Thursday, August 12, 2004

Committee urges charges be laid against former Labor ministers

High Profile individuals implicated in the shredding and cover up of the Heiner Affair scandal
A federal parliamentary committee has recommended members of Queensland's former Goss Labor cabinet be charged over the destruction of child abuse evidence.

The committee has not named the people it thinks should be charged. Yeah Right?

The House of Representatives committee is headed by Liberal Bronwyn Bishop and says its hearings into the Heiner Affair revealed a culture of concealment and collusion that covered up the abuse of children in detention and protected the offenders.

The committee says documents relating to the affair and subsequent inquiry 14 years ago were illegally shredded.

It has recommended that members of the Queensland cabinet at the time be charged under the criminal code.

The committee has cited the case of Pastor Douglas Ensbey as a precedent for laying charges.

Ensbey was convicted and sentenced for destroying evidence after he cut up a female parishioner's diary that detailed the sexual abuse she suffered.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has dismissed the recommendation as a stunt.

Mr Beattie says he is not surprised by the recommendation.

"Do you ever expect that Bronwyn Bishop, who is the Liberal Party hatchet person on this committee, would have recommended anything else," he said.

"I mean, the Labor members are obviously not excited by it all, this is the Liberal conservative majority trying to set up an election issue prior to the federal campaign.

"They did it last time on electoral issues this is just a Liberal Party stunt."

The 20 year old Heiner Affair - illegal shredding of documents and subsequent cover-up by the Queensland State Government.

By Political Corruption 12 August 04

Related:

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The Seed
Respect, you only get out what you have put in. What about Life Skills, Communication and Conflict Resolution. Evolution, perhaps some children and adults miss the whole or part of the course. I did, and so how surprised do you think I was when I realised my parents missed the course as well. Things like Compromise, Win Win, Empathy, and Love. Invisible energy and other skills like public speaking, how to Relate, Assuming, Blaming, Forgiveness, Freedom and Discrimination. This is how I learned respect. If you don't know what it is then how do you relate?