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The secret police
Tony Koch | July 25, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25830886-5006786,00.html

QUEENSLAND will not be free of police impropriety until Anna Bligh takes a stand.

ASTOUNDING revelations this week by Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission that 25 police officers were involved in illegal and improper conduct with prisoners who had conned them into believing they could help with investigations lay bare the assertion that police can effectively investigate complaints against their own.

The CMC report detailed how brutal rapist and double murderer Lee Owen Henderson duped police with his lies so he could secure time out of prison that included conjugal contact with his wife.

His "special treatment" involved unsupervised use of a telephone in prison. The CMC found he organised a drug heist on the phone from maximum security.

The disclosures of the CMC investigation into Operation Capri are the latest in a worrying series of serious police misconduct, much of which has been passed off as deserving only a warning, and in many cases not even that.

In November last year, The Australian was forced to engage legal representation to apply in the Brisbane Children's Court for the right to attend a case that involved a charge against a 16-year-old girl who was tasered in Brisbane. The police prosecutor objected to The Australian's journalist attending on the basis that it "was not in the public interest". The magistrate initially agreed but then allowed the newspaper's attendance.

The court banned publication of the names of the police officer involved and witnesses and the charge of obstructing police was dismissed. No action was taken against the officer.

The inquiry by police into the actions of colleagues who investigated the November 2004 death of Mulrunji Doomadgee in the Palm Island watchhouse still has not been completed.

The findings in the latest CMC report have attracted calls by legal representatives and civil liberties lawyer Terry O'Gorman for the reinstatement of a dedicated investigative team within the CMC to handle all complaints. At present complaints come to the CMC, but if it is of the opinion that they can be handled by the "relevant agency" -- the government department involved -- they are handed on.

The system does not work. It was set up to fail. That is a serious allegation, but history is undeniable. The Fitzgerald inquiry was established in 1987 following media reports that police were involved in prostitution rackets and protecting illegal establishments. Corruption commissioner Tony Fitzgerald spent two years on the inquiry and his findings are the reform bible inQueensland.

Fitzgerald's inquiry resulted in the jailing of dozens of police, including police commissioner Terry Lewis, five former government ministers and civilians found to have been involved in serious crime.

Fitzgerald wrote that the police service was found to be "debilitated by misconduct, inefficiency, incompetence and deficient leadership, with contempt for the criminal justice system, disdain for the law and rejection of its application to police, disregard for the truth and abuse of authority".

Fitzgerald recommended the creation of apermanent body, the Criminal Justice Commission, to act as a continuing commission of inquiry to oversee his recommended reforms and provide a safeguard against the return of corruption. The CJC's brief was to investigate corruption in the three main public sector risk areas: politicians, police and public servants. It did that by receiving and investigating complaints, instituting proactive intelligence-driven investigations of official misconduct including corruption, and by providing research and corruption prevention reports and recommendations.

But it soon fell foul of its political masters. Soon after it was established in 1990, the CJC investigated travel claims made by politicians and revealed a scandal that forced the resignation of several ministers of the brand-new Labor government headed by former civil liberties lawyer Wayne Goss.

Several Nationals and Liberal politicians were also found to have rorted their travel entitlements, and were publicly embarrassed by the findings.

That was the day the CJC attracted sworn enemies on all sides of politics, because it had the temerity to bite the hand that fed it. For the next decade the CJC, headed by a variety of eminent lawyers, was subjected to vilification and accusation, and a constant erosion of its powers. Most of the bitterness came from the Labor side because of the travel rorts findings, but the Nationals had an abiding hatred of the CJC. That came from their MPs who were caught up in the travel rorts but, more significantly, they also saw the CJC as the "son of Fitzgerald", and it was Fitzgerald's inquiry that effectively ended the long line of National Party governments.

The resentment harboured by aggrieved politicians paled in comparison with that of the insipid Queensland Police Union, which was frustrated by the CJC doingits job and continually picking off corrupt cops. Then came the emasculation that the detractors demanded. In January 2002 under premier Peter Beattie, the CJC was amalgamated with the Crime Commission to become the Crime and Misconduct Commission. In introducing the enabling legislation, Beattie said: "One of the most significant achievements of this bill is to move the misconduct functions of the CJC to a new level. The commission's responsibilities for investigating and dealing with official misconduct are preserved not only within the police service but across all units of public administration. In recognition of reform within the police service since the Fitzgerald inquiry, the bill returns responsibility to police for investigating and dealing with police misconduct."

Beattie's Crime and Misconduct Act 2001 required that the CMC take complaints and then hand them over to the relevant department to be dealt with if they were not considered "serious". The CMC had the leading role in "building the capacity of agencies to prevent and deal with cases of misconduct effectively and appropriately". It also stated that the CMC had an overriding responsibility to promote public confidence in the integrity of agencies (departments) in the way misconduct was handled. So, in order to validly investigate the complaint itself rather than return it to the relevant unit of public administation for investigation, the CMC was required to jump each of those hurdles.

The aggressive fight against corruption and official misconduct previously conducted by the CJC was replaced by a benign regime of "capacity building" within departments and public sector organisations.

Any thinking person can see how a system in which in-house investigators report to senior managers, some of whom could perceive that theircareer interests may not be well served by rigorous investigation resulting in adverse findings about matters occurring on their watch, may compromise investigations. The legislation clearly denies the need for the specialist powers and experience possessed by an expert anti-corruption body.

It is common sense that most forms of corruption and misconduct are clandestine activities that will only be uncovered and successfully investigated through sophisticated investigative techniques and compulsory powers. Why else did Fitzgerald recommend the establishment of the CJC as a specialist and expert agency?

But the Beattie government considered it appropriate that the first line of response to corruption be a cadre of superficially trained departmental investigators with no compulsory powers or access to specialist assistance such as financial or intelligence analysts.

What is now clear is that stripping the watchdog organisation -- under whichever name it operates -- of the exclusive powers to investigate all complaints is not working.

As retired Supreme Court judge Bill Carter tells The Australian: "Police corruption will not be arrested until all such misconduct allegations are handled by the CMC, not the ethical standards branch of the police service."

