CMC = Clear Me Committee

Mike Reynolds, Anna Bligh, Rob Schwarten, Wendy Edmond, Merri Rose, Gordon Nuttal......

All Ministers in the current B(l)eattie Labor Government. All State members who have had complaints or investigations into their behavior directed towards the CMC. And the results of these investigations?

They were all cleared......

It's no wonder that the Crime and Misconduct Commission should begin to be treated as a joke, when all it appears to do is exist as a rubber stamp to clear Labor Ministers and their sidekicks of any wrong-doing whenever they, or their mates, are caught with their hands in the metaphorical cookie jar.

The CMC, bastard offspring of the Fitzgerald spawned CJC seems to do little these days, except salve Labors (not-so)-guilty conscience and allow them to proclaim all is now well.

A prime example is the supposed investigation into Queensland's Children's Department. This was an organization so poorly run and so bereft of leadership and vision, not to mention competence and conscience, that a typical days work involved leaving foster children with the carers who had infected them with sexually transmitted diseases.

Horrible stuff. But do you know what the CMC concluded from their investigation? No-one was responsible. Neither Minster who was in charge of the Children's Department during the B(l)eattie reign (6 years and counting now), and not the Director-General of the department either. This is despite a little known concept that forms the basis of our government - The Westminster Doctrine of Ministerial Responsibility. Apparently we thankfully have the CMC to explain to us that this doctrine no longer applies to the government, or maybe just Labor governments ...

Another great example of the fine work that the CMC does is that of the (former) Minister for Good Times - Merri Rose - you know, the one who thought it a good thing to cram 11 people into her Ministerial limousine after a State of Origin match - the one who thought it was perfectly acceptable for her son to use her taxpayer-funded car to not only drive as his work vehicle, but to use her Government fuel card to pay for a trip to Sydney to watch a football match.

Despite a constant stream of stories and people coming from her office with tales about her tirades and abusive behavior, the CMC has chosen to clear her every time of any wrongdoing based on these complaints. Of course, she's just been forced to resign from the Ministry, because Q-Cover - a Qld Workplace administrative body - has upheld a complaint from a former staffer of hers that she was bullied by Rose and forced to doctor Ministerial Leave Applications and diaries - and has granted the bullied woman compensation for what she has been subjected to. The CMC's response to this? They chose to reexamine the complaints against Rose , had yet again found no case of official misconduct for her to answer. This is despite another government body finding sufficient cause to award a woman compensation based on Rose's actions.

Did you hear that? That was just the sound of B(l)eattie''s rubber stamp swinging into action yet again.

Of course, the question as to why Rose is no longer fit to be a Minister, but is still fit to be paid almost $100 000/year as a member of Parliament is another thing....

And the latest development from the Clear Me Committee - it's decided to clear Big Mike Reynolds of any wrong-doing in regards to attempting to persuade a Greens candidate standing against Big Mike to run dead in exchange for support to run in a Townsville city council seat. The CMC claims that they couldn't substantiate the claims, but you have to remember that this is more dodginess emanating from the Townsville branch of the ALP. The same branch which had plenty of dodgy stories emanating from there during the Shepardson Inquiry. The same branch from which Karen Erhman emerged. You know that name - the only member of the Labor party to be jailed for electoral fraud, despite the confessions of many other party members, including the then Deputy Premier and a former State Secretary. That she didn't have the protection of one of the big Labor factions didn't have anything to do with it did it.........

Speaking of Shepardson, guess who else Merry Merri's been getting advice from lately. Do the names Lee Birmingham and Warwick Powell ring a bell? They were another of the ALP identities who confessed to electoral fraud at the Shepardson Inquiry, and seemed to escape punishment. They're another of the type - you know - electoral rorters - who Premier Pete declared, while beating his chest, that their type wouldn't be allowed in his ALP - and yet seem to be running around alive and well, playing in the political machinations of this current election.

I guess that such resolve from the admirable man couldn't even last one term... Then again, we should have all known that when we saw one of those self-confessed rorters who was forced to resign his state seat appointed at Deputy Federal Secretary of the Labor Party. There's looking after one's own, and then there's thumbing your own nose at commitments make to the voting public...