Fitzgerald Inquiry

The Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland Police corruption was a judicial inquiry presided over by Tony Fitzgerald QC. The inquiry was established in response to a series of articles on high-level police corruption in "The Courier-Mail" by reporter Phil Dickie, followed by a "Four Corners" report, aired on 11 May 1987, entitled "The Moonlight State" with reporter Chris Masters. With Queensland's Premier of 18 years, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, out of the state, his deputy Bill Gunn ordered a commission of inquiry.

The allegations aired in the media were not new; they had surfaced from time to time and some news organisations had been forced to pay damages to aggrieved people who alleged their reputations had been damaged. While the terms of the inquiry were initially narrow, restricted only to the specific allegations raised against specific persons named in the media over a period of just five years, Fitzgerald used his moral authority to lever the inquiry into a position of being able to inquire into any relevant matter.

This enabled him to set a new precedent for Royal Commissions in Australia generally, using innovative methods such as indemnities from prosecution for key witnesses to secure vital evidence. The inquiry was initially expected to last about six weeks; it instead spent almost two years conducting a comprehensive investigation of long-term, systemic political corruption and abuse of power in Queensland.

On 28 August, a Licensing Branch sergeant, Harry Burgess implicated Jack Herbert, assistant commissioner Graeme Parker. Parker confessed and implicated police commissioner Sir Terry Lewis on 16 September.http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21714244-28737,00.html?from=public_rss]

The inquiry would eventually outlive the Bjelke-Petersen government. Evidence revealed by the investigation (including testimony from Bjelke-Petersen himself) caused significant political damage and an internal power struggle within the National Party, resulting in Bjelke-Petersen resigning as Premier after his unsuccessful attempt to have the Governor sack all of his ministers after they deposed him as party leader.

Jack Reginald Herbert had been the bagman, collecting bribes for police commissioner Terry Lewis from 1980. Lewis himself had been a bagman for former commissioner Frank Bischof .

Based on the inquiry's final report, [http://www.cmc.qld.gov.au/data/portal/00000005/content/81350001131406907822.pdf] a number of high-profile politicians were charged with crimes; notably Queensland Police Commissioner (Sir) Terry Lewis was charged with corruption, and Bjelke-Petersen himself was charged with and later acquitted of perjury for evidence given to the inquiry.

Lewis was convicted (and subsequently stripped of his knighthood), while the Bjelke-Petersen trial resulted in an acquittal due to a hung jury amidst allegations that the jury foreman (later revealed to be the leader of the youth wing of Bjelke-Petersen's National Party) had misrepresented the state of deliberations to the judge. Bjelke-Petersen's trial was later the subject of a TV movie, "Joh's Jury" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156649/] .

References

*Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct, [http://www.cmc.qld.gov.au/data/portal/00000005/content/81350001131406907822.pdf "Fitzgerald Inquiry report"] , Government Printer, Brisbane, 1989.

Further reading

*Jack Herbert with Tom Gilling, "The Bagman: Final Confessions of Jack Herbert", ABC Books 2004, ISBN 0-7333-1412-0
*Evan Whitton, "The Hillbilly Dictator", Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1989, ISBN 0 642 12809 X
*Phil Dickie, "The Road to Fitzgerald" University of Queensland Press 1988