It is clear that unless the government of Anna Bligh has the fortitude to overturn the failed experiment launched by her predecessor, the people of Queensland can have little real confidence that sincere efforts are being made to control and root out corruption in the state's public sector.

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Ex-cop castigates 'fanciful' charges
Sarah Elks | July 25, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25832115-5006786,00.html

FORMER armed robbery squad detective Adam Magill, who is facing criminal charges of perjury and making a false statement arising from the Operation Capri police misconduct affair, has slammed the investigation's findings as "fanciful".

Mr Magill, now a criminal lawyer in Brisbane, was committed to stand trial in the Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday on one count of perjury and one of making a false statement.

Both charges relate to his contact with convicted killer Bevan Meninga, the brother of Queensland rugby league great Mal Meninga.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum penalty of 14 years' jail for perjury and seven years' for making a false statement.

He told The Weekend Australian yesterday he would vigorously defend the charges against him.

While he said his matter was not mentioned in the bombshell Operation Capri report, tabled in Queensland parliament on Wednesday, he said other allegations in the document were "fanciful".

His squad, the armed robbery division, was lambasted by the Crime and Misconduct Commission's report and accused of misusing reward money donated by banks and credit unions to solve bank robberies.

Mr Magill said the report's allegations were not a fair representation of the armed robbery squad.

"I think it takes it out of context," he said. "We were given a very hard job to do and obviously there was some administrative stuff that wasn't done properly. Most (of the allegations) are about not properly filling out registries."

Mr Magill said the allegations were not cases of gross misconduct but rather paperwork that was filled out incorrectly.

Any comparisons with police corruption from before the Fitzgerald inquiry era were "a bit silly".

"It's a political beat-up," hesaid.

As a member of the armed robbery squad, Mr Magill was the first police officer to interview Natasha Ryan, the Rockhampton runaway believed murdered by serial killer Leonard John Fraser but found living in her boyfriend's cupboard.

Mr Magill is one of three serving or former officers charged as a result of Operation Capri, which implicated 25 policemen in misconduct.

The other officers -- medically retired Graham John Richards and serving policeman Paul Alexander Dalton -- have been committed to stand trial on one charge each of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Magill said his charges related to his dealings with Bevan Meninga, who was found guilty in 1992 of the murder of Sunshine Coast teenager Cheree Richardson.

He said he was a junior officer, "a dogsbody", when asked in July 2003 to take Meninga from jail to a police station to be questioned about a home invasion. It is alleged Mr Magill fabricated paperwork to remove Meninga from jail.

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Queensland cop's murder evidence questioned
Sarah Elks | July 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25826897-5006786,00.html

EVIDENCE in a high-profile child murder trial given by a policeman now at the centre of the Operation Capri corruption affair in Queensland may be called into question, a court has been told.

The warning came yesterday as Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson confirmed all 25 policemen implicated in misconduct by the Capri investigation, tabled in Queensland parliament on Wednesday, would keep their superannuation benefits.

The evidence of former top Rockhampton police officer Graham Richards helped convict Graham Stafford of the brutal murder of schoolgirl Leanne Holland in 1991.

Mr Richards, the former chief of Rockhampton's CIB, was investigated by Operation Capri and was committed to stand trial on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Richards and fellow police officer Paul Alexander Dalton are accused of secretly meeting convicted double murderer Lee Owen Henderson the day before the prisoner's cellmate confessed to a murder. Both have denied any wrongdoing. Mr Dalton, who has been suspended from the police force, has also been committed to trial for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Lawyers for Stafford, who has launched a fresh appeal against his conviction, told Queensland's Court of Appeal yesterday that the evidence of Mr Richards may be called into question following the revelations.

Joseph Crowley, for Stafford, said Mr Richards had been disciplined on a number of occasions for his behaviour during other criminal investigations.

Mr Crowley said he would also question other "serious factual disputes" about the evidence.

Stafford has always denied any involvement in the bashing murder of Leanne, 12, who was the sister of his then girlfriend.

Mr Richards, the lead investigation officer for the Holland murder investigation, is one of 25 police officers implicated by the Operation Capri investigation.

Mr Richards, Mr Dalton and one other former policeman, Adam Raydon Magill, were charged as a result of Operation Capri.

All three have asserted their innocence. Mr Magill was charged with one count of perjury and one count of making a false statement.

Mr Magill, now a Brisbane-based criminal lawyer whose firm specialises in Crime and Misconduct Commission investigative hearings, is still waiting to hear whether he will be committed for trial.

Brisbane Magistrates Court adjourned his committal hearing, part-heard, last month.

He had been reported previously as saying his charges related to his work as a "minder" for convicted murderer and police informant Bevan Meninga, the brother of Queensland rugby league great Mal Meninga.

As well as the three officers charged, one policeman has been dismissed, five have resigned, and five have medically retired or are waiting to medically retire.

The remaining 11 officers are still serving police and have been disciplined, with "managerial guidance".

Mr Atkinson said he had "no difficulty" with that decision, because they had breached procedures but did not engage in misconduct or unethical behaviour.

Mr Atkinson said all 25 officers would keep their superannuation benefits.

He said only officers internally charged with "official misconduct" or criminally charged with "official corruption" could be stripped of their superannuation entitlements.

The Australian understands two of the officers who were under investigation by the CMC, Cleveland Detective Senior-Sergeant Wayne Talbot and Detective Senior-Sergeant Paul Skillen, have resigned from the police service.

Additional reporting: AAP
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Bill Carter's warnings fell on deaf ears
Tony Koch | July 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25826896-5006786,00.html

IN March 1993, four years after Tony Fitzgerald delivered his ground-breaking report on police and public service corruption in Queensland, another royal commission report was tabled in the state parliament.

Retired Supreme Court judge Bill Carter made sweeping recommendations to reform the Queensland Police Service following his investigation into "Operation Trident", a case where, almost unbelievably, police were stealing motor vehicles and selling them.

They alleged it was all in the noble cause of crime prevention -- tracking how stolen cars were on-sold. The problem was, police involved were the recipients of many of the vehicles and a lot of the money.

Carter, a judicial officer of impeccable integrity, was unamused by the evidence, and totally unconvinced that there was anything "noble" in the conduct of the police involved.

