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Bligh government corruption savaged by Tony Fitzgerald QC

Jennifer Nash | 04.08.2009 01:32 | Education | Health | Repression | World

Former Queenslander, Fitzgerald Inquiry Commissioner and respected corruption fighter, Tony Fitzgerald QC, has savaged Queensland Labor's corruption, cronyism and secrecy during its 12 years in power.  http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25851749-5013871,00.html

4BC Brisbane Radio interview with Chuck Brooks - mp3 5.3M


Call for state to act on corruption claims
Call for state to act on corruption claims

Bias in discrimination tribunal
Bias in discrimination tribunal


On the 20th anniversary of his Queensland corruption report, Mr Fitzgerald told a 260-strong audience in Brisbane that Labor considered accountability to be “collateral damage” in its fight to retain power.

Mr Fitzgerald’s address comes just days after front page news uncovered serious and continued police corruption in Queensland.

Former Queensland Premier, Wayne Goss, has echoed the concerns of Tony Fitzgerald about the state sliding back into its dark past.

“This is the biggest crisis of integrity the Labor government has faced since the Shepherdson Inquiry (into electoral rorting) in 2001” said Political analyst, Dr Paul Williams.

Daily Telegraph journalist, Piers Akerman, also writes a damning account of corruption in his article “Corruption is a growth industry”  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sunday-telegraph/corruption-is-a-growth-industry/story-e6frewt0-1225757034133

All this of course comes as absolutely no surprise to judicial abuse and corruption victim, Jennifer Nash, and her long suffering teenage son, who had to leave school due to severe school bullying, education discrimination, neglect and political corruption.

The unrepresented 12 year old Brisbane school boy and his mother where then repeatedly bullied and “systematically abused and terrorised” by the politically appointed judiciary, who were aggressive, refused to hear them, refused to acknowledge human rights principles, refused to abide by the rule of law and repeatedly denied the student legal youth advocacy like many other children.

The traumatised school boy endured several harrowing court hearings in the Queensland Anti Discrimination Tribunal, where he and his mother were subjected to gross judicial misconduct, and where the law was repeatedly misapplied in hearings lasting up to 7½ hours (seven and a half).

In the end the tearful boy could no longer tolerate the abusive and galling Tribunal hearings and told his mother that it was just too much for anyone to bear, and the family did not return to the uncivilised human rights Tribunal for further harm, in the absence of any legal protection.

The poisonous and overtly biased Tribunal President then dismissed the school bullying and education discrimination complaint, and ordered the juvenile to pay Education Queensland more than $ 28,000 in legal costs based on the 1851 (eighteen fifty one) Infants Law Act.

The costs order contravenes the Queensland Anti Discrimination Act (1991), The Rights Of The Child, The Rights Of The Disabled and the International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights (1976) signed by Australia, which is the legislation on which the Tribunal relies on for its operation.

When Jennifer Nash later obtained the courtroom audio tapes and transcripts, she found they had been severely edited repeatedly in order to deny them the evidence of the manifest bias and abuse and to pervert the course of justice.

"Equal treatment before the law is a pillar of democratic societies. When courts are corrupted by greed or political expediency, the scales of justice are tipped, and ordinary people suffer. Judicial corruption means the voice of the innocent goes unheard, while the guilty act with impunity" Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International.

The four Judges mentioned in the documented and corroborated judicial abuse and corruption complaint by Ms Nash are former Queensland Anti Discrimination Tribunal President, Judge Jean Dalton QC, Tribunal Judge, Robert Wensley QC, who is the brother of Queensland Governor, Penelope Wensley, Queensland Supreme Court Judge, Ann Lyons and Queensland Supreme Court Judge, Roslyn Atkinson, who is also the Queensland President of the International Committee of Jurists.

Premier Anna Bligh, a former Education Queensland Minister, and herself mother of two boys, always ignored the desperate pleas for action by Ms Nash when she headed Education.

Ms Bligh has now promised that she would weed out corruption in Queensland and has defended measures in place to root out and fight official corruption in her state, such as the highly politicised and ineffective Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC).

