Trashing Fitzgerald's legacy

Queensland's Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee sacked by Newman government ... Democratic institutions threatened ... Was the head of the Crime & Misconduct Commission pressured to publicly support the government's bikie laws? ... Irreconcilable evidence ... From Stephen Keim and Alex McKean    

Tony Fitzgerald presents his corruption report to the Queensland premier Mike Ahern

In the late non-eighties, the report of an inquiry appointed by the then acting National Party premier Bill Gunn transformed Queensland politics.

Corrupt politicians and corrupt police officers had bedeviled Queensland for decades. The report of Tony Fitzgerald QC uncovered the corruption and set down a template for reform to protect the Queensland polity from such matters in the future.

In recent times, Fitzgerald has made not one but two of his rare ventures into the spotlight to draw attention to the effect of recent government legislation on the principles that underlay his report and which protect effective democratic processes from the inroads of self-indulgent and short sighted politicians. 

The contempt shown for independent institutions by the government may yet be more destructive than the legislation that is being rammed through parliament.  

In an unprecedented measure to gag further investigation into the activities of Dr Ken Levy, the acting head of the Crime and Misconduct Commission, the government has sacked the entire Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee.

Dr Levy is also a former director general of the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General. 

Newman - sacking of the PCMC as it dug for the truth

The PCMC had just heard revelations from Lee Anderson, senior media adviser to the government, which directly contradicted evidence given by Levy.

Before the PCMC could recall Levy to put the inconsistencies to him, the government sacked the entire membership of the PCMC.

The PCMC is one of the few checks on the power of the government in Queensland, where there is no Upper House. It has the role of overseeing the activities of the CMC and it is a key part of the Fitzgerald reforms architecture. 

The PCMC had been investigating whether Dr Levy had mislead the PCMC when he answered a question put to him by the Opposition leader on November 1, 2013 about an opinion piece authored by Levy, which appeared in the Courier-Mail on October 31, 2013. 

That article supported the legislative regime introduced by the government, purportedly to curtail the activities of bikies. In it, Levy said:

"The Attorney General and the Premier – with support of the Queensland Government – are taking the strong action that is required." 

On November 1 Levy appeared before the PCMC. The Opposition Leader, Annastacia Palaszczuk, asked him if he had any discussions with "anyone from the government" before he submitted the article to the Courier Mail.

Levy denied that suggestion.

Three days later, on November 4, Levy called the chair of the PCMC and said he may have made an error in his answer. 

Levy - evidence contradicted by government spinner

This was followed by a letter he sent to the PCMC, which said he had been contacted by the senior media adviser, Lee Anderson, prior to the article being submitted to the Courier-Mail.

He did not disclosure of any other contact that may have been relevant to issue.

On November 13, Levy again appeared before the PCMC.

On that occasion, he said when the error was first brought to his attention he still did not recall the contact with Anderson. He added that he felt guilty about it and thought about clearing out his drawers and leaving.

Levy explained the initial contact from Anderson had been on October 21, nine days prior to his being asked the question by the Opposition Leader.

He agreed that Anderson's contact with the CMC was a "unique event" and he could not recall a precedent.

Levy agreed that the usual protocol would be for Anderson to make an approach to the attorney general's department, which oversees the CMC.

Levy recalled a meeting had taken place with two officers of the CMC media unit and another commissioner, soon after the call from Anderson. A response dismissing the request was formulated.

The acting CMC head categorically denied that the premier or anyone from his office asked him to write an article.

Journalist Des Houghton - government wanted him to interview CMC boss

He further denied that anybody else had made any contribution to the article, tried to tell him what to write, or to influence him in any way to write the article.

When asked why he decided to approach a particular journalist, Des Houghton from the Courier-Mail, Levy initially said he had Googled Houghton and seen he had written about criminal motorcycle gangs. 

Under further questioning, Levy revealed he had sought a recommendation from Anderson about which journalist he should approach.

Nothing of this further communication was discussed in Levy's letter admitting to the initial error.

Levy continued to deny that he and Anderson had ever discussed the content of the article. He said the telephone call to ask Anderson about Houghton was the only other contact they had. 

An article by Houghton based on an interview with Levy was published in the Courier-Mail on October 30. 

Levy admitted he had not been critical of the government during his time as Acting Head of the CMC and raised the concern that there was a risk the government would "get rid of the CMC" if he did so.

On November 18, two days before the PCMC was sacked en-masse, it heard evidence from Anderson.

He told the parliamentary committee that the premier and attorney general wanted the CMC to make comments in the media to reinforce the message that bikies were a serious menace to society. 

Anderson referred to a conversation with Brigadier Bill Mellor, who had been appointed by the premier to manage a whole-of-government approach to the menace of bikies. That conversation was about links between bikies and drug production.

Later the same day, presumably October 21, Anderson said he called the CMC, speaking to a junior person in the media department. He told her the premier and attorney general were keen for the CMC to do media about the bikie situation. 

Anderson said he received an initial response that the CMC was not keen to do any media.

At some later time, and for reasons unknown, Levy then contacted the attorney general's office, and told someone there he had changed his mind. This was then passed along to Anderson.

Anderson then contacted Levy by telephone at least twice. Anderson said he selected Des Houghton for Levy to speak to and had made initial contact with Houghton. 

At some stage, after those two telephone calls and before Levy was interviewed by Des Houghton, the CMC chief called Anderson and asked if the two of them could have a face-to-face meeting. Levy said he was in the area and could come up to Anderson's office, on the 15^th floor of the executive building, where the premier's office is located.

This meeting was said to have taken place just a few days before the article appeared.

During that meeting, Anderson suggested that the article should be a feature about the threat posed by criminal motorcycle gangs, particularly the links between those gangs and the drug trade.

He warned Levy about a line of questioning Des Houghton might wish to pursue about links between police and criminal motorcycle gangs and advised that the acting CMC chairman should refuse to answer such questions on the basis they were operational matters.

Anderson confirmed he had kept the premier's chief of staff and the attorney general's media adviser up-to-date about his discussions with Levy. He said he would also have kept the premier himself informed.

It is impossible to reconcile the versions of Dr Levy and Mr Anderson about the number and nature of discussions between the two men.

If Anderson's testimony is accurate, then Levy has misled the PCMC on a variety of issues on two separate occasions.

Specifically, Levy has failed to disclose to the PCMC: the number of times he had contact with the government's senior PR adviser; the fact it was Anderson who suggested Des Houghton should conduct the interview with Levy; that it was Anderson who made contact with Houghton to discuss the proposed interview; that Levy had a face-to-face meeting with Anderson, on the 15^th floor of the executive building a few days before the article was published; and Anderson had suggested what the article would and would not discuss.

These are issues which were the subject of sustained questioning by the PCMC and Levy had provided answers to questions directly contradicting the evidence of Anderson.

Responsibility for this matter has been transferred to the parliamentary Ethics Committee. The government hopes that this forum will prove less troublesome.

Confidence in the independence of the CMC has been shaken, at least for as long as Levy remains at its head.

Premier Newman, by his staff and his own actions, has prevented two of the most important institutions in Queensland from being able to play effective and independent roles as key components of Queensland's democratic processes. 

Stephen Keim SC & Alex McKean