One paragraph of his report said it all: "There is perhaps no greater problem for an undercover operation than the risk that a police officer working under cover or a participating informant working under police supervision will become part of the criminal activity which it is sought to detect."

The Queensland Police Service has demonstrably failed to heed the warnings by Carter (or Fitzgerald) through not adopting strategies to guard against corrupt practices in discrete investigations. The 2001 decision by the Queensland government under premier Peter Beattie to strip the watchdog organisation of its statutory obligation to investigate all complaints against police was clearly premature.

Police investigating police in Queensland is a joke.

There are myriad examples of unsustainable outcomes where justice has plainly not been delivered and police have been allowed to get away with outrageous conduct.

The latest Crime and Misconduct Commission findings of misconduct centred on the Armed Robbery Squad deliver a message to Premier Anna Bligh that is crystal clear: the power and responsibility to examine all complaints against police should be returned post-haste to the CMC, and that body should be properly staffed and resourced to do the task to a standard the public reasonably expects.

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Corruption scandal cops keep benefits despite resigning under cloud
Jamie Walker | July 23, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25823501-5006786,00.html

QUEENSLAND'S embattled police commissioner has revealed that six police who resigned while facing disciplinary action over the "Dangerous Liaisons" corruption scandal walked away with retirement benefits including superannuation.

Bob Atkinson, who has accepted responsibility for the misconduct exposed by the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission, said there was no legal recourse for the police service to go after their entitlements.

“I can't stop them resigning,” Mr Atkinson told ABC Radio, as fallout intensified over the CMC's bombshell report implicating 25 police in a web of improper dealings centred on convicted double murderer turned police informant Lee Owen Henderson.

Three of the police who figured in the CMC investigation are facing criminal charges over the alleged misconduct, and Mr Atkinson said another six had resigned from the service while facing discliplinary action.

Some of the 25 alleged miscreants returned to active duty after being dealt with through the police service's internal processes, the commissioner said.

The ability of the disgraced police to retain benefits contrasts with moves by Queensland authorities to seize part of the parliamentary superannuation of jailed former state minister Gordon Nuttall, who was last week sent down for seven years for corruptly receiving secret commissions from two wealthy businessmen.

Mr Atkinson defended the current legal framework, saying the police who quit could have been charged with official misconduct or other criminal offences had their wrongdoing been serious enough, exposing them to financial forfeiture provisions.

He rejected the suggestion they had been “let off the hook”.

“There's been careers lost, lives ruined,” Mr Atkinson said.

“There have been some terrible consequences for the individuals involved.”

The CMC's lengthy Operation Capri uncovered evidence that police in the now-disbanded armed robbery unit and other detective squads had made illegal payments to prisoners, misused reward money to induce confessions to unsolved crimes and passed on confidential information to Henderson and other criminals.

The revelations have drawn comparisons with the corruption exposed by the Fitzgerald corruption inquiry 20 years ago in Queensland. Mr Atkinson, however, says that such parallels are unrealistic.

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Bill Carter QC calls for ban on cops investigating cops
Tony Koch and Michael McKenna | July 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25826889-5006786,00.html

FORMER Queensland corruption commissioner Bill Carter QC yesterday demanded an end to the practice of "cops investigating cops" for misconduct, saying this must be done by investigators independent of the police.

The retired Supreme Court judge, who headed two investigations into police corruption in the 1990s, spoke out as Queensland's embattled Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson rejected calls for the service to be stripped of powers to investigate allegations of misconduct and corruption against its own.

Wednesday's scathing report by the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission into the so-called Dangerous Liaisons affair, in which police are alleged to have offered cash, confidential information, outings from prison and sexual encounters to prison informants to boost crime clearance rates, has unleashed criticism that the Queensland Police Service has turned its back on the hard-earned lessons of the Fitzgerald corruption inquiry of 20 years ago.

Mr Carter said that police corruption would not be arrested until all such misconduct allegations were handled by an external agency such as the CMC, not the police service's own Ethical Standards Command.

This was the case in Queensland under the CMC's forerunner, the Criminal Justice Commission, which was established in the wake of the Fitzgerald inquiry to combat corruption in the police and government sector.

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Carter said he made recommendations about the need for a strong police watchdog in reports from two commissions of inquiry he headed into police corruption -- one dealing with police involvement in drugs, and the other where police were stealing and selling cars.

In both cases police depended on information from criminal contacts -- a practice Mr Carter condemned. "The current CMC operates on the basis that it responds to complaints," Mr Carter said. "It doesn't have any proactive strategy where there is an ongoing investigation and analysis of intelligence, and so forth.

"It is designed to avoid having another Fitzgerald inquiry, which assumes the watchdog will be continually vigilant and working on it. They have to build up an intelligence base and ongoing strategies to identify where there might be a problem before it gets out of hand."

But CMC chair Robert Needham, who will retire from the body at the end of the year, yesterday told The Australian that it was "not physically possible or desirable" for the watchdog to handle all complaints of police misconduct.

"I am of the firm belief that the less serious police misconduct should be handled relatively close to the officer against whom the allegation has been made," he said. "It's only through the supervisor taking responsibility for dealing with allegations of misconduct among his officers that high ethical standards and appropriate supervision will be embedded.

"If a supervisor is able to send a complaint against an officer to an external body, like the CMC, then they will have the attitude that it's not a matter they have to worry about."

The CMC's Dangerous Liaison's report detailed how the initial two complaints about improper police dealings with prisoners were initially dismissed by the Ethical Standards Command.

It was only when the Australian Federal Police later intercepted prison telephone calls of double murderer Lee Owen Henderson -- who is at the centre of the scandal -- that a full investigation was launched.

Of the 25 officers -- some ranked as high as inspector -- implicated in the CMC report, three have been charged with perjury, one has been sacked, seven have resigned and there are 11 still serving, mostly as detectives.

Mr Atkinson yesterday defended the retention of the 11 police, saying it was "appropriate" because the offences were at the lower end of the misconduct spectrum.

Mr Atkinson also confirmed that all 25 officers, including those facing criminal charges, would retain lucrative superannuation benefits.

Only officers charged with "official misconduct" or criminally charged with "official corruption" can lose the government's contribution to their benefits.

