RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...

486 Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee 7 Mar 2013
Dr DOUGLAS (Gaven—Ind) (11.34 am): I, too, wish to speak to this matter. As the former
immediate chair of the PCMC, I endorse the comments of the previous two speakers, the current
chair of the PCMC and one of the members of the PCMC. As all members know, I take these matters
very seriously and at all times keep these matters confidential forever, as they must be.
The matter concerned was a very, very contentious matter—an extremely contentious matter—
and there was a demand that was, for some people, reasonably made that it be dealt with in a kind of
haste that these sorts of matters cannot be dealt with. I do not want to go into any of those things any
further. There were certainly matters that were raised that became apparent. Certainly, in regard to
the issue of my brother, who is a barrister in Brisbane and who is an expert in this type of evidence—
and there are only a few people in that case—as soon as it became apparent, as it has come out
already, I withdrew from the matter so that there was no room for conflict. I want to state clearly on
the record that as soon as that was discovered, that was reasonably raised. I am aware of conflict of
interest matters. These sorts of things occur in one’s professional life and one has to be careful.
Having said that, I believe what has transpired since has been reasonable and fair to all parties
and, in fact, has happened within a time frame that is equally reasonable and fair. It is always difficult
in retrospect for people to look at these matters and say, ‘I would have done this differently. I think it
should be handled in a different way. I don’t think those matters should be handled exactly in that
manner. These people may have made a mistake.’ I do not want to address any of those other than to
say that at all times I believe the PCMC and the CMC itself behaved absolutely magnificently,
professionally and in a timely manner, as you would expect them to do. They serve the state very
well.
There were some comments made about the CMC by the Attorney-General today. I urge all
members to seriously regard the role of the CMC as the counterweight to what we need in a
unicameral parliamentary system. We need a strong CMC and by default we need a strong PCMC to
make sure that the balance is always correct and that is in regard to protecting the public interest at
all times. Having said that, the matter is concluded and I think it is as it should be. It is always
disappointing that people would feel that it should have gone another way, or matters should be
concluded in different ways, but when things are dealt with fairly and people are given a reasonable
chance to explain themselves and it has been done correctly and reviewed and scrutinised and it has
been reported on, I would have to say that people should allow that to stand the test of time.
Hon. JP BLEIJIE (Kawana—LNP) (Attorney-General and Minister for Justice) (11.37 am): I am
speaking today to report No. 89 of the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee as the original
complainant of this matter. I note that a few days prior to the March 2012 election I put in a detailed
complaint against one Ms Kathryn Ellis from the CMC who at the time, as I still understand, was
married to Mr Nolan, who was a business partner of Bruce Hawker, the Labor Party strategist running
the 2012 campaign. There was a photograph released I think in the Courier Mail at the time that
showed Mr Nolan and Mr Hawker having coffee in one of the shops in Brisbane during the election
campaign. That is why I made the complaint.
Upon coming to realise that Ms Ellis was indeed married to Mr Nolan—the business partner of
Bruce Hawker, Labor Party strategist—and working in the CMC I became very, very much concerned,
because the subject matter of the complaint, that being the candidate for Ashgrove at the time, had
an enormous amount of complaints from the Labor Party at the time. Even on page 4 of the PCMC
report it states—
The Chairperson of the CMC advised that Ms Ellis had a minor role in the investigation relating to Mr Newman.
So we had in a minor role in the investigation of Mr Newman the wife of a business partner of a
Labor Party strategist. I think all Queenslanders should be concerned. That should raise the
eyebrows of anyone reading a report about someone who is in the crime-fighting corruption watchdog
in Queensland having such a direct involvement by their spouse with the Labor Party in Queensland.
So I put in this complaint and it has taken nearly 12 months to get a resolution.
As the original complainant, I want to place a couple things on the record today. I will deal with
the Labor Party campaign and the use of the CMC in a minute. This was a clear attempt by the Labor
Party to politicise the CMC during the election campaign. The member for Nicklin says that I should
have confidence in the top corruption and crime-fighting body in this state, and I do. Queenslanders
want confidence in the top corruption and crime-fighting body in this state, but this is the sort of thing
that puts questions in people’s minds as to that confidence.