Corruption commissioner Tony Fitzgerald in 1990 (detail). (Photo: Queensland Newspapers. Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Margo: Tony Morris QC, who, like Brandis, I was at law school with at Queensland University, wrote an opinion piece in today’s Courier Mail critiquing Tony Fitzgerald and backing Tim Carmody’s appointment as Chief Justice of the Queensland Supreme Court. But he has privately condemned it, exposed by the ABC’s Melina Howells June 18,2014.
Tony Fitzgerald’s statement in reply today, August 4, 2014:
“Another day, with still more boring News Corporation ‘ignore the merits, dissent is bias’ blather. It’s become easy to predict the next stage leading up to the election.
1. The judges of the Supreme Court Trial Division and Court of Appeal will continue to carry out their duties in accordance with their oaths of office.
2. The government will suspend its open attacks on the judiciary and hope that the public forgets the damage that it has inflicted on the State’s courts and anti-corruption commission.
3. The government will generally be more circumspect in rewarding its supporters but it will continue its steps to return the judicial gene pool to its previous male-only, ‘people like us’ composition. My former associate Tony Morris will receive an appropriate offer.
4. The government will persist in its ‘law and order’ populism, but it will tone down its rhetoric. Its previous belligerence will be replaced by something unintelligible but soothing such as: ‘Its total focus on its strong plan to make Queensland the safest place in Australia to live, work, and raise a family.’
5. News Corp will continue to act as chief government propagandist, cheerleader and attack dog while masquerading as a news provider.”
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News Corpse Queensland edition of "Opinion News" carried a Fitzgerald hatchet job by Tony Morris QC.
Tony Morris had his Inquiry shut down "on the grounds of apprehended bias".
Link : http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/court-edict-kills-inquiry-into-patel/2005/09/02/1125302746462.html
Perfect for the phone hacking, police bribing American owner to publish such an attack.
This is a repeat of the Joh years when for a decade Murdochs "Courier Main" (Opinion News) went along with Joh Bjelke-Petersen until those pesky southerners (bloody left wing ABC types …. as Joh would say) came up to Queensland and started to investigate …. then the Courier Mail had no choice but to join in.
I look forward to the day Abbott stands over the grave of Murdoch and mangles his eulogy ….. and it gets reprinted across the world.
Well put John Fraser.
Hi John, not quite true about the Courier-Mail after Greg Chamberlain took over editorship in March 1987 – he gave Phil Dickie a license to go as hard as he liked in pursuing corruption stories; and Dickie was already on the trail months before that. Without him, we wouldn’t have had a Fitzgerald Inquiry in the first place – it’s not like they joined in after Chris Masters and Four Corners blew the lid off; Dickie was there first. Only giving credit where due.
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@Andrew
Absolutely not.
For Chris masters to even imagine Queensland to be corrupt he had to receive information well before he went to 4 Corners and pitched his story.
By March 1987 prostitution in Brisbane was so entrenched schoolboys travelling home via Fortitude Valley used to be able to point out the knock shops it was such common knowledge.
In late 1982 fans leaving the Gabba after a Test series were able to see and comment on punters lining up to go through the back door of the Fantasia brothel in the old Bank of New South Wales building that fronted Logan Road.
Punters from the old "The Sun" were regulars at the gambling dens in Fortitude Valley …. the ones who drank in the Empire Hotel long before the crew who moved into the Hacienda.
The crew that drank at the Hacienda availed themselves of the freebies in the brothels.
The only thing missing was a 40 foot sign hanging of the Story Bridge by 1984 …. and plenty of the cops thought they could do it and get away with it.
Theres no credit due when printing what is already common knowledge …. a fallacy perpetrated by Murdochs mob …. Dickie is just one of the recipients of it.
Fitzgerald's Inquiry still only touched a part of it.
It never went deep enough to expose those who handed out hot shots of heroin to those they wanted to shut up.
It never caught those who imported and sold that heroin.
Only the police at the top paid the penalty …. possibly as many as 100 police should have been charged with aiding and abetting, prostitution, drug sales, and graft …. at the very least.
No Andrew ….. if prostitution and gambling were so entrenched in brisbane in 1982 why did it take so long for Murdochs "Courier Mail" to finally report it in 1987.
The "Courier Mail" certainly didn't hide their light when it came to publishing everything the religious Bjelke-Petersen ranted about when it came to god fearing and crime.
So why was there such a massive time lapse … 1982-1987 ?
Don’t we just love lawyers like us as we were or are, where our clearly enunciated statement of claims uncomplicate complicated matters.
Australia has been a Murdochracy since 1974 or so, when Murdoch decided that Coalition governments best suited his needs as a winner take all businessman.