Mr Atkinson echoed Mr Needham's comments, saying all of "the serious matters" handled by police were referred back to the CMC for review. "I think most people accept that we can't go back 20 years and rely on the CMC to investigate every complaint against a member of the police service," he said.

"I do support the concept that we should be doing most of it."

Mr Atkinson yesterday also backed two retired assistant commissioners, who initially oversaw the dispensing of funds to informants, mostly prisoners, by the now-disgraced and disbanded Armed Robbery Unit.

"You are not talking about people who, in my view, have any cloud or suspicion about them," he said.

Mr Atkinson also attacked Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers, who described the CMC's report as being full of "wild" allegations that relied on the word of convicted criminals.

He said the union was "out of step" with the rest of the community and should cut loose some of the officers implicated in the CMC report. "Where a police officer has clearly done something criminal or it's misconduct and serious inappropriate behaviour, they have to disown that person," he said.

"I'm not talking about situations which are arguable. I'm talking about situations where it is quite clear that the officer has acted wrongly, inappropriately and unlawfully."

However, Mr Leavers stood by his comments, saying everyone had the right to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

"I believe the only reason the CMC was in such a hurry to publish the allegations is so they could grandstand at an anti-corruption conference next week," he said.

"The right to a fair trial is vital for any accused person. It is for the courts to decide someone's guilt or innocence, not the CMC, not the media and not the police commissioner."

Banks have asked the Queensland Police Service to return $10,000 given a decade ago to reward informants in robbery investigations.

The Australian Bankers Association in 2000 provided $10,000 to Queensland police to set up a fund to assist in investigations into bank robberies.

Tabled in state parliament on Wednesday, the Dangerous Liaisons report invokes a return to the pre-Fitzgerald days, with police taking illegal payments, confecting charges and passing on confidential information to informants.

It also details police organising court-approved excursions out of jail for prisoners, who later dined at restaurants or had sex with their partners in exchange for confessions.

Henderson, a double murderer and former NSW underworld figure, was allowed out on unsupervised trips and organised a drug heist using his unmonitored telephone from inside a maximum-security jail.

The report said some mid-ranking officers had turned a blind eye or encouraged such behaviour.

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Inquiry lessons easily forgotten in QueenslandFont Size:
Jamie Walker | July 23, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25822354-5006786,00.html

SOME wordsmith at Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission dubbed its report into the murky Capri affair: "Dangerous Liaisons". For Premier Anna Bligh, it might equally be called rotten timing.

Barely a week after the jailing of former state government minister Gordon Nuttall -- a man who spent five years around the same cabinet table as Ms Bligh before she ascended to the top job -- Queenslanders have received another rude reminder that the bad old days did not necessarily end with the Fitzgerald inquiry and the blowtorch it put to the Moonlight State.

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson, who yesterday accepted full responsibility for the Capri debacle, rejects any direct comparison between the misconduct uncovered by the CMC and the systemic corruption exposed by the Fitzgerald inquiry.

True enough, that was of a different magnitude to the cops and robber bumbling exposed by the CMC investigation into the dealings principally between convicted murderer Lee Owen Henderson and the now-disbanded armed holdup squad.

Pre-Fitzgerald, a corrupt police commissioner, Terry Lewis, went on the take and the rot worked its way into the rank and file of a police force that had spun monstrously out of control under the late Joh Bjelke-Petersen and his cronies.

CMC boss Robert Needham, who knows a thing or two about the pre-Fitzgerald era in Queensland, having worked as a counsel assisting the inquiry, made the telling point yesterday that the lessons it delivered appear to have been forgotten by sections of the police. How else to explain the lax supervision that allowed the Capri cops to go on their merry way, doing cosy deals with Henderson, diverting reward money to induce prisoners to confess to unsolved robberies and other crimes and, in at least one case, allegedly trousering payments from Henderson?

Nuttall's criminality did not occur in isolation: two wealthy businessmen, Ken Talbot and Harold Shand, are yet to face trial, accused of making corrupt payments to him, and further charges are pending involving alleged bribes to Nuttall from others.

Bligh has argued that her former ministerial colleague was the proverbial bad apple, and that his criminality needs to be viewed in that context.

The CMC's Dangerous Liaisons report suggests there is a wider issue of backsliding in post-Fitzgerald standards, and that's rotten news for Bligh and her police commissioner, who clearly has a lot of explaining to do about why supervision standards at the mid and upper levels failed.

Queensland and its once-tarnished police service have come a very long way since Fitzgerald 20 years ago. The CMC's latest effort demonstrates why its role is more important than ever.

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Wily informant played Queensland police for suckersFont Size:
Jamie Walker | July 23, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25822350-5006786,00.html

THERE are few better places to while away an afternoon than Brett's Wharf on the Brisbane River. For murderer Lee Owen Henderson, on a break from prison courtesy of the Queensland police armed robbery unit, the pricey fish restaurant must have seemed like a taste of heaven.

The date was September 2, 2002, and it was early in his excellent adventure as an indulged police informant who would turn rogue, funnelling confidential information gleaned from his hapless handlers to criminal associates, sometimes courtesy of telephone diversions set up and funded by the police.

Henderson, serving a double life sentence for two separate murders, had even taken to sending out correspondence from his cell under the letterhead of "Special Projects Unit". In a letter to a friend he boasted he was working with detectives "hunting dangerous armed robbers, serial rapists and killers".

He was jailed for life for the 1988 murder of Gold Coast woman Tracey Dovey. He raped and killed the young woman while her five-month-old daughter lay crying by her side. He received a second life sentence for killing another prisoner in jail.

Henderson was removed from Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre on nine occasions by the police, ostensibly to act as a confidential source. The benefits seem to have been one-sided.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission, after poring over the files in the four-year course of Operation Capri, reported yesterday there was "little objective evidence" that Henderson kicked along an investigation in any legitimate sense.

The day after his outing to Brett's Wharf, he wrote of the convivial lunch he had enjoyed with a "female associate", dubbed M by the CMC, her daughter and grandchild. Henderson gushed he was looking forward to "our next chance for lunch, or something, just ... 4 of us ... for the day like that".

