Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk backflips on corruption probe press gag

The Queensland government backflips on banning media from reporting on MP complaints and probes ahead of election.

Annastacia Palaszczuk's government has backflipped this morning on controversial media gag legislation. Picture: Dan Peled

The Palaszczuk government has backflipped on its controversial laws that would have gagged journalists from reporting corruption complaints in the lead up to the knife-edge October 31 election.

After widespread criticism of the surprise legislation from media groups, lawyers and civil libertarians, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the bill would be withdrawn less than 24 hours after it was introduced on Thursday.

The bill had been introduced at the recommendation of the Crime and Corruption Commission and would have passed at the next sitting of parliament in September.

“The government respects the recommendations of the CCC,” Ms D’Ath said in a statement.

“However, given the limited time for the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee to consider the law changes the CCC seeks, the CCC Bill introduced yesterday in State Parliament is withdrawn.”

Bill withdrawn

After high-profile corruption investigations this year into its top ranks — including former deputy premier Jackie Trad and Annastacia Palaszczuk’s former chief-of-staff David Barbagallo — the now-withdrawn bill threatened a possible six-month jail term over publication of complaints to the state’s corruption watchdog during the election campaign.

Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath had introduced the legislation — opposed by media companies, the journalists’ union and the Liberal­ National Party opposition — on Thursday, saying the new laws targeted the politicisation of “baseless” claims being made to the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The move came less than three months before the knife-edge election and, if it had passed in September, would have been among the country’s toughest restrictions on media reporting in an election.

Labor opposed similar laws proposed by the LNP government in 2012 after former premier Anna Bligh publicly referred alleg­ations against Campbell Newman to the watchdog during the campaign.

It was the second raft of election-related legislation this year, after the government introduced donatio­n and campaign spending caps that the opposition labelled a “fin­ancial gerrymander”.

The surprise move came a month after Ms Trad — who resigned from cabinet when the CCC told her she was under investigation — was cleared of corrupt conduct over her role in the appointment of a principal at a school in her electorate.

The investigation was critical of her intervention and found a worrying public service culture.

In his report, CCC chairman Alan MacSporran also criticised the role of the media in the matter, saying the public airing of the allegations had unfairly damaged the reputations of those involved.

In parliament, on Thursday Ms D’Ath said the legislation had been recommended by the watchdog and would prevent the election being “hijacked by the publication of baseless allegations” designed to damage reputations.

“Queenslanders have the right to be fully and reliably informed in relation to relevant matters as they head to the polls, not distracted by publication of fanciful allegations and complaints,” she said.

State opposition legal affairs spokesman David Janetzki said the legislation was an attempt by the government to cover up its “integrity scandals”.

“In the last five years, we’ve seen a cong(a)-line of Palaszczuk ministers reprimanded by the state’s corruption watchdog, including­ Jackie Trad and Mark Bailey, who were both under corruption investigations,” he said.

“This is another attempt by Annastacia Palaszczuk to cover up her government’s appalling integrit­y record and silence whistleblowers.”

Media groups fought gag attempt

An alliance of media groups under the Australia’s Right To Know banner argued that the ability to make public allegations of corrupt conduct by public officials served the public’s interest.

“Gagging reporting of corruption at any time, and particularly before elections, unjustifiably undermines­ the Queensland and Australian public’s right to know about how the state of Queensland is, and could be, governed and administered,” an ARTK spokesperson said.

Media lawyer Sophie Robertson said the laws threatened press freedom. “(The) freedoms of pol­itical communication are potentially being contravened with the proposed amendments,” she said.

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance Queensland director Michelle Rae said the amendments were “utterly inconsistent with the free exchange of inform­ation … The change will undoubtedly restrain reporting on allegations of substance and MEAA members are simply trying to do their job.

“Queensland is one of the only states that doesn’t afford protections to journalists doing their job, and now wants to attack them further for reporting on the government,” Ms Rae said.

Veteran lawyer and civil libert­arian Terry O’Gorman said he was previously against similar proposed laws, but had changed his view in the past five years after seeing a mountain of public referrals. “I think there is a compelling­ reason for the law to be changed to stop politicians from using the CCC as a plaything during an election,” he said.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that a Queensland television journalist would be forced to give up his ­secret police sources in star chamber-like hearings after losing a court battle against the CCC. Despite the threat of a five-year jail term, he had refused to reveal his source, and applied to a judge for an injunction on the hearing.