Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the attorney-general will begin the recruitment process for a new Crime and Corruption Commission boss just 24 hours after its chair stepped down.
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Alan MacSporran resigned on Tuesday saying his relationship with the parliamentary watchdog had "broken down irretrievably" following a Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee report released in December.
The report called for a royal commission into the Crime and Corruption Commission after its contentious probe into Logan Council in 2019.
Mr MacSporran said his honesty and integrity had never been questioned in a career spanning more than 40 years and was urged to fight on, but the report has seen his relationship with the crime and corruption committee in tatters.
The premier said her cabinet would consider a response to the report before parliament returns next month.
"The government's response is due in March so we're well within our timeframes. But this a serious matter," she told reporters on Wednesday.
"We've always respected the anti-corruption watchdog in this state and now the attorney-general (Shannon Fentiman) will begin the recruitment process for a replacement.
"There is a recommendation as part of the parliamentary committee to have a structural review into the CCC, and cabinet will be giving that careful consideration."
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said Mr MacSporran's resignation spoke to larger issues about accountability in Queensland.
"For two months, we have been consistently saying that the position of the CCC chair was untenable," he said on Wednesday.
"That's not a reflection on the individual, that's just having absorbed the magnitude of the report, a report that shows that the culture and the structure of the place needs a complete overhaul."
The PCCC found that the corruption commission didn't act "independently and impartially" in laying fraud charges against the former Logan mayor and seven councillors in 2019.
Its inquiry was launched in April after prosecutors dropped the charges due to a lack of evidence.
PCCC chair Jon Krause said the findings were extremely serious and the state needs an effective, independent and impartial watchdog.
"The CCC has failed in the role entrusted to it by this parliament, on behalf of all Queenslanders," he said.
Mr Krause said bias had come from the watchdog's power to both investigate and charge people.
The committee recommended the government order a royal commission.
"A commission of inquiry or similar, to be headed by senior counsel of sufficient standing to consider this structural basis of the CCC," the report said.
Australian Associated Press