In later letters to M in June and August 2003, penned from his prison cell, the convicted murderer lamented it had been almost a year since they had met at Brett's Wharf. In May 2006, photographs were found in Henderson's cell at Townsville Correctional Centre, to which he had been transferred, showing him with M and members of her family on the river promenade outside the restaurant, where staff delight the lunch-time crowd by serving seafood scraps to tame pelicans.

The beaming prisoner is wearing a sharply ironed shirt and sporting a tie adorned with the motif that had been adopted by members of the police armed robbery unit. Cuddling M, he has the look of a supremely happy and satisfied man.

On November 25, 2002, an officer from the armed robbery squad sought and obtained another magistrate's order to whisk Henderson away from jail. Although this stipulated that he was to be taken to police headquarters, the destination, again, was Brett's Wharf.

For some reason, however, the venue changed, and Henderson ended up at the Belmont Tavern in Brisbane's east, where he was to meet the suspect in a criminal investigation, and the man's lawyer. Henderson explained he was on "day release".

According to the lawyer, Henderson then told his client a crime figure had issued a contract on his life. Henderson held himself out as being able to stop the hit, but only if the man helped him pinpoint the whereabouts of a third party, who presumably was of interest to the police. At that point, the lawyer terminated the meeting.

Henderson, the lawyer told the CMC, called a taxi and was last spotted being driven away from the hotel -- alone.

He continued to be taken out by the armed robbery unit until July 2003, albeit to less salubrious venues. His last outing was to the Brisbane Watch-house, where he clashed with the detective concerned, who concluded Henderson's information was "rubbish".

By then, though, he had chanced on a new way to scam his eager police handlers, this time by subverting the prison phone security system known as Arunta. Between July 2003 and April 2006 some 1241 calls from Henderson were diverted through the Cleveland police station, at a cost to the service of $2056.85.

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20 years after historic Fitzgerald inquiry, dark forces return to Queensland
Michael McKenna and Sarah Elks | July 23, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25822367-5006786,00.html

QUEENSLAND'S police service was rocked yesterday by revelations that 25 officers were involved in illegal and improper dealings with prisoners, including a convicted double murderer, provoking a warning from the state's top corruption fighter that the lessons of the Fitzgerald inquiry had been forgotten.

The report by the Crime and Misconduct Commission, released on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the landmark report by commissioner Tony Fitzgerald QC and coming only a week after the jailing of former state government minister Gordon Nuttall for taking bribes, sparked a political row over whether Queensland was sliding back into its notorious era of political and police corruption.

Three senior officers have been criminally charged, and the rest - including an inspector - face disciplinary action, with some already quitting the 10,000-strong police service.

Tabled in state parliament, the report - titled Dangerous Liaisons - invokes a return to the pre-Fitzgerald days, with police taking illegal payments, confecting charges and passing on confidential information to informants.

It also details police organising court-approved excursions out of jail for prisoners, who later dined at restaurants or had sex with their partners in exchange for confessions.

One prisoner, double murderer and former NSW underworld figure Lee Owen Henderson, was allowed out on unsupervised trips and organised a drug heist from maximum security on his unmonitored telephone line. CMC chairman Robert Needham said some mid-ranking officers had turned a blind eye or encouraged the behaviour.

But while Mr Needham said the corruption was "nowhere" near that of the 1970s and 80s, the lessons learned from the Fitzgerald report were fading among Queensland police.

Instead, the report showed a type of "noble corruption", where police were willing to break the law to solve crimes.

"It is concerning - it shows that 20 years on, the lessons from the Fitzgerald inquiry are gradually being diminished and being forgotten," Mr Needham said.

"And that's the role of the CMC, to be constantly vigilant and be constantly watching the QPS to ensure that when this sort of slippage or incremental relaxation of ethical standards does occur, that we're on top of it and that we are doing something about it."

Tony Fitzgerald's report found systematic corruption in the police force and government, with former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen later charged with perjury before being acquitted.

Five other ministers were jailed, and then police commissioner Terry Lewis led a procession of senior officers jailed for corruption.

The CMC's report was released just days after the jailing of former cabinet minister Nuttall for corruptly receiving $360,000 in secret commissions from two Queensland businessmen.

Mr Needham - who served as counsel assisting the Fitzgerald inquiry - recommended all Queensland police read the 140-page report into a three-year investigation, codenamed Operation Capri, to learn from the mistakes of others.

"We have 10,000 police officers," he said. "Out of those police officers, you are going to have some people who will succumb to the temptation of doing things in an improper way.

"That can only be stopped by the strict supervision of those middle-ranking officers."

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said the CMC report reinforced the need for Queensland's police officers to be "extra vigilant" to prevent future ethical slippage.

Mr Atkinson said the police had already changed or removed some of the practices in response to the investigation but said he could not guarantee unethical behaviour would never happen again.

"You can never, ever relax with this," he said. "There is always that need for vigilance and alertness and awareness."

In response to media questions, Premier Anna Bligh and Police Minister Neil Roberts said they were confident of the abilities of Mr Atkinson and said he should not be forced to resign.

Mr Roberts said the behaviour of the officers involved was "simply unacceptable" but the Queensland public could still have faith in the integrity of the state's police.

Describing the allegations as "unfortunate" and "shocking", Ms Bligh said the Fitzgerald reforms were still working.

She said the CMC was in place to detect offences and Mr Atkinson and the Queensland Police Service had taken steps to prevent corruption and improve the organisational culture.

"I think Queenslanders can be very confident that they have, in Bob Atkinson, a very strong Police Commissioner, who has very strong personal values, and they're conveyed every day to his officers," Ms Bligh said. The Premier said the police service had, post-Fitzgerald, developed a reputation of "integrity".

The report found corruption and misconduct across the police service, but particularly with the once lauded and now disbanded Armed Robbery Unit.

The unit was formed in 2001 after the banking and credit union associations offered to set up a fund to pay informants to help stop and solve then-spiralling armed robberies.

Almost immediately, the unit started paying prisoners to identify offenders captured on security cameras.

The unit soon became the "go to" squad in the Queensland Police Service after clearing scores of unsolved armed robberies. But the report found police hid the names of informers, kept poor records and even pocketed some of the money.

They also confected false explanations to magistrates to temporarily release prisoners in exchange for information and, in some cases, confessions.

