Queensland corruption watchdog blasts parliament boss

The head of Queensland’s corruption watchdog has accused parliament’s most senior officer of being ‘mischievous’ in his assessment of the organisation.

CCC chairman Alan MacSporran has slammed the clerk of parliament. Picture: Liam Kidston

The head of Queensland’s corruption watchdog has accused parliament’s most senior officer of being “mischievous” and “completely wrong” in his assessment of the organisation.

During a parliamentary hearing on Friday, Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Alan MacSporran took exception to statements made by the clerk of the parliament, Neil Laurie, about a review of the organisation.

“The (clerk) wants to say in a cavalier way, quite frankly and quite wrongly, but mischievously to our detriment, that we are somehow trying to cover up and be less than transparent about our activities,” Mr MacSporran said.

Told it was “quite a statement to make about an officer of the parliament”, Mr MacSporran continued his criticism.

“Well the officer of parliament has taken it upon himself to furnish you, in evidence here today, about matters that I would say he is completely wrong about,” he said.

Mr MacSporran said he had sought a formal right of reply to Mr Laurie’s criticism.

In the submission tabled last week and in a hearing before the committee on Friday morning, Mr Laurie made a number of criticisms of the CCC, including that the organisation needed to be more transparent.

He said his “strongest criticism” was reserved for the CCC’s outsourcing of investigations, ­increasing use of closed coercive hearings, increasing calls to ­restrict public commentary on CCC complaints and failure to issue public reports on significant investigations.

During the hearing on Friday, Mr MacSporran was also grilled about the CCC’s decision-making process regarding the charging of seven Logan councillors, who were accused of fraud for their role in sacking the then chief executive officer Sharon Kelsey.

The CCC alleged her dismissal had been influenced by Ms ­Kelsey making a public-interest disclosure about alleged corruption by former Logan mayor Luke Smith, with whom they were politically aligned.

Mr Smith was also charged over Ms Kelsey’s dismissal and is facing separate corruption and perjury charges. The fraud charges were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions last month, two years after they were laid.

The charges destroyed the political careers of the councillors and led to the entire council, which could not form a quorum, being dismissed.

Mr MacSporran maintained he and his organisation had acted professionally throughout the ­investigation. He said police officers working on the investigation were “very upset” that the charges were withdrawn.

The dropping of the charges led to calls for Mr MacSporran to be stood down from his role while an independent investigation was conducted into the CCC’s decision to charge the councillors. He has refused to stand down, saying he had followed proper procedures.

Local Government Association of Queensland chief executive Greg Hallam has criticised the CCC for becoming involved in an “industrial dispute”.

Mr MacSporran said that did not preclude the CCC from conducting its own investigation.

He also said the CCC had carefully considered whether it should lay the charges before the QIRC hearing had finished and decided to press ahead.