Queensland Government withdraws controversial legislation
In a stunning about-face, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath has announced that the Palaszczuk Government was withdrawing controversial laws that would have jailed journalists reporting on corruption allegations.
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The Palaszczuk Government has performed a stunning about-face and withdrawn controversial laws that would have jailed journalists reporting on corruption allegations.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath made the shock announcement Friday morning after an avalanche of criticism on Thursday.
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“The government respects the recommendations of the CCC,” she 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Affairs Committee to consider the law changes the CCC seeks, the CCC Bill introduced yesterday in State Parliament is withdrawn.”
It follows a barrage of criticism, including from journalism professor Peter Greste, that slammed the laws as infringing on democracy.
Following the backflip, Professor Greste, who spent 400 days in an Egyptian prison on terrorism charges for his reporting on the Muslim Brotherhood opposition, said it was clear that the government had recognised that the now scrapped changes were “unwise and unpopular”.
He welcomed the government’s decision and said they should promise to never introduce such laws in the future.
“I think as much as anything, because of the haste with which they were trying to ram it through, it wasn’t a good look at all,” Professor Greste said.
“I think they should recognise that this was always a bad idea.”
Professor Greste, who is a spokesman for the Alliance for Journalists Freedom, said he had not come across any journalist or lawyer who thought it was a good idea.
“Everybody was aghast at the legislation,” he said. “The condemnation was fairly universal.
“If they (the government) were surprised (by the criticism), then I think they were being naive.”
Under the now withdrawn proposal, the Government had wanted to make it illegal to publish corruption allegations levelled against candidates for state and local government elections.
The offence carried a $6672 fine or a six-month jail term.
Members of the public yesterday took aim at the proposal, claiming democracy was “dead” and slamming it as a “disgusting attack on the free press”.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander said you could only wonder that there was an impending scandal.
He said there was no doubt it was withdrawn because of the media backlash in the last 24 hours.
Mr Mander said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk needed to explain “this abuse of power attempt“ by her government.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk also needs to explain why they even attempted to crush the freedom of the press,” he said.
“It only raises questions about what they’re trying to hide and of course this government has been plagued with integrity scandal after integrity scandal.“
He called on the Government to guarantee the same law would not be introduced again should Labor win the October election.
“You can only wonder that there’s some pending scandal that they’re concerned about and they’re trying to hide from the press,” he said.
Mr Mander described the Attorney-General’s explanation this morning as to why the law was being withdrawn as nonsense.
The Local Government Association of Queensland has called on the Government to amend the laws to protect journalists.
CEO Greg Hallam said councils did not support provisions criminalising free press, but did back the introduction of penalties to stop complainants publicising their complaints to damage someone’s reputation.
He said rather than withdrawing the Bill, councils believed it should be amended to protect journalists and then passed.
“The focus of the Bill should be on providing a disincentive to those who make baseless complaints to the CCC during election campaigns in order to denigrate their political opponents,” he said.
“The CCC’s figures show complaints regularly spike in the months leading up to the council elections, jumping from an average of 12 per month to 27 per month the 12 months leading up to polling day, with just 6 per cent of those allegations substantiated.
“By the time the CCC is able to assess and dismiss the baseless allegations, the damage to the elected members who were the subject of those complaints – and the institution of local government – has already been done.”
Meanwhile Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter says he’s on guard to block any future attempts by Labor to reintroduce its “outrageous plan”.
“They’ve tested the waters with this controversial legislation and backed down but I’m going to be on guard – they might try to push this again in the future,” he said.
“What does Labor know that we don’t and what are they afraid will be revealed?”
Originally published as Queensland Government withdraws controversial legislation