In its report, the CMC defended the absence of charges against many of the officers, saying it had become apparent early in the investigation that it would be difficult to prosecute, despite evidence of criminal behaviour.

The CMC said this was because the star witnesses in many cases against police were criminals, often having been previously convicted of dishonesty offences.

It also said evidence taken from the CMC's "star chamber" examinations - where witnesses give evidence under oath or face jail - was inadmissible in court.

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Queensland police commissioner takes rap for scandalFont Size:
Sarah Elks | July 23, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25822349-5006786,00.html

POLICE Commissioner Bob Atkinson has accepted personal responsibility for the police misconduct revealed yesterday by the Crime and Misconduct Commission, but denies the revelations signal a return to the bad old days of pre-Fitzgerald inquiry Queensland.

The state government yesterday insisted it was confident there was no systemic corruption in the Queensland Police Service, while the police union dismissed the commission's report as a media stunt filled with "wild allegations" that could not be proven in court.

Premier Anna Bligh and Police Minister Neil Roberts immediately swung behind Mr Atkinson, saying he retained their full confidence.

Ms Bligh praised the Police Commissioner for his "strong personal values", which she said he conveyed "every day to his officers".

The CMC's bombshell report on Operation Capri was tabled in the Queensland parliament yesterday and implicated 25 police officers in misconduct, mostly relating to inappropriate dealings with convicted double murderer Lee Owen Henderson.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said the revelations were of "great concern" to the Queensland people, two decades after the Fitzgerald inquiry.

"It's important that those recommendations (in the CMC report) are carried out to the nth degree," Mr Langbroek said.

The Fitzgerald inquiry, which ran for two years in the late 1980s, uncovered widespread corruption in Queensland's police force, resulted in the jailing of police commissioner Terry Lewis and sparked the downfall of the state's National Party government.

Mr Atkinson yesterday admitted there had been ethical slippage within the Queensland Police Service but said the force had come a long way from the pre-Fitzgerald days.

"There is no comparison between the Queensland Police Service now and the Queensland Police Force as it was at the start of Fitzgerald, none whatsoever," he said.

"It is a totally different organisation, as it should be. (But) you can never ever relax with this.

"There is always that need for vigilance and alertness and awareness ... there is always room to improve."

Mr Atkinson said one of the "healthy signs" that the police had evolved was that now officers were arrested when they were caught drink driving.

He said that before the Fitzgerald inquiry, prosecuting a fellow officer for driving under the influence would have been "unthinkable" for most police.

Mr Atkinson said the police had already responded to matters raised during the CMC's investigation.

One change, he said, was that the police no longer accepted reward money from third-party organisations, such as banks and credit unions.

Of the 25 officers implicated by the CMC, 11 are still working for the police service after receiving "managerial guidance".

Mr Atkinson said he had "no difficulty" with that response because while those officers had breached procedures, they did not engage in misconduct or unethical behaviour.

But while Mr Atkinson said the CMC's revelations needed to be taken very seriously, the Queensland Police Union of Employees slammed the report as unbalanced and unfair.

Union general president Ian Leavers said the report was filled with "wild allegations".

"This is just the airing of a whole pile of allegations, mostly made by career criminals, that had so little credibility they could not satisfy the test to charge the officers concerned with criminal offences, let alone convict them," Mr Leavers said.

Three serving or former officers have been charged as a result of the CMC investigation and are facing court.

Mr Leavers said that if there was substance to the report's allegations, 20 or 30 officers would be facing charges, not just three.

He said the union was confident the three officers currently before the courts would be exonerated
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Bad cops to be kicked out fast
Kay Dibben
July 26, 2009 12:00am
Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25834386-952,00.html

.THE Crime and Misconduct Commission will follow last week's bombshell report by reviewing the police disciplinary system to make it easier to sack officers who shame their badge.

The immediate superiors of bad cops also should be made more accountable, CMC chairman Robert Needham said yesterday, in revealing the next step after the commission's Dangerous Liaisons investigation that implicated 25 officers in misconduct.

Mr Needham said the CMC would research and analyse existing Queensland Police Service disciplinary measures, which he believes are overly complex and often drawn out.

He said disciplining a cop now was like a "quasi criminal process".

"(Accused officers) bring in lawyers, they don't want to admit to anything they've done," Mr Needham said.

"They say: 'No, it didn't happen' and go into a big defence . . . sometimes it takes years to resolve. No one is satisfied and no one learns from it."

He said the system was out of step with some other Australian forces and other sections of the public service.

"In the public service, if you want to sack someone, you just call on them to show cause why their services shouldn't be terminated," he said.

But Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers defended the current disciplinary system and expressed concern that any changes could open the process to corruption.

"We could have a lot of innocent police who could have false allegations made against them by criminals with motives and police officers could be sacked," Mr Leavers said.

He said that in Victoria, where police can be sacked if they lose the confidence of the commissioner and the public, dismissal decisions have been overturned on appeal.

Mr Needham said police who made mistakes did not have to be sacked the first time, but should be put on a performance improvement process.

"The police officer should be strongly told how to behave and given guidance in how to deal with situations," Mr Needham said. "If it becomes apparent that this person is unable to reach the standard required of a police officer, you terminate them."

But Mr Leavers said such a system could be open to abuse if a supervisor held a grudge.

Although the investigation resulted in only three serving or former officers being charged with criminal offences from the 25 investigated, Mr Needham said he was happy with the outcome.

Some who were being investigated had resigned, he said. "The worst officers are now out of the service and I think this is a good result for the public," he said.

Police Minister Neil Roberts said he would be happy to discuss with Mr Needham an overhaul of the disciplinary system.
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Prisoner Lee Henderson spent $100k in six years
Kay Dibben
July 26, 2009 12:00am
Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25834405-3102,00.html

.THESE are the simple every-day items at the core of CMC allegations that some police extended exceptional privileges to selected hard-core prisoners.

They include fashionable clothing, expensive shoes, watches, wallets, sunglasses and toiletries.

It is the stuff that could be expected to be found in the wardrobe of any law-abiding man about town. But this property belonged to convicted murderer Lee Henderson.

It was found in a police station locker in Rockhampton that the criminal used during extraordinary unsupervised jail releases approved by officers investigated by the CMC.

