Queensland’s police minister, Jo-Ann Miller, will be investigated by the state parliamentary ethics committee over her alleged failure to properly deal with confidential documents relating to the Crime and Corruption Commission.
The parliamentary crime and corruption committee, which has oversight of the Corruption and Crime Commission, recommended on Monday that Miller be referred for investigation after it found she failed to destroy or hand over documents after serving on the committee.
Miller should be referred to the ethics committee for signing “an incorrect statement in relation to the destruction of documents” and was “prima facie deliberately misleading”, the PCCC resolutions said.
The opposition leader, Lawrence Springborg, told reporters the referral would appear to be “a protection racket” as the investigation meant Miller could not be questioned about the issue in parliamentary hearings this week.
The state parliament’s Speaker, Peter Wellington, who agreed to refer Miller for investigation, said he had confidence in the ability of the ethics committee to investigate the matter.
It follows the allegation that Miller, upon leaving the PCCC in April, had left documents in a safe that was subsequently transferred to the electorate office of the LNP MP for Warrego, Ann Leahy.
Leahy triggered the investigation by writing to the PCCC with “serious concerns”, saying: “Disturbingly, when I opened the safe it had not been emptied and contained 85 pages of documents that it can be reasonably ascertained pertain to the PCCC’s deliberations.”
The PCCC’s acting chair, Peter Russo, wrote that the committee found Miller should be referred for “failing to follow an order of the previous PCCC regarding the procedures to be followed in respect of the destruction or hand over of documents”.
LNP committee members Jeff Seeney and Trevor Watts voted against the ethics investigation, saying Miller “should first have been given an opportunity” to front the committee before a ruling.
A spokesman for Miller could not be reached for comment.
