How the CMC was politicised

Since the Rotary candidates night some people have asked about the job of and outcomes of the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), and in my Candidate Assessment for the Whitsunday Ratepayers Association I referred to this and have discussed governance, so here is an expanded background that describes how the CMC was politicised.

I am indebted to researcher Barry Krosch for his assistance in the preparation of the document. Barry’s details are contained in the footnote.

Dan Van Blarcom - http://danvanblarcom.blogspot.com.au

How the CMC was politicised

The establishment of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) was one of the recommendations in the Fitzgerald Report and was established in 1989 by the Queensland Criminal Justice Act 1989.

The CJC had been established to help restore confidence in our public institutions after the revelations of the 1987–89 Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption. The inquiry also led to the creation of the Queensland witness protection service within the CJC. For several years, in addition to investigating police and public sector misconduct, the CJC worked with the police to investigate organised and major crime. In 1997, this crime function was taken over by the newly formed QCC, which was also tasked with investigating paedophilia.

Under Premier Peter Beattie, a solicitor and then Chair of the Parliamentary CJC Committee, the Queensland Government decided in 2001 to form a single body to fight crime and public sector misconduct — the Crime and Misconduct Commission, a statutory body created under the Crime and Misconduct Act 2001.

Beattie started to do a PhD on the Fitzgerald/CJC era, but became Premier and did not have to time to do a PhD. So he did a Masters of Philosophy by research on the workings of the CJC between 1987 and 1996. The thesis is called “The Window of Opportunity: The Fitzgerald Experiment and the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission 1987-1992” (QUT)

The CMC came into existence on 1 January 2002 with the merger of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) and the Queensland Crime Commission (QCC). The Crime and Misconduct Commission has authority over all areas of the Queensland Public Service the Criminal Justice Commission was limited to the oversight of the Queensland Police Service.

Many believe the CMC is politically controlled due to the low level of funding generally and is especially underfunded for investigations outside the Brisbane area.

The CMC received $48.288million from the Queensland government in 2010-11. Expenditure was itemised as Misconduct and Prevention 20.42%, Witness Protection and Operations Support 16.03%, Corporate Services 18.14% and CMC Corporate Costs 18.37%, crime 12%, research and intelligence unit 15%.

(See annexe by Professor Ken Wiltshire AO.)

I am calling on the State Government to properly fund the CMC or revert to the CJC as originally called for by the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Sources:  I have been aided in this research by retired Queensland Police Inspector, former Special Branch detective and Fitzgerald Inquiry investigator Barry Krosch.

Mr Krosch, a Vietnam Veteran who later spent thirty years in the Queensland Police is working on a thesis for his Masters in Philosophy on "The Queensland Police Special Branch: History, function and impact" at the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security at Griffith University.

Mr Krosch established the Internal Witness Support Unit (Whistleblowing) for the Queensland Police Service and between 1987 and 1999; he was attached to the Fitzgerald Inquiry and the CJC. His previous thesis was "Whistleblowing in Queensland."

Annexe by Professor Ken Wiltshire AO follows-

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theaustralian.com.au August 07, 2009

Nip corruption in bud

By Prof Kenneth Wiltshire

THERE is a recipe for the cure of political corruption: it must be nipped at its source.

Yet across the nation governments seem to be addressing the symptoms rather than the causes.

There is not a lot of point in simply tinkering with rules about ministerial contact with lobbyists in Queensland, or donations of utes to a prime minister, or cash for favours in WA Inc, or free trips abroad courtesy of foreign nationals for federal or state members of parliament, unless the conditions that give rise to the exploitation of these practices are addressed.

And there is a textbook on how to address the systemic foundations of political corruption: it is called the Fitzgerald report on corruption in Queensland, the most comprehensive tome produced on the subject in this country. Most people know the only reason the inquiry began in the first place was that premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen was out of the country and the acting premier took the courageous step of addressing the issue of police corruption by establishing the inquiry and taking advice on the most objective person to be its head.

What is not well understood is that the Fitzgerald inquiry was an iterative process. It soon became apparent to Tony Fitzgerald that lurking behind the police corruption was a whole system of political intrigue that had to be explored, so he asked for augmented terms of reference as he pursued a transparent process of investigation, garnering bipartisan support for his endeavours.