Henderson had another personal locker stuffed with similar items at the Cleveland police station.

One locker also contained a false NSW birth certificate in the name of Revell Carroll.

Henderson, who is serving a life sentence, was taken out of Wolston Correctional Centre in Brisbane's west by police on nine occasions and removed from custody numerous times in Rockhampton, the CMC reported.

In Brisbane, Henderson was photographed at Brett's Wharf seafood restaurant. Another time, he went to the Belmont Tavern, in Brisbane's east.

Henderson also was given extraordinary phone privileges as a police informant.

Over a three-year period, 1241 calls from Henderson were diverted through Cleveland police station, at a cost of $2056.85. Henderson also made heavy use of the jail's prison phone system.

In one three-year period he logged $17,649.20 worth of calls that he paid for from his personal account.

The CMC report says Henderson spent more than $100,000 in six years, despite earning only $7500 as a prisoner.

The CMC's Dangerous Liaisons report said police were unable to explain how Henderson had acquired the items he stored in the police station lockers.

Officers also denied any knowledge of the fake birth certificate in the locker, although one detective sergeant told the commission he had been told by Henderson that it had been obtained from another law enforcement agency.

The report said those few police who were aware of the birth certificate took no steps to investigate its source or legal status.

In January 2004, a regional crime co-ordinator at Rockhampton had approved the purchase of a pre-paid SIM card for use by Henderson.

The SIM was purchased in the false name of Reb Carroll.

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Lee Henderson organised drug raid from cell
July 26, 2009 12:00am
.CONVICTED murderer Lee Henderson orchestrated a raid from his cell at the Wolston Correctional Centre to mask a $250,000 robbery of a drug trafficker, the CMC reported.
Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25834425-3102,00.html

A sports bag containing the money, along with a revolver and marijuana, was hidden on an outer Brisbane property.

Henderson, who had manipulated police as an informant, organised for the bag to be stolen after he convinced police to carry out a drug search on a neighbouring property, the CMC reported.

Evidence was given to the CMC that the bag was subsequently thrown over the fence from the property into the neighbouring yard that was being raided.

When it was eventually spotted by police, it contained Tupperware containers of marijuana.

The firearm and money already had been removed.

"The available evidence points to Henderson receiving at least $48,500 in bank notes from the sports bag," the CMC report said.
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Crime and Misconduct Commission details police sinsArticle from:
July 25, 2009 12:00am
Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25831299-3102,00.html

.SEVERAL astonishing incidents have been detailed in the Crime and Misconduct Commission corruption report which was released earlier this week.

SEX FOR CONFESSIONS: A prisoner who confessed to crimes (many of which he did not commit) was rewarded by police, who delivered his girlfriend to Morningside police station so they could have sex and inject drugs.

THE LOCKER: Convicted murderer Lee Owen Henderson had his own private locker at Rockhampton police station under his nickname "The General". It contained a range of clothing, wallets, a disposable camera and false birth certificate.

AMAZING WOMAN: One of Henderson's key associates on the outside was a woman he called "Amazing". The elderly charity worker maintained an "underworld contact" with the prisoner and carried out all his shopping and banking.

ON THE PUNT: Detective Sergeant Wayne Talbot allegedly opened a phone betting account in which funds from Henderson were deposited and used to place bets.

THE FAKE RAID: Henderson orchestrated from his prison cell a fake drug raid on the house of a trafficker so he could steal tens of thousands of dollars in cash.

THE CALLS: Henderson made almost 10,000 phone calls from jail at a cost of $17,649,20 – or $535 a month.

THE BABY GIFTS: Henderson sent a gift to a detective following the birth of his child and wrote on the card "to one of my best mates and also the best partner I've ever had".

THE FALSE TAPE: Panicked detectives who failed to properly document payments from the informant fund, fabricated an audio tape in an effort to cover themselves. The CMC found the tape was not made in a West End coffee shop with two detectives and an informant present – as claimed – but in the carpark of Police Headquarters with a police officer posing as the informant.

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Prisoner had sex with girlfriend in exchange for confession
Madonna King
July 25, 2009 12:00am
Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25830381-952,00.html

.IT'S almost too fanciful to be true: a prisoner is picked up from jail and taken for a drive by police officers through the suburbs on Brisbane's southside.

He's handed a list of unsolved break-and-enters, perhaps as many as 300. He reads the details: how entry was gained, what was taken, the time the crime was committed.

And he's told that he needs to admit to at least 20 to make his reward worthwhile.

What was that? According to evidence given by the prisoner to the Crime and Misconduct Commission, police collected his girlfriend and delivered her to Morningside police station.

And it was there where they engaged in sex and the prisoner injected himself with drugs his girlfriend brought.

The prisoner, called RI in the scathing report into police released this week, was not the only person allowed to come and go from their jail cell.

Murderers and armed robbers were allowed out of custody: one to meet his partner and young children in Roma Street Parkland for a play; another to lunch at a swish riverside restaurant.

The CMC's Dangerous Liaisons report, based on its Operation Capri, is not a repeat of the Fitzgerald inquiry - but it's certainly a reminder of how a bad lot of eggs can stink out a whole refrigerator. And with more than 25 officers implicated in wrongdoing - ranging from stupidity to outright criminal activity - it should not be dismissed as easily as it was this week.

The sheer brazenness of some officers seems to know no bounds. Take this example, also outlined in the report.

An informant fund existed, courtesy of the Australian Bankers Association and the Credit Union Security Forum. And over the period of its operation, 77 payments were made, a total of $17,990.

But no records were kept, an "end justifies the means" mentality meant that few rules existed, and money was misappropriated.

Police also falsely claimed payments had been made to informants, signatures were forged and evidence of transactions faked.

There's no better example of the latter than one outlined by Robert Needham and his team in their comprehensive and temperate investigation report.

In that example, officers faked an audiotape and produced it as proof of a payment to an informant. The audio was supposed to support a meeting between two officers and an informant at a coffee shop at West End.

But investigations showed it was made in carpark bay 148 on level B2 of police headquarters, and that a police officer assumed the role of an informant for the recording.

The litany of misdemeanours, maladministration and outright corruption weaves its way throughout the report, but it is Lee Owen Henderson, who is shown to have more influence on one group of officers than their own commissioner, Bob Atkinson.

