Extract from The Guardian
One-time assistant health minister compares government’s approach to
that of a doctor who stops examining patients to deny the existence of
an illness
A former insider in the Queensland
government has likened its attitude to the risk of corruption to a
doctor who stops performing colonoscopies and says bowel cancer is no
problem.
Dr Chris Davis quit politics this year after taking a private stand against the government’s increased secrecy on donations and contentious change to the state’s corruption watchdog.
Davis told the federal Senate inquiry into the Newman government on Friday he supported a new national anti-corruption body such as the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) in New South Wales.
The former assistant health minister gave a medical analogy for the changes in Queensland that prompted his offer to resign from cabinet in protest and his eventual sacking by the premier.
“A fortysomething male who comes to a general practitioner says: ‘I was asked to come and see you because down in NSW, my brother had some abdominal symptoms and he was referred to a colonoscopy,” Davis said.
“They found some malignant polyps and they took them out.
“This brother has had the same symptoms as his brother in NSW along with other risk factors in addition to his genes, such as high fat intake.
“But the Queensland doctor says: ‘No, my son, don’t worry at all – we don’t have this problem of malignant polyps in Qld at all … we stopped doing colonoscopies.”
Davis said his own polling had revealed deep concerns within his electorate about changes to the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) and the government’s raising of the donations threshold from $1,000 to $12,400.
The latter took secret donations from an “entirely reasonable” amount to a level that “can certainly be seen to buy a significant amount of influence”, he said.
Davis said he was “not personally excited about the value” of the government’s practice of publishing ministerial diaries because “the reality of the world is that most business is done in a multitude of ways”.
He said transparency on donations was more critical “if we’re actually removing the risk factors for any potential third-party intrusion” into a government representing its constituency.
Davis said some colleagues really felt the CCC was not independent enough to act in a way that Icac does.
The Newman government cut the CCC’s resources – especially its research function, which is now dictated by the attorney general – and redirected its orientation away from official misconduct to investigating organised crime.
Another witness on Friday, independent MP and former police officer Peter Wellington, raised concerns about the chilling effect on whistleblowers of the CCC removing opportunities for anonymous complaints.
A police investigation remains open into claims the acting CCC chairman, Ken Levy, lied to a parliamentary committee about his contact with the premier’s press office before going public in support of its controversial bikie laws.
Wellington said the bikie laws were the most topical example of the way the Newman government used urgency to evade scrutiny, passing the bulk of the laws in one night last year at 2.30am without providing full drafts to MPs.
He said progress in a large number of criminal investigations of outlaw motorcycle club members was a result of $20m in funding and renewed focus by police.
The same results could have been achieved without the extreme elements of the government’s bikie laws which breached several of Australia’s international pacts on human rights, Wellington said.
He cited prolonged solitary confinement in prison prior to conviction, inequality before laws that gave bikies up to an extra 25 years in jail, as well as anti-association laws that punished people who had not committed crimes.
A Rebels bikie club member, Tony Jardine, attended the hearing along with a former clubmate, Michael Smith, who spoke briefly with Senator Matthew Canavan outside about the effect of the laws on his family.
Smith said he risked arrest by going in public with his two sons, one a current and the other a former member.
Smith’s sons are members of the Yandina Five, who face jail under anti-association laws for meeting their families at the Yandina pub on the Sunshine Coast.
Smith told Canavan how both spent time in solitary confinement before having their refusal of bail overturned in the supreme court.
Dr Chris Davis quit politics this year after taking a private stand against the government’s increased secrecy on donations and contentious change to the state’s corruption watchdog.
Davis told the federal Senate inquiry into the Newman government on Friday he supported a new national anti-corruption body such as the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) in New South Wales.
The former assistant health minister gave a medical analogy for the changes in Queensland that prompted his offer to resign from cabinet in protest and his eventual sacking by the premier.
“A fortysomething male who comes to a general practitioner says: ‘I was asked to come and see you because down in NSW, my brother had some abdominal symptoms and he was referred to a colonoscopy,” Davis said.
“They found some malignant polyps and they took them out.
“This brother has had the same symptoms as his brother in NSW along with other risk factors in addition to his genes, such as high fat intake.
“But the Queensland doctor says: ‘No, my son, don’t worry at all – we don’t have this problem of malignant polyps in Qld at all … we stopped doing colonoscopies.”
Davis said his own polling had revealed deep concerns within his electorate about changes to the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) and the government’s raising of the donations threshold from $1,000 to $12,400.
The latter took secret donations from an “entirely reasonable” amount to a level that “can certainly be seen to buy a significant amount of influence”, he said.
Davis said he was “not personally excited about the value” of the government’s practice of publishing ministerial diaries because “the reality of the world is that most business is done in a multitude of ways”.
He said transparency on donations was more critical “if we’re actually removing the risk factors for any potential third-party intrusion” into a government representing its constituency.
Davis said some colleagues really felt the CCC was not independent enough to act in a way that Icac does.
The Newman government cut the CCC’s resources – especially its research function, which is now dictated by the attorney general – and redirected its orientation away from official misconduct to investigating organised crime.
Another witness on Friday, independent MP and former police officer Peter Wellington, raised concerns about the chilling effect on whistleblowers of the CCC removing opportunities for anonymous complaints.
A police investigation remains open into claims the acting CCC chairman, Ken Levy, lied to a parliamentary committee about his contact with the premier’s press office before going public in support of its controversial bikie laws.
Wellington said the bikie laws were the most topical example of the way the Newman government used urgency to evade scrutiny, passing the bulk of the laws in one night last year at 2.30am without providing full drafts to MPs.
He said progress in a large number of criminal investigations of outlaw motorcycle club members was a result of $20m in funding and renewed focus by police.
The same results could have been achieved without the extreme elements of the government’s bikie laws which breached several of Australia’s international pacts on human rights, Wellington said.
He cited prolonged solitary confinement in prison prior to conviction, inequality before laws that gave bikies up to an extra 25 years in jail, as well as anti-association laws that punished people who had not committed crimes.
A Rebels bikie club member, Tony Jardine, attended the hearing along with a former clubmate, Michael Smith, who spoke briefly with Senator Matthew Canavan outside about the effect of the laws on his family.
Smith said he risked arrest by going in public with his two sons, one a current and the other a former member.
Smith’s sons are members of the Yandina Five, who face jail under anti-association laws for meeting their families at the Yandina pub on the Sunshine Coast.
Smith told Canavan how both spent time in solitary confinement before having their refusal of bail overturned in the supreme court.
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