Annastacia Palaszczuk's Government Continues to Face Media Scrutiny
Updated: Aug 10, 2022
Annastacia Palaszczuk is the Premier of Queensland, first appointed in 2015. Since early 2022, the Palaszczuk government has come under scrutiny regarding several different areas of alleged corruption.
Increase in Ombudsman’s Public Interest Disclosures Related to "Corrupt Conduct"
In April 2022, Ms. Palaszczuk was questioned by the media regarding the Ombudsman's Public Interest Disclosures Oversight Report which showed of 1766 disclosures, 1552 were related to "corrupt conduct" for the 2020/2021 period. This was almost double the 826 disclosures relating to corrupt conduct for the 2018/2019 period.
Ms. Palaszczuk responded to media questions by keeping focus on the Olympic Games:
“I’m just dealing with the Olympics today. Happy to answer any further questions tomorrow."
The questions came at a time when there were ongoing inquiries into the Office of Integrity Commissioner, the Office of the Independent Assessor and a formal Commission of Inquiry into the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Laptop Seizure
The Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission released the "Investigation Workshop:
An investigation into allegations of disclosure of confidential information at the office of the
Integrity Commissioner" in July of 2022. The report detailed that earlier media reports of the incident described as a "raid" or "seizure" were inaccurate and that the circumstances involving the memory wipe of a laptop was "wholly unremarkable":
"...the investigation concluded that:
i.There was no evidence of improper disclosure.
ii.The circumstances in which the laptops were retrieved from the Integrity Commissioner’s office were entirely ordinary, and the descriptions of ‘raid’ and ‘seizure’ do not reflect the reality of what occurred. Further, the circumstances in which one laptop was ‘wiped’ are wholly unremarkable.
iii.The information security arrangements in relation to information held by the Integrity Commissioner have been in place since the office’s inception. While there may be occasion to reconsider those arrangements as part of the broader review of the structural arrangements for the Integrity Commissioner, there was no evidence to suggest that these arrangements had led to any improper access of confidential Integrity Commissioner information."
Sources & Further Reading
https://canberraweekly.com.au/queensland-premier-annastacia-palaszczuk-avoids-corruption-question/