Henderson had 1241 calls diverted through one police station, at a cost of $2056, and his monthly telephone call bill was $535 - a big sum for a prisoner without any obvious source of income.

But he was no ordinary prisoner. Called "The General", he had his own police locker, was able to arrange a police drug raid and despite earning only $7500 as a prisoner in a six-year period, spent at least $100,272.17.

He helped one officer buy a car, organised a theft from prison, and even sent two fluffy toys and two bibs - worth $85 - to a couple of police officers who were celebrating the birth of their baby daughter. He signed it "loyalty and love always".

Henderson was allowed to pose as an underworld crime figure with connections to corrupt police, had his own locker at the Rockhampton police station, and had access to police computers to help someone who wanted to give a "flogging" to a person they couldn't find.

The revelations this week are terrible but so is the response to them at every level.

The Police Union decided to go in to bat for those police officers who were subject to the report, not the 99.9 per cent of others who are honest and law-abiding and who will be tainted by the accusations levelled at their colleagues.

Commissioner Atkinson, who accepts responsibility for the misconduct, has allowed many of those under a cloud to resign on full benefits.

That means they've got off scot free.

And the Government? Originally elected on a post-Fitzgerald reform agenda, it seems to have decided silence is the best policy.

Queenslanders deserve better, especially those law-abiding, honest and hard-working police officers who will now be unfairly tainted by the wrongdoing of their unscrupulous colleagues.

Madonna King presents Mornings each weekday from 8.30am on 612 ABC Brisbane.
mado...@bigpond.net.au

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Queensland police cover old ground:
Editorial Courier Mail
July 25, 2009 12:00am
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25830509-5003642,00.html

.THE tragicomedy of modern Queensland policing revealed in the CMC's Dangerous Liaisons report this week is dispiriting to anyone who believes the state deserves to shed the reputation it acquired through the 20-year-old revelations of Tony Fitzgerald.

While the CMC's report does not indicate even a hint of the systemic corruption exposed by Fitzgerald, it does show that the Queensland Police Service is infected by the same poor management and lack of attention to proper process that typifies most of the Queensland public sector.

At the centre of the report is the operation of the police armed robbery unit and its use of prison informants to ostensibly help solve crime. Instead, one of them, convicted murderer Lee Owen Henderson, helped plan some crimes and positioned himself as a security consultant who used Queensland police resources to operate personal and financial affairs at whim - with the help of an elderly charity worker nicknamed "Amazing".

The report chronicles instances such as the faking of tape recordings to justify false payments of cash to informants who appear not to exist. It tells of many instances of police taking prisoners out for the day to secure confessions to crimes they did not commit in return for favours which, in one case, included sex and drugs (and maybe some rock and roll) in the backroom of a Brisbane police station.

But the most disturbing of all the revelations involves the police officer identified in the report as OT. He joined the service in 1986 and rose to become a detective sergeant with a high level of responsibility. Along the way he served with the Criminal Justice Commission, the body set up post-Fitzgerald to ride shotgun with reform of the police service. He should be the very model of a modern police officer - schooled in an environment which respects honesty and accountability.

Instead, he became the principal conduit to the svengalian Henderson. Along the way, he took $8000 in payments from the convict - money paid to him and his wife through postal orders in a way designed to be obscured. It included money for him to buy a car. He set up the system by which Henderson made thousands of telephone calls to family and criminal associates through the Cleveland police station switchboard. He accessed the police database to help Henderson locate a person who one of his associates wanted "flogged". And he lied to prison authorities about the length and value of his association with Henderson in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to secure him jail concessions.

The CMC believed its futile to pursue action against OT - even though it cites a paper trail of the money he received - because too much of the prosecution case would rely on the word of the criminal who paid it. Instead, it sought disciplinary action, but OT left the police before this could be put in train - as did most of the other officers caught in this web.

What a travesty. The thousands of honest police officers who serve Queensland deserve better. They deserve to have their reputations spared the opprobrium that the actions of officers like OT bring to the police service.

The actions listed in Dangerous Liasons inevitably give rise to comparisons between modern Queensland and Queensland of the '70s and '80s. While crooked cops like OT can get away with such actions with impunity, these comparisons will continue to be made.

But as Premier Anna Bligh stated after the conviction of her former cabinet colleague Gordon Nuttall, the difference is that the state now has a mechanism to catch such actions. The question this newspaper asks - and will continue to ask - is whether it is effective enough. The scale of misbehaviour unveiled by the CMC emanated from some random anonymous complaints, rather than from orchestrated detection. What else lies beneath the surface?

A minister will only solicit a donation from a businessman if he believes his behaviour is legitimate or he will get away with it. A policeman only helps a criminal and then takes money from him if he believes his behaviour is legitimate or he will get away with it.

The conviction of Nuttall last week and the revelations of corrupt police - all of whom should know what is legitimate - suggest that enough people still believe they can get away with it. This is hardly surprising, particularly given the broad spread of incompetence now evident in public life.

The Premier is four months into a three-year term. Our latest polling shows she would not have won an election a month ago, and she needs to gain a lot of ground to win again. She should do this by mounting a crusade against the incompetence within her Government. Incompetence and corruption are symbiotic. Loose systems give crooks room to spread their influence. Ms Bligh needs to aggressively tackle the incompetence of her Government if we are not to see many more instances of the corruption - within the police and more broadly in the public sector - that the CMC has identified through this investigation.

The rule appears to apply to all. It is similar to the provisions of the code relating to conspiracy to/ pervert, obstruct delay and the fabrication and destruction of evidence . However, it applies to obstructing the commission as apposed to justice in general , so , subject to the doctrines of res judicata and double jeopardy on same facts constituting the same offence not being able to be tried again, whomsoever does it, whether ministers , people who went through proceedings with the cmc from councils or whatever, then it also applies to them.

you can check www.legislation.qld.gov.au for the regulations that go with the act (and see the Qld Acts Interpretation Act 1954 on how to read , interpret and apply them) .

There has been a recent case in the court of appeal on perverting justice that might have some bearing on it also but I dont know yet.

I also remember a provision relating to lying to an entity that reports to the cmc , which I will link here when I find it.

Pat