Tony Fitzgerald has warned that Queensland is heading back towards the political corruption of the 1980s and has criticised both parties’ “cash for access” policies.
Fitzgerald, who led the inquiry into corruption in the Bjelke-Petersen years in the late 1980s, said the Newman government had set a new low standard in accountability and transparency.
He singled out stripping powers from the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), politicising the judiciary through partisan appointments and both major parties giving privileged access to business people paying large sums of money.
The Liberal National party hosts QForums, for which business people pay thousands of dollars to attend events with the premier and senior members of his ministry; Labor has just launched the Queensland Progressive Business Network, for which business people pay $10,000 to attend events with Labor figures.
Fitzgerald told the 7.30 report: “The main thing I make of it in relation to those recent events is that neither of the major parties seem to understand the meaning of the commitments they gave ... and I suppose if you pay money and are allowed a visit, you got special access. So I think it’s extraordinary.”
Fitzgerald said the Labor government led by Wayne Goss had set a new high standard for accountability and the Newman government had “probably set a new low standard”.
Fitzgerald has been relatively quiet since the corruption inquiry finished in the early 1990s but has recently been highly critical of the Newman government. He said he was spurred into speaking out after fearing Queensland could return to the political corruption that marked the 1980s.
He said one of the initial matters was the powers stripped away from the CMC, now the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).
“I don’t think people are generally aware that the CCC under its first name was actually a continuation of the corruption inquiry. The corruption inquiry wasn’t so much disbanded as folded over into that permanent commission,” he said.
“It has been seen by some former conservative people as something that had to be destroyed. That was what [former National party leaders Rob] Borbidge and [Russell] Cooper tried to do. And this time it popped up again in mid-2013.”
Fitzgerald emphasised he was not saying the Newman government was corrupt, but that laws were being stripped away so future governments could end up acting corruptly as “bad habits” became entrenched.
He said he had never been a member of a political party and was not telling people how to vote, merely which issues he thought it was important they consider.
“I think it’s terribly important that people take into account not just specific issues – who’s going to get a bridge, who’s going to get a tunnel and so on and so forth – but who’s going to behave properly,” he said.
“I’d like to see it happen this time, but if not this time, the next time, and if not the next time, the time after, so that we finally get to a situation where we’ve got a parliament that’s acting on behalf of the people and not on behalf of their own constituents and supporters and rent seekers and chancers of all sorts who tie themselves on to them – the camp followers, if you like.”
