[Applause]

Anthony Lynham: Ladies and gentlemen, of course the people of Stafford have spoken and tonight they have a new member of parliament.

Cathy Van Extel: What the people said was that they don't like what Campbell Newman and his government are doing.

Last weekend, surgeon Anthony Lynham won the inner Brisbane seat of Stafford with an 18.6% swing, delivering Labor its second resounding by-election victory in four months.

Annastacia Palaszczuk: This is about Campbell Newman not listening to Stafford, but it's symbolic because he's not just listening to people here in Stafford, he's not listening to Queenslanders right across the state.

Cathy Van Extel: For opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, the victory not only lifts Labor's parliamentary numbers to nine, it raises the prospect of what was only two years ago unthinkable; a possible return to government next year.

The LNP is facing the prospect of losing up to 40 seats, including the Premier's. Yet the day after being clobbered by the voters, Campbell Newman was sticking to his guns. Senior party and government members saw it differently, and by Monday's Cabinet meeting hard-headed decisions were made. A more contrite Premier fronted the media with a message that the government is now listening:

Campbell Newman: Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming. Cabinet today has considered the feedback we were given by the Queensland people in the electorate of Stafford over the weekend. And after a lot of discussion today and a lot of soul searching we would like to formally announce a few things that we are going to do, and essentially it's about reversing a few decisions.

Cathy Van Extel: The Premier's come under increasing pressure from within his own ranks about his combative, dictatorial leadership style.

Former Queensland Liberal Party vice-president and now commentator Graham Young believes a rookie government has taken on too much.

Graham Young: Campbell Newman is a soldier and there's a clear understanding in military history that you don't fight on too many fronts.

Cathy Van Extel: Is the LNP guilty of picking unnecessary fights?

Graham Young: I think some of the fights have been unnecessary, yes. The Chief Justice one was one were they could easily have put someone else in and avoided this problem that they've had.

Cathy Van Extel: It's the Newman government's strong law and order agenda that's brought it into direct conflict with the judiciary. That battle intensified during the by-election campaign with the controversial appointment of the Chief Justice. For some, the law and order campaign is an echo of Queensland's past.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen: We have to maintain law and order and we intend to maintain and order, and the government will not be dictated to by…

Cathy Van Extel: There's unease about attacks on the state's judiciary and corruption watchdog and, as Background Briefing will reveal, the closeness of the Queensland Police Service with the government.

Leading those concerns is Tony Fitzgerald, the man who lifted the lid on widespread police and political corruption of the '70s and '80s and mapped a path for reform. The retired judge declined to be interviewed for this story. His criticism of the Newman government has intensified since he first raised concerns last year over the LNP's controversial bikie laws.

Here's part of a recent statement:

'The LNP's first term in office has confirmed the critical importance of adequate checks and balances. The government has already flaunted its disdain for democracy and good governance by attacks on the judiciary and judicial independence, emasculation of the state's anti-corruption commission, interference with the electoral system, pursuit of self-interest, preferment of its supporters, and irrational, counter-productive and sometimes invalid criminal laws.'

Late last year Tony Fitzgerald broke a quarter-century silence to reveal the great toll on his family of the landmark inquiry. There were bomb scares and death threats. Armed police stationed in his home, patrolling at night with guns at hand.

Tony Fitzgerald's right hand man during the inquiry was senior counsel assisting Gary Crooke QC. He says those involved in the inquiry paid a high personal price.

Gary Crooke: Tony Fitzgerald and I during that inquiry would say 'this is hard going'. It wasn't easy, there was plenty of opposition to what we were doing, especially by those who had a lot of fear from being exposed. But we said this has taken four years out of our lives now, how many years will it take off the end of the life?

Cathy Van Extel: Gary Crooke is a former chairman of the National Crime Authority and Queensland Integrity Commissioner. He's now wondering if it's all been for nothing.

Gary Crooke: When you've given so much as Tony, and I tried to help him, did in that inquiry and you see things like this happening, you despair. How on earth after all that was demonstrated and accepted by the community as being the right way to go, how on earth today can everything be turned around by those in power to do their own thing?

