.

In response, Shandee’s sister Shannah Blackburn wrote: “Ed Burn yes! Well said”.

Ms D’Ath did not reply to the commenters.

Covid curse

There’s talk in George St that the Leader of the House position has been cursed.

Not really, but it is an unfortunate coincidence that Stirling Hinchliffe became the latest cabinet minister to come down with a case of Covid just a week after filling the shoes of Yvette D’Ath.

D’Ath, the regular Leader of the House, missed the last sitting of parliament because she was infected with the virus, leaving Hinchliffe to take her seat.

Hinchliffe is on the mend and only suffered “minor symptoms”.