Queensland watchdog reports ‘should stay secret’

Queensland’s Labor government has been urged to oppose demands for immediate law changes that would allow the release of a secret report into Jackie Trad and the state’s public service.

Former Queensland deputy premier Jackie Trad. Picture: AAP

A former Goss government ­minister has urged Queensland’s Labor government to oppose demands from the state’s corruption watchdog for immediate law changes that would allow the release of a secret report into Jackie Trad and the alleged politicisation of the state’s public service.

A 2021 report by the Crime and Corruption Commission into Ms Trad, the state’s former deputy premier and treasurer, ­remains secret after a High Court decision muzzled the watchdog from publicly reporting on most of its investigations into ­politicians and public servants.

CCC boss Bruce Barbour wrote to the government in September seeking urgent legislative amendments, warning the “inability to report on matters uncovered in such investigations reduces transparency and is clearly not in the public interest”.

The government has so far refused to commit to the demands of the CCC.

In a rare submission to a parliamentary inquiry, Glen Milliner, who served as Wayne Goss’s justice minister from 1989 to 1992, warned against law changes that would enable the publication of CCC reports on ­ individuals who were not charged with a crime.

“I urge the committee to reject those sections of the bill that would overturn such an important protection to Queenslanders found to be innocent of any act of corruption,” he wrote.

“As you would be aware parliaments are loathe to pass retrospective legislation. This is rarely done and should only be considered in extreme ­circumstances. This is certainly not an occasion where this should occur.”

The Trad report, finalised in early 2021, stemmed from an investigation into the 2019 appointment of her under treasurer, Frankie Carroll, but was widened into a probe of recruitment across the ­bureaucracy since Labor came to power under Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2015.

It is understood the report did not recommend any charges against Ms Trad, who has denied wrongdoing, but was scathing about the politicisation of senior ranks of the public service.

A separate report into former public trustee Peter Carne, a Labor identity and former law partner of Goss, was suppressed by the High Court decision in September.

Mr Carne resigned as public trustee in 2020 after he was issued a show-cause notice asking why he should not be sacked for ­serious allegations including being intoxicated at work, absent without leave, conflicts of interest and bullying of staff.

The CCC did not pursue any criminal charges against Mr Carne, but compiled a report into alleged misconduct and sent it to its parliamentary oversight committee. If reports into Ms Trad and Mr Carne had been tabled in parliament, they would have been protected by parliamentary privilege and therefore immune to legal challenge, including for defamation.

The CCC declined to comment, but Mr Barbour has previously said law changes needed to be retrospective to allow for the release of reports into Ms Trad, Mr Carne and “potentially other elements that we would like to also raise publicly”.

“I hold the view that any issue arising from an investigation, whether it be reports that have ­already been prepared or other things that we have not been able to report on during the period that this litigation has been running, we should be in a position to be able to report on,” Mr Barbour told a parliamentary committee last year.

A Miles government spokesman said it was “committed to finding a path through what is a complex legal issue”.

A parliamentary committee examining the proposed laws will make recommendations in April.