WATERED DOWN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONER POWERS WILL MAKE PROPOSED CMC FAR LESS ACCOUNTABLE

The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties (QCCL) has criticised the weakening of the external oversight powers of the proposed Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC).

QCCL Vice-President Terry O'Gorman said the watered-down powers of the Parliamentary Criminal Justice Commissioner would mean that the very powerful new body created by the merger of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) and the Queensland Crime Commission (QCC) would be far less accountable.

"The Labor Party does not like the Parliamentary Commissioner because it is a Coalition Government creation and some in the media don't like it because journalists have been brought before it to answer questions about constant leaks from the CJC", Mr O'Gorman said.

Mr O'Gorman said it was incongruous that the new CMC would be able to exercise its greater powers including conducting ‘Investigative Hearings’ (or star-chamber questioning) without prior Parliamentary approval, but the Parliamentary Commissioner would have to obtain the permission of a Government-controlled Parliamentary Committee before it could fully exercise its oversight powers.

"The CMC will be a highly powerful permanent standing royal commission which will have the power to install bugs in personal computers but a citizen complaining about misuse of that power will have to get the green light from a Committee of Parliamentarians before a complaint can be properly investigated", Mr O'Gorman said.

Mr O'Gorman called on the Premier to defer introducing the new CMC Bill into the State Parliament until a consultation draft is widely circulated.

Mr O’Gorman said consultation on these proposals had been non-existent. The Premier had hatched them without seeking any input from the Bar, the Queensland Law Society or the Civil Liberties Council, he concluded.

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10 October 2001

QCCL