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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 Reputation s had been damaged. While the terms of the inquiry were initially narrow, restricted only to the specific Allegation s 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 Commission s 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 August 28, a Licensing Branch sergeant, Harry Burgess implicated Jack Herbert , assistant commissioner Graeme Parker . Parker confessed and implicated police commissioner Sir Terry Lewis on September 16.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 http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21714244-28737,00.html?from=public_rss . Based on the inquiry's final report, {Link without Title} a number of high-profile Politician s were charged with Crimes ; notably Queensland Police Commissioner (Sir) Terry Lewis was charged with corruption, and Bjelke-Petersen himself was charged with Perjury for evidence given to the inquiry. Lewis was convicted (and subsequently stripped of his Knighthood ), while the Bjelke-Petersen trial resulted in 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" {Link without Title} . REFERENCES
The Fitzgerald inquiry changed the face of Queensland politics. 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 |
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