Her words unfortunately lack credibility and sound very hollow and disingenuine to Ms Nash. To this day, Premier Bligh and her government continue stone walling and doggedly refuse to acknowledge, let alone act on the judicial corruption complaint by the family.

Government also has ignored Ms Nash’s published letters to the Editor and her radio interview with former presenter, Chuck Brooks from Brisbane Radio 4BC (attached in mp3) and all of her press releases and coverage by the foreign press, including The Wall Street Journal.

Anna Bligh’s 33% approval rating has sunk to an all-time low for a Queensland Premier. Two out of every three people polled expressed dissatisfaction with the Premier.

Opposition Leader, John-Paul Langbroek, whose own popularity rating has sunk to 34%, has declined to raise their case in Parliament using parliamentary privilege.

Attorney General, Cameron Dick, is the 4th Queensland Attorney General involved in Ms Nash’s complaint. He has refused to respond to Ms Nash’s correspondence and phone calls since he took his public oath of office in March 2009, and pretends the family and their long standing judicial corruption complaint simply do not exist, even though Ms Nash and her son are Australian citizens.

In stark contrast, Mr Dick was super responsive to the scathing criticism of high profile American, Mr Tommy Thomas, father of murdered American newlywed, Tina Watson, who died during a scuba dive near Townsville.

The grieving father described exactly the extreme dissatisfaction and distrust Queenslanders have long held about their ‘just is’ system, which has very little to do with justice, the law and democracy and is all about greed, money and politics.

After the extremely lenient sentence of Gabe Watson, the man who killed his daughter, an outraged Tommy Thomas told media, the decision to allow his daughter's killer to plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter was "ludicrous" and his short jail sentence was "an embarrassment to Australians."

Less than fourteen days after the sentencing Queensland Attorney-General, Cameron Dick lodged an appeal of Gabe Watson's sentence on the grounds it was inadequate.

In the meantime, Ms Nash and her son are still waiting for Mr Dick to respond appropriately and realise that under the rule of law, the Australian family deserves equal treatment and the protection of the state.

Queensland does not have an Upper House.

Due to lack of press freedom in Australia this case has not been published in any major Australian newspaper, or broadcast on radio or television.

Further details and coverage:


QLD Governor Silent on Judicial Corruption Claims Against Brother
 http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=621126

QLD Governor Wensley Silent On Judicial Abuse
 http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=621126

Armed Police Eject Mother From Queensland Parliament
 http://mathaba.net/news/?x=620379

Speaker Of Queensland Parliament Denies Bullied Schoolboy Electoral Representation
 http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=96654

Breakdown of the Rule of Law
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/425273.html

Governor Of Queensland ignores judicial corruption claims involving brother  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/433572.html

Governor of Queensland a silent collaborator in judicial misconduct cover-up
 http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=99006

Governor of Queensland gives teenage judicial corruption victim the silent treatment
 http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=99023

Governor of Queensland adamant judicial corruption not her concern
 http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=98644

Governor of Queensland does not recognise civil rights issues
 http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=98549

Governor of Queensland oblivious to constituents’ human rights and principles of democracy  http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=98539

Governor of Queensland still in denial on judicial corruption claims
 http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=98568

Governor Of Queensland unsympathetic toward child victim of judicial abuse and corruption  http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=98333

How the Federal Court of Australia selectively denies The Rights Of The Child  https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430998.html

Australia’s lone stance against civil rights bill:how juristocracy enables this and blocks debate  http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=616222

Human Rights Commission defends regime – not youth
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424195.html

Attorney General misleads the people
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424062.html

Bullied schoolboy wants Anna Bligh to address judicial corruption  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/386941.shtml

Kevin Rudd and Robert McClelland must address corruption  http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/03/225156.php

Bullied schoolboy wants Kevin Rudd to address judicial corruption  http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=618292

Supreme Court 'orders bullied schoolboy to pay costs'  http://mathaba.net/news/?x=572486





Jennifer Nash
- e-mail: jennifernash10@hotmail.com