By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The Queensland Coalition government is lurching further into trouble following the resignation on October 29 of Kenneth Carruthers.
Carruthers quit as chief of the Criminal Justice Commission probe into an alleged corrupt deal between National Party police minister Russell Cooper and the Queensland Police Union after declaring that he had no alternative after "actual interference" in his investigations. He alleged that attempts by the state government-appointed inquiry into the CJC to "exert control" over him directly and threats to "use coercive power" against him in his investigation had stripped him of his independence.
The Borbidge government has been desperate to head off findings which might result in charges of official misconduct against Cooper and has, in recent months, launched a campaign of vilification against Carruthers and the CJC. Its attempt to hobble the Mundingburra inquiry was a final attempt to prevent a crippling embarrassment.
"This act of infamy heralds a return to the bad old days of former premier Joh Bjelke Petersen, when a corrupt and brutal regime based on police power ruled the roost in Queensland", Graham Matthews, Brisbane organiser of the Democratic Socialist Party, told Green Left Weekly. "The CJC, with all its faults, has been an obstacle to the state Coalition's plans to roll back the living conditions of workers, blacks, the poor and the environment by any means necessary and it's independence should be supported."
On October 31, Borbidge and Co survived a motion of no-confidence in state parliament, moved by the Labor opposition. Independent MP Liz Cunningham once again backed the government. Meanwhile, the CJC has moved to continue the Carruthers inquiry process by appointing two QCs to finalise the report which was well under way when Carruthers quit.