Jurisdiction Queensland Annual budget $54.859 million | Employees 336.6 | |
Preceding agencies Criminal Justice Commission
Queensland Crime Commission Headquarters 515 St Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley Motto Fighting crime and promoting integrity in Queensland | ||
The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) is an independent Queensland Government entity created to combat and reduce the incidence of major crime and to continuously improve the integrity of, and to reduce the incidence of misconduct in, the Queensland public sector. Formerly the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) 2002-2014. The CCC also has a witness protection function. The commission was established on 1 January 2002, when the former Criminal Justice Commission and the Queensland Crime Commission were merged into a single entity under the name Crime and Misconduct Commission.
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The CCC has investigative powers, not ordinarily available to the police service, for the purposes of enabling the commission to effectively investigate particular cases of major crime. The CCC also has the power to investigate cases of misconduct in the Queensland public sector, particularly the more serious cases of misconduct.
The CCC is itself accountable to the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.
As the successor to the Criminal Justice Commission, the misconduct functions of the CCC exist primarily as a consequence of the Fitzgerald Inquiry Royal Commission findings of long-term, systemic political corruption, police corruption and abuse of power in Queensland.
History
The commission was established after the publishing of a report by Bob Bottom. It conducted a high-profile investigation into matters related to the 2004 Palm Island death in custody.
In 2007, the CMC director of intelligence claimed that a lack of telephone interception or phone tapping powers meant crime bosses in Queensland were avoiding prosecution. In 2010, the first public hearings conducted by the CMC were held in relation to police corruption on the Gold Coast following the Operation Tesco misconduct probe. In 2012, the Newman Government reduced funding to the organisation by 1%. The cuts had a disproportionate effect on staff numbers.
Review
In October 2012 the Queensland Government announced the commissioning of a review of the Crime and Misconduct Commission by former High Court judge Ian Callinan, wanting an assessment of what the priorities of the organisation should be, and "the use or any abuse of the powers and functions" conferred on it. The review was criticised by some as arising from resentment about five complaints made to the CMC by the then Labor government about Campbell Newman in the lead-up to his election as premier.
In March 2013, the Crime and Misconduct Commission came in for strong criticism from Liz Cunningham, chair of the Queensland Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee, over the incorrect public release of documents relating to the Fitzgerald Inquiry. The criticism was backed up by former Queensland attorney-general Paul Clauson, who helped establish the corruption watchdog in the late 1980s, and who likened the organisation to the Stasi. Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said he would meet with Ian Callinan and ask him to look into these revelations as well.
The Parliamentary Inquiry into the anti-corruption watchdog heard that the accidental release and prolonged availability of secret Fitzgerald Inquiry documents at the Queensland State Archives was attributed to a clerical error. The documents included information about targets and informants and were not to be released until 2055. The 741 pages were wrongly classified, leading to their automatic release after 20 years instead of the preferred 65 years. The documents were made available in February 2012. The matter came to the attention of Ross Martin in May 2012. It was not until March 2013 that they became unavailable. The Parliamentary Inquiry also heard that documents containing intelligence used to instigate an investigation had been accidentally shredded.
The Crime and Misconduct Commission was the subject of further controversy in 2014, with former Federal Police chief Mick Keelty saying it was "obsessed with independence" and describing as in danger of becoming corrupt itself, and Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie saying: "Over the years we have seen the CMC used as a political football by the Labor party and what we want to do is stop that from happening." The government introduced reforms that included renaming it the Crime and Corruption Commission.