Former deputy premier criticises government’s use of parliamentary privilege to make public previously suppressed CCC report on her conductFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe former Queensland deputy premier, Jackie Trad, says the new government’s decision to release a previously suppressed Crime and Corruption Commission report into her conduct is “terrifying and petty”.The CCC investigation report has been the subject of a years-long legal wrangle, and had been blocked from release after a high court ruling in 2023.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…Former deputy premier criticises government’s use of parliamentary privilege to make public previously suppressed CCC report on her conductFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe former Queensland deputy premier, Jackie Trad, says the new government’s decision to release a previously suppressed Crime and Corruption Commission report into her conduct is “terrifying and petty”.The CCC investigation report has been the subject of a years-long legal wrangle, and had been blocked from release after a high court ruling in 2023.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…
The former Queensland deputy premier, Jackie Trad, says the new government’s decision to release a previously suppressed Crime and Corruption Commission report into her conduct is “terrifying and petty”.
The CCC investigation report has been the subject of a years-long legal wrangle, and had been blocked from release after a high court ruling in 2023.
On Wednesday evening, the Liberal National party released the CCC’s investigation report.
The CCC made criticisms of Trad’s “aggressive” advocacy for a longstanding colleague, Frankie Carroll, during the process of appointing a new state under-treasurer in 2018 and 2019.
It details how an independent selection panel had initially found Carroll to be “not appointable” to the position.
But that conclusion was changed in a “materially misleading report” by the then-director general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Dave Stewart, who told the CCC he had done so after Trad had “brought pressure to bear”.
The CCC found Stewart’s conduct “falls well below that to be expected by the state’s most senior public servant”.
Ultimately the CCC found there were insufficient grounds for Stewart or Trad to be charged with criminal or corrupt conduct.
Trad had taken legal action to block the release of the report, which was finalised in 2021.
A decision by the high court in 2023 in relation to another CCC investigation effectively left the watchdog unable to publicly release its investigation reports.
The decision by the new Crisafulli government on Wednesday evening to table the report under parliamentary privilege allows details to be published. Trad lashed the release of the documents on Thursday, saying the reports were “unlawful” and that the LNP had shown a lack of respect for the decision of the courts.
The former Labor MP accused the government of setting “a dangerous precedent” by using their numbers in parliament to “disregard a well-considered, balanced and fair judgment from the highest court in our nation, without legislative amendment or scrutiny”.
“Once again, the CCC have investigated and released a report that has found no evidence I engaged in corrupt conduct, misconduct in public office or any other criminal offence,” Trad said.
“Knowing for some time that the report was filled with subjective character judgments but no actual findings against me, I approached the CCC, through my lawyers, to settle the matter in 2023, to which they did not respond and chose to go to the high court.
“Every single member of the full bench of the high court resoundingly found against the CCC.
“For the LNP government to now release the reports against the judgment of the high court, and in light of the CCC’s recent track record, for the purposes of political point-scoring is both terrifying and petty”.
Trad blasted the CCC, saying it was “both deeply concerning and an embarrassment” that the watchdog had “fundamentally misunderstood the legislation governing the exercise of their enormous and expansive powers”.
“That an all-party parliamentary crime and corruption committee found that the CCC had failed to act independently, impartially and fairly in the pursuit of elected Logan city councillors is deeply concerning,” she said.
“The fact that the director of public prosecutions has been required to withdraw multiple matters before the courts because of a lack of evidence to support charges from CCC investigations is deeply concerning.”
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