Watchdog committee should be reviewed: Qld

QUEENSLAND'S Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie wants a review of the parliamentary committee that oversees the state's crime and corruption watchdog.

Mr Bleijie will write to the Committee of the Legislative Assembly to suggest an investigation of the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee (PCMC).

Premier Campbell Newman last week accused the bi-partisan committee of failing to properly supervise the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC).

He said the committee had become a "lapdog" of the very organisation it was meant to scrutinise.

He accused the committee of allowing the CMC to inadvertently release and shred secret documents from the Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption.

A spokesman for Mr Bleijie told AAP the proposed review would look at opening the PCMC's meetings to the public.

It would also consider whether to lift gag orders on MPs discussing matters before the committee and the timing of CMC investigations.

The bungle over the Fitzgerald inquiry documents saw the government call on the head of the CMC to quit.

On Friday, chairman Ross Martin did quit, but he said it was because he needed a lung transplant.

MP Alex Douglas - a former PCMC chairman who quit the government last year after saying he was thrown off parliament's ethics committee - said the premier had committed contempt by attacking the PCMC.

The committee will hold a public hearing into the CMC's failure to properly safeguard the documents and is due to report on April 5.

View the original article here