Cathy Van Extel: In March, Gary Crooke and Tony Fitzgerald co-authored an article for the ABC's Drum, highly critical of the LNP's law and order campaign. Mr Crooke believes the Newman government is after absolute power:

Gary Crooke: Power is a magic word to them. It must be. They bulldoze their way through everything, despite reasoned warnings as to what they are doing is completely inappropriate. There is a list of things that have happened, each one aggregating upon the other. We've reached the stage, and I think the people think we've reached the stage that you wonder what excess is going to take place next.

Cathy Van Extel: For months the Newman government's been directly attacking the legal profession. It's accused judges and magistrates of living in ivory towers and being out of touch. Lawyers who defend bikies are hired guns of criminals. Critics of invalid laws apologists for paedophiles. But it's the controversial appointment of a new Chief Justice that's led to open hostilities with some of the leading lights of the legal profession.

Former Family Court judge Tim Carmody was catapulted into the position of Chief Magistrate last year. Nine months later he's become Queensland's top judge. It had some wondering whether Mr Carmody's promotion was due to his support for the Newman government's controversial bikie laws. The Chief Justice designate took the extraordinary step of defending his own appointment:

Tim Carmody: The innuendo is that somehow this government is like the corrupt Joh government and I'm one of their…I'm one of the stoolies that have been appointed by a corrupt government to undermine the courts. It's fantasy.

Cathy Van Extel: Under a barrage of criticism, the Premier Campbell Newman and the Attorney General took the unusual step of calling a press conference in the Supreme Court library to simultaneously announce and defend their choice.

Campbell Newman: Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Carmody has the credentials, has the CV, has the life experience, has the expertise in the law, and is the leader our court system and our legal system needs in this state.

Cathy Van Extel: Campbell Newman's keen to sell his new Chief Justice as a man of the people, from his humble beginnings growing up in a Housing Commission home, to working as a meat packer and then policeman, and eventually becoming a silk.

Former Solicitor General Walter Sofronoff told ABC TV the appointment could be seen as a reward for political loyalty and that Judge Carmody has neither the legal experience nor the peer support for the job.

Walter Sofronoff: Judge Carmody is somebody who has, by his own actions, identified himself too closely with the government. Judge Carmody is a person who has none of the necessary qualities of a Chief Justice of a Supreme Court of a state of Australia.

Cathy Van Extel: For two days, astounded Queenslanders watched the new Chief Justice engage in an unprecedented media blitz on TV and radio.

Steve Austin: The Honourable Tim Carmody, good morning to you.

Tim Carmody: Good morning Steve.

Cathy Van Extel: He used the media appearances to defend himself.

Tim Carmody: If my views happen to coincide with the government's views, that's pure coincidence. There'll be many times when I disagree with the government's position, but again, that's irrelevant to the job I'm doing.

Cathy Van Extel: Days later the story took another twist. Queensland Bar Association president Peter Davis resigns over the leaking of confidential conversations he had with the Attorney-General about the profession's lack of support for Mr Carmody.

Peter Davis: It was bizarre there was a launch of the Chief Justice on Thursday. The next thing that happened was, which was bizarre, was that Judge Carmody then engaged himself on radio on Friday morning, effectively helping the government sell himself, sell him as the next Chief Justice. Now, that's just unheard of, and then he just said some extraordinary things. At the launch he proclaimed his independence. No judge should have to do that.

Cathy Van Extel: The resignation of the Bar Association president turned up the temperature. Some of the state's top legal minds, including sitting and retired Supreme Court judges, urged Justice Carmody to withdraw.

The Queensland Premier told the legal profession to accept the decision and move on.

Campbell Newman: This guy's the best guy for the job and he has very strong support. I point out that the Queensland Law Society have backed him. On the day of the announcement, there were judges, QCs, the letters to the paper, the talk-back calls indicate that he's already I think established a bond with Queenslanders who see him for what he is, a decent guy, a thoroughly decent self-made man who will do a superb job as Chief Justice.

Cathy Van Extel: But there weren't many judges coming to Tim Carmody's defence. Retired Family Court judge Alastair Nicholson was one of the few who stood up for him.

Alastair Nicholson: I don't think Chief Justices in my experience necessarily have to be the brightest lawyer in the room. I think it's much more important that they are good leaders, they have integrity and they can show some vision, all those qualities, and of course they've got to be a good lawyer and there's no doubt I think that Carmody is one.