He found that systemic corruption festered the longer a government was in power and entrenched itself with a gerrymandered electoral system and-or spin doctoring through manipulation of the media, granting free rein for ministerial conduct, closing accountability and transparency mechanisms, treating the parliament as a joke, stifling free speech and assembly, exploiting the power of the plaque on public works projects, abusing police powers, attempting interference with the judiciary and the position of governor, and politicisation of the public service.

On the last, the thoughts of Fitzgerald ring out today with a remarkable tone of prescience as so many of our public servants languish in a politicised and often demoralised coma across the nation.

He contended that when public servants gave ministers the advice they wanted to hear, rather than the advice they should hear, the beginnings of corruption were in place, also killing any chance of the frank and fearless advice that sound evidence-based policy-making required in the public interest.

In this context the present stoush between former Queensland premier Peter Beattie and Fitzgerald takes on a particular poignancy.

Fitzgerald is right; Beattie is trying to rewrite history. His government ignored all the lessons of the past; indeed, as premier he often boasted that he was deliberately following the formulas of Bjelke-Petersen, and so he abused the Freedom of Information laws, treated parliament with disdain, rode roughshod over local government, spun like a top, broke election promises to hold referendums on issues of community concern and politicised the public service.

More important, he also muzzled the watchdogs. The auditor-general and ombudsman were underfunded and so was the supposed key anti-corruption body, the Criminal Justice Commission (now the Crime and Misconduct Commission), which even today is able to take on only a fraction of the cases referred to it.

Beattie's worst practice was to abuse the CMC's mandate by referring allegations of improper practices by his government to the CMC, practices that may not have been strictly illegal. The CMC was thus forced into a position where it could find only no legal fault and so the government claimed it had been exonerated. With an integrity commissioner appointed by the government and reporting to the premier and not the parliament, as should have been the case, the system was stitched up just as it had been under Bjelke-Petersen.

The obvious contrast in all this is with Mike Ahern and Wayne Goss, both Queensland premiers who understood the force of the Fitzgerald revelations and prescriptions.

It is those prescriptions that point the way out of the present Australia-wide malaise. Fitzgerald wanted the focus of governance returned to parliament. He advocated two new bodies, the Criminal Justice Commission and an electoral and administrative commission to watch over the whole system of government to ensure that its parts were providing systemic accountability. Each of these was meant to be driven by a parliamentary committee that would act in a bipartisan manner and report to parliament on any necessary finetuning of parts of the system. It did not work out that way because of the familiar corroding influence of party politics and lack of appreciation by politicians of their proper role. Indeed the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission was abolished with bipartisan support on the grounds that its job was done.

Meanwhile the CMC struggles valiantly along, with token government support, in a manner similar to other like bodies in other states and at the commonwealth level. Australia's crime fighters are unloved and underfunded by governments. Given the rash of issues in Australia about political donations, the results of an inquiry by the CJC into political donations to politicians and parties years ago is salutary. Research into international practice revealed that the only way to really stamp out corrupt linkages was the full public funding of election campaigning by politicians, accompanied by the banning of all donations in cash or kind. In the face of ballooning costs of modern election campaigns this regrettably seems to be the only deep cure, even though it comes at taxpayers' expense.

The lessons are clear; the causes of political corruption can be addressed only through systemic accountability and transparency, with a vibrant parliament at the heart of the system and an independent grandparent body watching over the whole system of government to ensure it is behaving in the public interest. But of course institutions do not of themselves change culture, so encouraging high-calibre people to enter politics is vital, as is a decent compulsory curriculum in civics education.

Professor Ken Wiltshire AO is the J. D. Story Professor of Public Administration at the University of Queensland Business School. He is also the Australian Representative on the Executive Board of UNESCO and served as consultant to the Fitzgerald inquiry and the Criminal Justice Commission.

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Source; The Australian August 07, 2009

I am calling on the State Government to properly fund the CMC or revert to the CJC as originally called for by the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Compiled as a public service by Dan Van Blarcom

http://danvanblarcom.blogspot.com.au