Former judge Doug Drummond says criticism of politicians is ‘warranted’ in some cases

A former Queensland CCC boss believes the watchdog should have the power to criticise politicians and senior public servants when their behaviour falls ‘far short” of the public’s integrity expectations.

Doug Drummond was special prosecutor at the Fitzgerald inquiry.

The former head of Queensland’s anti-corruption commission believes the watchdog should have the power to criticise politicians and senior public servants when their behaviour falls “far short” of the public’s expectations.

Under proposed state laws, the Crime and Corruption Commission would be banned from making critical commentary of, or ex­press­ing opinions about, poli­ticians it investigates if they have not been convicted by a court.

Investigative reports into public servants would not be published unless the person had been found guilty by a court, fired or had a “disciplinary declaration” made against them under the Public Sector Act.

Doug Drummond, who led the prosecution of Queensland’s corrupt police chief Terry Lewis and dozens of others after the 1989 Fitzgerald inquiry before serving as the watchdog’s chief in the early 2000s and later as a federal court judge, said publishing criticisms was justified in some circumstances.

“There is a real debate about whether corruption commissions should publish criticisms that may destroy people’s careers when they have never faced court but politicians themselves have shown they think they fall short of the proper standards of integrity without being prosecuted,” he told The Australian.

“There is conduct that so damages the public belief in the integrity of elected and appointed public officials that some exposure in some cases is warranted. Not involving a criminal prosecution may still be un­acceptable publicly.”

Mr Drummond pointed to investigation findings into former Victorian Labor minister Adem Somyurek and former Queensland ALP state secretary Mike Kaiser as examples of when critical reports should be made public.

Now the state’s top public servant as head of Premier Steven Miles’s department, Mr Kaiser was forced to quit state parliament in 2001 over a branch-stacking scandal after an inquiry found evidence he had signed a false enrolment form as a university student in 1986.

Laws to overhaul the CCC’s reporting powers are expected to be introduced to parliament before the October state election and will be drafted around 16 recommendations made by former Queensland chief justice Catherine Holmes.

Premier Steven Miles said Ms Holmes was one of the state’s most respected legal experts and he stood behind her recommendations. “I think she has done a very good job of what we asked her to do … this will enhance the transparency of my government, it will give the CCC reporting powers it currently doesn’t have.”

The state opposition dis­agrees, Liberal National Party justice spokesman Tim Nicholls saying the new rules could “sanitise” reports to such an extent that they would become meaningless.

Criminologist Mark Lauchs, a former long-serving state government bureaucrat and now senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, said the public deserved to know when governments were inept, not just criminal.

“When there is a scandal, often it turns out to be incompetence rather than corruption, but under these rules, the CCC may not be able to report on that,” Associate Professor Lauchs said.

Griffith public policy and law professor AJ Brown said the proposed legislation could “defang” the corruption watchdog.