Cathy Van Extel: Justice Carmody was cutting a lonely figure, so much so not one Queensland Supreme Court judge had congratulated him. He explained how he felt about it to ABC Radio's Steve Austin.

Tim Carmody: I wish I didn't have to knock on their door and say, 'Hi, I'm your new Chief Justice, are we friend or foe?' but I will and I'll do that because that's what leaders do.

Steve Austin: What will it mean if members of the Queensland Bar Association do not attend your inauguration in July?

Tim Carmody: I think they'll be missing out on a very good event.

Steve Austin: Would you like them to attend?

Tim Carmody: Well, I would like the profession to show support and confidence and respect for the office of Chief Justice, regardless ofwhat they think about me.

Cathy Van Extel: For a century in Queensland, the swearing-in of a Chief Justice has been marked by a Westminster inspired tradition, a public ceremony of pomp and speeches attended by the entire legal profession in a display of respect and honour for the man at the pinnacle of the court. But a fortnight before the swearing-in there's doubt Tim Carmody will get his 'very good event'. Former Solicitor General Walter Sofronoff reveals there's talk of a boycott.

Walter Sofronoff: Nobody knows whether there's going to be a public swearing-in, or whether if there is one who will attend or more importantly who will not attend. Nobody knows whether the Bar Association will be officially represented or not, and there's been talk of the ceremony being not held at all and the new Chief Justice being sworn in instead in privacy at Government House.

Cathy Van Extel: As the date for the inauguration drew near, it was clear there was a crisis brewing.

Campaigning at a school in his electorate, Campbell Newman confirms nothing is decided when Background Briefing asks about the ceremony:

Premier, what arrangements are in place for the swearing-in of the Chief Justice?

Campbell Newman: Of course he'll be sworn in, but as to the arrangements, they're not finalised yet.

Cathy Van Extel: Will they be at Banco Court?

Campbell Newman: Oh, look, he'll be sworn in the normal way. I imagine it'll be in accordance with the normal protocols and traditions.

Cathy Van Extel: And if people don't turn up? What will that say about your appointment?

Campbell Newman: Well, it says something about the people who didn't turn up. Doesn't say anything about the appointment.

Cathy Van Extel: A week later the government announced the normal protocols and traditions had been abandoned, there was to be a private ceremony instead, attended only by Justice Carmody's immediate family.

News reader: Queensland's new Chief Justice is being officially sworn in behind closed doors. Chris O'Brien is at the Supreme Court's complex in Brisbane and, Chris, how is the event unfolding?

Chris O'Brien: Nicole, it's very difficult to say what's happening because it is a private ceremony. Until a few minutes ago we didn't even know if we would see Judge Carmody arriving but I can confirm that he has arrived with his wife and members of his immediate family to be sworn in as Chief Justice. This secret, private ceremony…

Cathy Van Extel: Former Solicitor General Walter Sofronoff says the private ceremony saved the new Chief Justice and the government the embarrassment of empty seats.

Walter Sofronoff: Well, there was a real feeling at the bar of which I'm aware that a lot of people weren't going to go. I don't know what the position of the judges would have been but I notice that many, many of them found a great need to be out of the state.

Cathy Van Extel: The controversy is unprecedented in Australia; never before have so many senior legal figures been embroiled in such a public debate. It took the voters of the inner Brisbane seat of Stafford to get the government to take stock.

Campbell Newman: We acknowledge there has been some bad blood there in recent times and I will be therefore seeking a meeting with the senior members of the leadership team and the Attorney General and the heads of the legal profession and the judiciary to sit down and really mend some fences, to actually sit down and very much recognise…

Cathy Van Extel: There's concern in the legal profession, even amongst opponents of the Carmody appointment, that the controversy has undermined the judicial system.

But Fitzgerald Inquiry figure Gary Crooke QC says there's a time when the judiciary must defend itself.

Gary Crooke: The office of Chief Justice and the respect for the judiciary is a centre-point of our democracy. But it's one thing to say you have to have respect for the office, but when what leads to the creation of the office is a complete disregard of any proper principles that relate to such an important appointment, the whole process must be railed against. Otherwise it's just left to pass as being something that's within the purview of government and 'don't you worry about that'. We've heard that before.

Cathy Van Extel: One of the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry was the creation of an independent watchdog to avoid a repeat of the corruption that flourished under the Bjelke-Petersen government. Over the past 25 years there's been little love from either side of politics for the body. But it's the latest Newman government reforms that have caused the greatest uproar.

