The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) values and respects the media’s role, offering a vital mechanism for communicating with the public and, importantly, ensuring openness and accountability in public life. The CMC acknowledges that editorial and opinion pieces form part of that healthy public debate.
That said, in response to an editorial published in The Courier-Mail today (‘CMC must set aside egos to keep faith’/8 November 2010), the CMC is disappointed by inaccurate claims related to the agency’s relationship with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and, in particular, Deputy Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders.
While it is not appropriate to comment on a separate case currently before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) related to the CMC’s application for a review of a 2009 disciplinary decision by Deputy Commissioner Rynders, it is important to clarify a number of points.
The Courier-Mail suggests the ‘timing is woeful’ as ‘Ms Rynders is undertaking the latest police review into the behaviour of officers who investigated the death of Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004’.
The CMC applied to QCAT for a review of the 2009 determination by Deputy Commissioner Rynders on 19 January 2010 — seven months before the Police Commissioner named her as the prescribed officer to independently determine any disciplinary proceedings against six affected officers involved in two police investigations related to the Palm Island death in custody of Mulrunji.
The appointment of Deputy Commissioner Rynders was the decision of the Police Commissioner and the CMC accepted it.
If the CMC is not satisfied with the course of action determined by Deputy Commissioner Rynders, the matter can then be taken to QCAT.
The CMC is not responsible for managing the QPS. That is the Police Commissioner’s role and that of his executive officers. The CMC’s role is to ensure high standards of integrity within the police service and other Queensland public sector agencies and to hold them accountable.
The CMC is following due process and, as such, the CMC’s relationship with the QPS is not ‘aggressive’, but reflective of healthy co-operation.
This co-operation, however, will not always mean that we’ll reach consensus — nor should it. If the CMC is to maintain high standards of integrity within the QPS and other public sector organisations, it is inevitable that there will be disagreement from time to time.
ENDS
