Steven Miles accused of ‘silencing ‘ Crime and Corruption Commission ahead of election after laws delay
Steven Miles has been condemned after a promised overhaul of Queensland’s anti-corruption watchdog was shelved until after the election.
Premier Steven Miles’s promised overhaul of Queensland’s anti-corruption watchdog has been postponed until after the October election, with the state opposition blasting the delay as a deliberate attempt to muzzle the Crime and Corruption Commission until voters head to the polls.
Controversial draft laws clarifying how the CCC can report on its investigations into politicians and public servants were due to be introduced to state parliament next week, but Mr Miles confirmed legislation was delayed and unlikely to pass before caretaker period began in October.
The Liberal National Party last October introduced a Private Members Bill to give the CCC the powers it asked for which justice spokesman Tim Nicholls said could be passed next week.
“Steven Miles must explain to Queenslanders why he is silencing the corruption watchdog in the lead-up to the election,” he said.
“It’s shocking the Premier would be so desperate to keep Queenslanders in the dark on corruption under Labor that he will now keep the corruption watchdog muzzled until after Queenslanders vote.”
Mark Le Grand, who spent 10 years as chief investigator at the then-Criminal Justice Commission in the wake of the 1989 Fitzgerald inquiry, told The Australian there was no point having a standing royal commission if it could not report on its investigations.
“This decision has the appearance of a cynical move to effectively muzzle the CCC prior to the election,” he said.
“The CCC was created to investigate and report on the occurrence of corrupt activities within the public sector and not being able to report on those investigations denies the public the information about possible corrupt activity within the government.”
Last September, CCC chair Bruce Barbour called for urgent law changes to give the watchdog “robust reporting provisions” following a landmark High Court decision that prevented it from publicly reporting on most of its investigations.
The state Labor government stalled for months on acting on the CCC’s request with Mr Miles in February commissioning a review by former chief justice Catherine Holmes.
In May, Ms Holmes recommended the watchdog be banned from making “critical commentary” about politicians who are not convicted of a crime.
Under the reforms, investigative reports into public servants would not be published unless the person had been found guilty by a court, sacked or had a “disciplinary declaration” made against them under the Public Sector Act.
If an investigation uncovered evidence of systemic corruption, the CCC would be prohibited from identifying individuals unless “reasonably necessary” or if they had already been named at a public hearing.
The CCC declined to comment on Tuesday, but referred The Australian to Mr Barbour’s comments at a recent parliamentary hearing at which he criticised the government for its “frustrating” legislative delays.
“I think it is frustrating beyond just the CCC. I think it is frustrating to parliament. I think it is frustrating to the Queensland community. I think it is not in the public interest,” Mr Barbour told the hearing in late July.
“I think there could have been a far speedier resolution to the matter than what there has been. Certainly our concerns about the process and our concerns about recommendations that have been made in the review by the former chief justice, Justice Holmes, have been made clearly to the Attorney.”
Mr Miles said draft laws would not be ready for next week’s sitting of parliament because of “ongoing discussions” with the CCC.
“We will introduce them just as soon as we have finalised drafting, whether that is this sitting or the next one. I can’t control it,” he said.
Last year’s High Court decision has blocked the release of secret reports into former deputy premier Jackie Trad, former public trustee Peter Carne and may suppress the release of the CCC’s investigation into scientists who oversaw disastrous testing practices at Queensland’s DNA laboratory.
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