Ten minutes. That was the time allotted for the public meeting of the powerful Queensland Parliamentary Committee on Crime and Corruption (PCCC) this Thursday.
He was due to meet to find out how much money Queensland’s anti-corruption watchdog has spent fighting former Prime Minister Jackie Trad’s attempt to suppress his own report.
But in the Parliament committee room that morning there were four empty chairs.
Labor MPs who did not show up for the scheduled meeting sent their apologies early, but his absence – which prevented the meeting from going ahead – drew the anger of many.
“It’s a week of parliamentary meetings, they should have been there,” former Labor President John Mickel said.
“He has raised something that is really out of the public [attention] in a matter of transparency and integrity “.
“Make them look like they have something to hide”
The non-attendance of Jonty Bush, Jess Pugh, Jennifer Howard (replacing Jimmy Sullivan) and Don Brown’s (replacing Melissa McMahon) at the public meeting that day has caused outrage and made it a bigger story than it began.
“They are nothing more and nothing less than the CCC’s spending on this matter,” Mickel said.
“It’s something that has to come out anyway, but them [the MPs] they make it look like they have something to hide. “
It is not known whether the CCC report makes any findings against Ms. Trad, and this case in the Supreme Court is ongoing.
Last month, PCCC workers blocked an attempt to disclose the legal costs incurred by the CCC in Ms. Trad’s lawsuit. (AAP image: Dan Peled)
ABC News asked the four deputies who did not attend to detail where they were that day.
Ms. Bush said she and her colleagues had other appointments and it was announced Wednesday night.
Mr Brown gave an explanation to parliament yesterday, saying he and Mrs Pugh were busy with their duties as chief whip and deputy at that time of day.
“This has been conveyed through the vice president to try to arrange a suitable time to meet with the PCCC,” Brown said.
“Unfortunately, knowing full well, the PCCC chairman went ahead with yesterday’s meeting.”
During question time in Parliament, LNP MP Fiona Simpson asked Prime Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk: “Is Jackie Trad, the puppeteer, still pulling the threads of this government from its political grave?”
Mrs. Palaszczuk replied, “The answer is no, no.”
Undoubtedly, it caught more attention than it would have released the figure.
Two of the deputies, Ms. Bush and Ms. Pugh, receive an additional $ 25,000 a year as permanent members of the PCCC.
No “outrageous” has been presented.
Queensland does not have an upper house in Parliament, the only state in Australia that does not have one.
Instead, it has a committee system, designed to serve as additional controls and balances to the state of the single house.
The PCCC oversees the anti-corruption watchdog, the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC), which was set up as a result of the historic Fitzgerald investigation in the 1980s that uncovered corruption.
“Workers should have a corporate memory on this, and therefore they should attend,” Mickel said.
He said he could not recall any other case in which a government majority committee had failed to form a quorum: the minimum number of members had to be present for the meeting to begin.
“If that happened when Labor were in opposition and LNP members had left, it would have been seen for what it is: outrageous,” Mickel said.
Mickel says he remembers no other case in which a government-majority committee has failed to form a quorum. (AAP: Glenn Hunt)
‘Extraordinary movement’
Last month, Labor committee members blocked an attempt to disclose the legal costs incurred by the CCC in Ms Trad’s legal action.
After Thursday’s stalled meeting, PCCC President and LNP member Jon Krause told the media that it was “disappointing that members of the government have not considered it appropriate to stand for integrity matters in Queensland “.
“It’s an extraordinary move and shows the maximum they will do to avoid revealing information that is obviously embarrassing to the government,” Krause said.
In a development yesterday afternoon, following a private meeting of the PCCC, a letter was presented to parliament detailing the CCC’s external legal fees between May 2021 and May 2022 as a result of the case: $ 74,137 in taxpayer money.
It shows that $ 1,468 more was spent on court transcripts.
We could have learned that on Thursday morning and questions about the integrity of the government have been avoided.
Posted 22 hours ago 22 hours Friday, June 24, 2022 at 9:03 PM, updated 21 hours, 21 hours ago, Friday, June 24, 2022 at 10:05 PM