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Email sent 29/7/09
Hon. Tony
Fitzgerald AC, QC
Reform of Queensland's Institutions: A Bigger Picture View
Re:
Tony Fitzgerald breaks his silence,
brisbanetimes.com.au, 29/7/09
I should like to
submit that the relapse in Queensland's system of government that your recent
speech identified has more complex causes than you mentioned.
My interpretation of your speech: Queensland
decided in 1989 that it had had enough of systemic corruption and elected
a reformist Goss Government. EARC and the CJC started slow, but did good
work. Gly Davis and Peter Coaldrake tried to redesign and energise the
public sector. Efforts were made to reform the courts. But by the mid
1990s the reform impetus was lost. There was a shift to the Right
(illustrated by One Nation phenomenon). Coalition regained power and set
up Connolly Ryan Inquiry to discredit Fitzgerald's work - which failed
because of obvious bias. While Coalition was unfit to govern, it damaged
the reform process - and by 1998 the impetus for reform had been lost.
Under Beattie, Labor lost its principled willingness to confront
Queensland's dark past and decided that votes could be gained from Bjelke
Peterson's remaining adherents by ignoring repressive / corrupt
misconduct. Queenslanders were encouraged to forget past repressions and
the social upheavals needed to deal with them. Secrecy was re-established
by sham claims of cabinet confidence. Access can be purchased. Patronage
is dispensed, mates and supporters are appointed. retired politicians
exploit connections. Cynical politicians of all parties are only interest
in themselves, and ignore these problems. Current concerns about police
misconduct are the predictable result of attitudes in Queensland since mid
1990s. Greed, power and opportunity provide irresistible temptations. A
well-informed community can combat such abuses.
The concerns you have expressed doubtless refer to
real problems (eg see also
Reform of Queensland Institutions - or a Rising
Tide of Public Hypocrisy?)
However there is arguably a need for more than a
political commitment to reform. It is likely, in both the 1980s and more
recently, that weaknesses in the state's civil institutions (which are relied
upon for inputs to legal / governance systems but tend to be unable to do so
competently) are mainly to blame for abuses of power and poor government (see
Journey Towards a More Effective 'Fitzgerald
Inquiry'). Those institutional
weaknesses arguably also account for the abuses of power and failure of the
Goss administration's public sector 'reforms' (op cit). Until
those 'environmental' constraints are addressed, future reform efforts are
unlikely to be effective (eg see
Queensland's Next Successful Premier,
2007)
In relation to a number of the issues mentioned in
your speech, I would note that:
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Re CJC: as a mid-level public servant in the
late 1980s I had some exposure to the influence of organised crime in
Queensland. I 'blew the whistle' on apparent Yakuza involvement in the
background of those facilitating government support for Japanese investment
in Queensland, and thus had some dealings with the embryonic criminal
intelligence function in the newly established CJC. As a result I was
advised privately in the early 1990s of an apparent decline in influence in
the Queensland underworld of the police-protected local criminals your
inquiry exposed and of Yakuza, with a rise by those with Mafia and Triad
connections;
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Re One Nation: this political phenomenon seemed
largely to reflect the inadequate management of economic change (see
Assessing the Implications of Pauline
Hanson's One Nation, 1998).
Increased exposure to international competition in poorly developed regional
economies, led to social stresses and in turn to local perceptions of
betrayal by 'elites';
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Re Beattie Government: it is unreasonable to
blame the Beattie Government for its failure to focus on 'reform' The Goss
Government had not been been interested in anything but 'reform' - and so
did not achieve much in practice (see
Toward Good Government in Queensland,
an as-yet-unacknowledged submission to the ALP's 1995 Election Review
Committee). The Beattie Government, by contrast. tried to get on with
governing. However it encountered massive difficulties because of the
unworkable machinery of government it had inherited (see
'Beattie Burger loses its Taste',
2005).
By way of
background I note that I have had an active but discrete involvement in
efforts to promote reform and development in Queensland since the 1970s (see
CV).
I would be
interested in your views about these speculations.
John Craig
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