Annastacia Palaszczuk: This is a disgrace, a complete and utter disgrace. This is a cover up, this is absolutely a cover up, and what we have now…

Cathy Van Extel: In parliament late last year, the opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk discovers plans to sack the PCMC, the parliamentary committee with oversight of the corruption watchdog.

Liz Cunningham: The first I knew that I was out of a job was when the legislation was brought into parliament and passed that night.

Cathy Van Extel: The chair of the PCMC was Independent MP Liz Cunningham, a 19-year parliamentary veteran who in the mid '90s brought the conservative Borbidge minority government to power.

Her committee was sacked after going public with concerns that it had been lied to by the acting chair of the corruption watchdog about a newspaper article he'd written in favour of the controversial bikie laws.

Liz Cunningham says the acting chair, Ken Levy, had a case to answer.

Liz Cunningham: There was information of grave concern to me as chair and to others and on the basis of those concerns I tabled documents that I think clearly reflect on the manner in which Dr Levy related to our committee and the manner in which he gave evidence to our committee. The government claimed that our committee was biased because some of the members were stating during those hearings that Dr Levy should resign.

Cathy Van Extel: Liz Cunningham believes the PCMC will no longer provide independent oversight of the corruption watchdog because it's now government controlled.

John Battams: The purpose of today's gathering was to ensure that the people of Stafford understood that there are a great many ordinary Queenslanders who are extremely concerned about this state government.

Cathy Van Extel: During the Stafford by-election, Union boss John Battams hosted a family day to campaign against the LNP's controversial reforms and its privatisation plans. The government was forced to hold the by-election because of a falling out with one of its own. Parliamentary first timer Chris Davis, a former state AMA president, resigned. Two days ahead of the poll, Mr Davis joined an ABC by-election broadcast in Stafford:

Chris Davis: I was encountering an enormous amount of hostility in speaking out on those issues, and they were not trivial matters. They're actually issues that get to the heart of our democracy that caused a lot of grief in Queensland in previous years. So I just couldn't continue being part of an arrangement where there was the perception now that we were not always putting the public interest first.

Cathy Van Extel: One of the most contentious changes to the corruption watchdog was the removal of political bipartisanship in the appointment of the chair, which Tony Fitzgerald warned could lead to a loss of independence.

Two days after the LNP's by-election drubbing, the Premier backed down.

Campbell Newman: In relation to the changes to the Crime and Corruption Commission, we're saying today that we will reinstate full bipartisan appointment of the chairman of the CCC. So we'll restore the situation as it has been in the past.

Cathy Van Extel: Tony Fitzgerald had warned that without an independent chair, the corruption body could be used as a political tool, and he called the government 'inexperienced and arrogant fools'. Over the Chief Justice appointment he called them 'megalomaniacs'.

Former Liberal Party executive Graham Young believes the attacks by Tony Fitzgerald have been damaging.

Graham Young: Well, it does play badly because he's been sanctified in the process of Queensland politics and therefore people take what he says more seriously than they take what other people say.

Cathy Van Extel: Graham Young has accused Tony Fitzgerald of going too far.

Graham Young: I don't know where Tony Fitzgerald gets off. He's not Moses. The Fitzgerald Committee of Inquiry report was a paperback last time I looked, not tablets of stone. And when he makes these comments he is never specific about what the problem is. You know, he'll use terminology which in my view is quite inappropriate for someone of his stature, taking about, quote, 'these megalomaniacs in charge of Queensland', but he won't actually point to instances of megalomania. Now, I think that that is an abuse of his standing and I'm not sure where he's coming from.

Cathy Van Extel: Graham Young believes the criticism by Tony Fitzgerald and others of the government's reforms is unjustified.

Graham Young: I was one of those people who was very opposed to the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government and the way that it was carrying on. I can't see, looking at what the government's doing, that there's been any debauching of the reforms that came in after Tony Fitzgerald. And in fact these structures have been fiddled around with by both sides.

Cathy Van Extel: The LNP wants to put an end to what it describes as frivolous or politically motivated complaints. But former corruption watchdog commissioner, Griffith University criminologist Ross Homel, believes the new tougher rules will deter whistle-blowers.

