Search starts for new head of revamped CMC

THE Newman government will launch a global search for a new head of a revamped corruption watchdog.

THE Newman government will launch a global search for a new head of a revamped corruption watchdog, with its controversial acting Crime and Misconduct Commission chairman still unsure if he has a job at the end of the month.

Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said yesterday that the government would launch a recruitment drive after the passage of controversial legislation removing the need for bipartisan support for the appointment of the watchdog’s chairman or commissioners.

But the government backed down on its push to refocus the state’s post-Fitzgerald Inquiry watchdog on serious crime, rather than official corruption, in legislation that sailed through the parliament.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission will be renamed the Crime and Corruption Commission, under changes that drew condemnation from lawyers and anti-corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald.

Mr Bleijie, who had wanted to shift the primary focus of the watchdog from corruption to combating serious crime, introduced 11th-hour amendments to put both on an equal footing for investigation.

He also followed the recommendations of the Liberal National Party parliamentary committee, which reviewed the initial legislation, by giving veto power on any CCC appointments to the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee.

The PCMC is always stacked with government MPs.

The legislation also paved the way for an extension of acting chairman Ken Levy’s tenure at the CMC, which is supposed to end on May 22. A CMC spokesman confirmed that Dr Levy had yet to be told if he would be asked to stay on.

Dr Levy is facing a parliamentary probe as to whether he misled parliament last year after he consulted Newman government advisers before publicly backing a crackdown on bikies.