On Wednesday night, 19 February 2025 the Queensland Parliament tabled the report of the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission into former public trustee Peter Carne despite the High Court of Australia’s finding that the Commission “lacked the power to report at all” (1).
The Hansard transcript shows a non-existent debate as to Parliament’s right to table a report highly damaging to Mr Carne in despite of the High Court’s ruling.
The Attorney-General, Deputy Premier and Health Minister were the main government speakers in favour of the tabling of the report. None of the three senior State Cabinet Ministers addressed the fundamental issue of being bound by the High Court rulings unless and until the Parliament legislated a new law to override the High Court Judgment.
The Labor Opposition indicated they were not going to oppose the motion and that is all that was said by the Opposition. There was not a mention about the important principles of respecting court decisions unless they are overruled by subsequent legislation.
Parliamentary supremacy is an important principle in our democratic process. However, the fact that neither the Government nor the Opposition addressed the fact that the tabling of the Carne report was contrary to the High Court ruling is profoundly concerning. Our community deserve better debate on important issues.
1. See page 242 of (the Independent Review into Crime & Commission’s reporting on the performance of its corruption functions 20/5/24) by the Honourable Catherine Holmes AC SC