Ross Homel: We had a lot of do with whistle-blowers as commissioners in those days, and I came to appreciate that whistle-blowers perform an absolutely fundamental service, even when their claims are not ultimately vindicated through a court. Now, some forms of whistle-blowing are being strongly discouraged through the new legislation, even to the extent of possibly being criminalised, and so I think this is a very, very bad direction to go in.

Cathy Van Extel: The scope for the watchdog has been narrowed, and it also now needs approval from the Attorney General to conduct research, including research into such thing as political donations. Fitzgerald Inquiry special prosecutor Doug Drummond QC, who helped convict former police commissioner Terry Lewis and dozens of others, told ABC TV the reforms could leave the door open to the kind of corruption uncovered by the ICAC inquiry in New South Wales.

Doug Drummond: It's quite obviously not intended to encourage corruption but it's equally clearly intended not to impede the government in its many activities, including its fund raising activities. I think there's little doubt that we're at real risk of money, money interests, acquiring benefits which shouldn't legitimately acquire.

Cathy Van Extel: The ABC TV Four Corners program 'Moonlight State' was one of the catalysts for the Fitzgerald Inquiry:

Journalist: But the most distinguished double standard of all is the enforced monopoly in place. Competition in Queensland's vice industry is actively discouraged. There is a cooperative of ownership, of management of the unlicensed nightclubs, the massage parlours, the escort agencies and the illegal casinos. There is a strong case to show that instead of prosecuting these people, the police prefer to protect them.

Gary Crooke: There's always a concern about the police force being too close to the government, and it's something, just like corruption, that you've got to keep a very careful eye on, and that was one of the deeply rooted problems at the time of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, that the police were a tool of the government.

Cathy Van Extel: A quarter of a century on, there's a worry that an unhealthy relationship's brewing between police and the government.

The Newman government's controversial bikie laws were rushed in just two weeks after a brawl between bikies at a Gold Coast restaurant last September. Initially, the Police Union warned the new laws could endanger officers because bikies would take more risks to avoid arrest.

Leaked internal emails revealed the government believed police had failed to respond to criminal motor cycle gangs. Officers were warned to carry out the mission or be shown the door. Since then, police have changed their tune. The bikie laws are at the heart of a power struggle at the very top of the police service, where rival officers are competing for the attention of government.

Australian Council of Civil Liberties President Terry O'Gorman believes some senior police are falling over themselves to please the Newman government.

Terry O'Gorman: The senior executive service are not there to call blazing press conferences every time a bikie is pinched to say how good and how effective this bikie legislation is, because they are deliberately, in doing that, moving into the area of political comment and political support of the government for legislation that is highly controversial.

Cathy Van Extel: Since the laws came in, police have been conducting a rolling crackdown on bikies. Of the 1,100 bikies arrested so far, only 11 of them have actually been charged under the controversial laws. Yet in recent months the government's been praising the bikie laws for a drop in state-wide crime. During the by-election campaign for the Brisbane seat of Stafford, the Premier was citing preliminary crime statistics that the police service was still collating.

Campbell Newman: Because we've made tough decisions in relation to protecting Queenslanders and their families from criminal gangs and juvenile youth justice issues, particularly in our regional cities, crime in Queensland is down, depending on location and depending on category of offence, between 15% and 30%. And this is not happening anywhere else in Australia.

Cathy Van Extel: Extraordinarily, just five days before the Stafford by-election, the Police Commissioner backed the Premier's comments. The statistics wouldn't be finalised for up to six weeks, yet, after briefing Cabinet, Ian Stewart gave interviews to the Courier Mail newspaper and ABC Local Radio's Steve Austin.

Steve Austin: The Commissioner of the Queensland Police is Commissioner Stewart. Commissioner Ian Stewart, good morning to you, thanks for coming on this morning.

Ian Stewart: Steve, my pleasure, and good morning to all your listeners.

Steve Austin: Are the Premier's figures accurate?

Ian Stewart: Across the board for reported crime, certainly I think that we're in that space. It takes a little while for those figures to settle after the end of the financial year and we're in that period at the moment. But I think that this is going to be an absolutely good news story for the whole of Queensland.

Cathy Van Extel: The interview infuriated Civil Liberties President Terry O'Gorman, who called in to the program.

