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Email dated 24/8/07
Ms Margaret
Wenham
Courier Mail
'Beattie Rejects Heiner Review'
In a recent
article (Courier Mail, 21/8/07) you noted that:
- despite calls
from a number of legal heavyweights, Queensland's Premier rejected any further
investigation of alleged injustices arising from the 17-year old Heiner
inquiry - on the grounds that the matter had been extensively investigated
previously;
- the closure
of the Heiner inquiry and the shredding of documents is officially
rationalized on the grounds that it had been improperly constituted and that
witnesses who gave evidence thus had no protection from possible defamation
actions.
While I have no
inside knowledge of the Heiner affair, I should like you to be aware that:
- abuses of
power (probably due to the ignorance and autocratic style of the political
cronies given administrative power) were a feature of the Goss administration,
eg see
Reform of Queensland Institutions - or a
Rising Tide of Public Hypocrisy? and History
of Public Service Bullying;
- claims that
matters have been subject to many earlier investigations seem to have been a
favoured defence against real investigation of abuses. For example, the
present writer was subjected to a clear abuse of power (ie a refusal by the
Premier's Department to allow professional merit to be considered in relation
to the making of a senior Public Service appointment). Attempts to gain
redress were met firstly by waffle, which did not even mention the question
that needed investigation, and later by reference to the many earlier
'investigations' that had been carried out (see A
Preposterous Claim); and
- a former
Police Commissioner (Mr Noel Newnham) has argued that the reasons still
officially used to justify destruction of the Heiner documents were mere 'red
herrings' and invalid (see
Red
Herrings and the Heiner Documents)
Regards
John Craig
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