Steve Austin: Terry O'Gorman, good morning to you.

Terry O'Gorman: Morning Steve.

Steve Austin: What's the problem with the preliminary releasing of crime statistics that look good?

Terry O'Gorman: Well, the Police Commissioner ought full well know that Police Commissioners do not release nor do they initiate, nor respond to discussion about crime statistics in the lead-up to either by-elections or full state elections.

Cathy Van Extel: Terry O'Gorman warned it was the kind of thing that happened under the Bjelke-Petersen government.

Terry O'Gorman: During the '70s and '80s police used to regularly release crime statistics that were wrong in order to support the government of the day.

Cathy Van Extel: The Police Commissioner has defended talking to the media in the dying days of the by-election campaign.

Ian Stewart: I was simply talking about the performance of the Queensland Police Service and quite proudly talking about it.

Cathy Van Extel: Surely you should have been mindful it was a political…you were entering a political arena?

Ian Stewart: As the Police Commissioner I was talking about the Queensland Police Service. What occurs in government and the statements they make for whatever reason is a matter for them. I was simply acknowledging that our people have worked very, very hard over 12 months to do a wonderful job for Queensland.

Cathy Van Extel: There's a perception there that you were giving the government a helping hand in the last days of the campaign.

Ian Stewart: And certainly there will be those in the community who may wish to think that way. What I was doing was telling the truth to a media question that I was asked.

Cathy Van Extel: While Ian Stewart concedes there was an unhealthy relationship between police and government in the past, he says all that's changed.

Ian Stewart: I certainly believe that there was a danger then but I think the levels of accountability since Fitzgerald have ensured that we never see that type of relationship ever emerge.

Cathy Van Extel: Last year the police service stopped publishing its annual Statistical Review which provided the public a detailed snapshot of crime across the state. Criminologists say this has made independent analysis of police data difficult. Even the corruption watchdog needs the Attorney-General's permission if it wants to research crime trends.

In the courtyard of an inner Brisbane bookstore is Bond University criminologist and former police officer Terry Goldsworthy. He was one of the speakers at a forum on whether Queensland is returning to the bad old days. Dr Goldsworthy raised his worry that police are once again being used as a political tool.

Terry Goldsworthy: We're seeing I think to a degree some politicisation of the police in that we're having a melding of operational imperatives for the police getting taken over as a political narrative to some degree, which I don't think is healthy. You should leave the police separate, let them do their job and the politics stay out of it. How far that goes will be the question, and I see today that the Police Union came out and made comment about the appointment of the Chief Justice. You want a Chief Justice to be perceived as independent and if you've got a Police Union coming out and saying that they're the man they want, that would create perceptions of bias.

Cathy Van Extel: One of the concerns raised at the forum was the role of the media in selling the government's bikie laws. This particular ABC report came up for criticism:

Mark Willacy: Today's targets are three Hells Angels standover specialists.

Cathy Van Extel: This ABC TV 7.30 story is part of a string of media reports that give police prime time coverage for bikie arrests.

[Audio of police raid]

Reporter Mark Willacy was imbedded in a police raid on what he acknowledged was one of the most organised and violent gangs of them all; the Hell's Angels.

Mark Willacy: With the sun starting to rise, Taskforce Maxima moves in. The trap has been sprung and police bust their way into the bikies' apartment.

Carl Judge: If you're going to take people who aren't part of the operation along with you for the ride, you'd better be sure what you're walking into.

Cathy Van Extel: Former plain clothes police officer Carl Judge is a first term politician who won an inner Brisbane seat for the LNP only to quit the party within the first year to sit as an independent and then join the Palmer United Party. Mr Judge believes police are putting civilians at risk for the sake of a good news story.

Carl Judge: Now, having been a police officer for 20 years, I can tell you, you don't know what you're walking into.

Cathy Van Extel: You've expressed concern about the closeness between the Police Department and the government; is this Police Department delivering for its political masters?

Carl Judge: Well, I think you'd be…there'd be grounds for forming that view. What other purpose is there of having those reporters in that situation?

Cathy Van Extel: Running the length of a wall of Carl Judge's electorate office is a row of framed tertiary qualifications in policing and child safety. It's an area of law he has a strong interest in and last year he presented a private members bill proposing to overhaul the state's child protection offender reporting system. The bill was sent to the LNP-dominated Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee, but both the state and the Queensland Police Service refused to make a submission.

Carl Judge: I think really when we've got to that point, alarm bells should be ringing, especially when the legislation impacts the Queensland Police Service, their service delivery and the roles of police. For the Queensland Police not to provide comment on legislation or proposed legislation of that nature would indicate to me that something's wrong.

Cathy Van Extel: The committee's deputy chairman, Independent MP Peter Wellington, another former policeman, believes the Queensland Police Service is fearful of upsetting the government.

Peter Wellington: Our leadership team of the police service in Queensland at the moment isn't prepared to make a submission to a parliamentary committee about a proposal that's come from a non-government member because I believe they're afraid that their advice might contradict the advice of the government. So this is actually ridiculous.

Cathy Van Extel: The veteran MP is disgusted that police would not give advice on this sensitive issue of child safety.

Peter Wellington: When the parliamentary committee is considering a proposed change to the law that impacts on our police service and the police service is not prepared to make a submission is wrong.

Cathy Van Extel: Commissioner Ian Stewart confirmed to Background Briefing that Queensland Police have declined to make submissions, saying the matters were already covered by existing laws.

Ian Stewart: There was no necessity for us to provide any further submission to this committee because there was nothing I could do to further the argument.

Cathy Van Extel: But isn't that a contribution in itself that would have been useful to the committee?

Ian Stewart: From my perspective, no, because all I would've been doing is wasting their time.

Cathy Van Extel: Under Sir Joh, Queensland was effectively put up for sale to the highest bidder; big political favours were delivered for big political donors. The worry is the scene has been set for the same thing to happen again. The government has lifted the declaration limit for political donations from $1,000 to $12,400. It was this that triggered the Stafford by-election in inner Brisbane, when the LNP's Chris Davis lost confidence in the government and resigned.

Chris Davis: Giving money to a political party does come generally with an expectation of a quid pro quo, some return on the investment. So I don't accept that we that should've been going in the direction of the Commonwealth.

Cathy Van Extel: The unpopular change to the donations laws proved untouchable in the government's by-election disaster mop-up. While the Premier was willing to abandon some controversial decisions, this wasn't one of them.

Campbell Newman: We had the need to line those up with the federal arrangements so there wasn't an inconsistency, and we had legal advice that said that was the case. So, yes, we considered that and the answer is that at the end of the day we felt there were compelling reasons, legitimate reasons to go that way.

Cathy Van Extel: The Queensland Liberal National Party is the highest earning political machine in the country. Donations are pouring in from property developers and miners. The LNP is amassing a huge war chest ahead of next year's election when it'll be seeking a mandate for the biggest privatisation of infrastructure in the state's history.

Independent MP Liz Cunningham says the changes to the donation rules aren't necessarily a problem, but taken in context of the fiasco with the Chief Justice and the white-anting of the watchdog on corruption, she has big concerns.

Liz Cunningham: I think it's the aggregation of issues that the LNP have done. They've done this on the back of changes to the Chief Justice, they've done this on the back of changes to the CCC, the CMC, and all it does is it kind of continues to tell that story that they don't want to be accountable. I think that's where…it's a like a chapter in a book and it's not a book that everybody wants to read. In fact the community don't want to read it.

Cathy Van Extel: On the 3rd of July 1989, conservative premier Mike Ahern was handed a copy of the Fitzgerald Report:

Mike Ahern: …of these matters. There will be within the next couple of days an implementation unit established within the Premier's Department, as is prescribed in Tony's report, and that will report to me on a daily basis on the implementation of these recommendations. We'll do them as quickly as is humanly possible.

Cathy Van Extel: 25 years on, Tony Fitzgerald and his right hand man Gary Crooke believe they're watching the LNP undo the hard-won reforms to clean up Queensland and make sure it never happens again.

Gary Crooke: It just can't be justified, especially having regard to what happened in Queensland and what was exposed in Queensland 25 years ago. If they read the Fitzgerald Report, they would be able to tick boxes on just about every page about 'thou shalt not'. What they're doing at the moment can only breed the gravest mistrust.

Cathy Van Extel: Background Briefing's coordinating producer is Linda McGinness, research Anna Whitfeld, technical production Joe Wallace, the executive producer is Wendy Carlisle. I'm Cathy Van Extel.