7/27/2019 Kevin Linderberg

1/1

News2

The Independent Monthly is produced

and published by staff and students of the

School of Journalism and Communication

at the University of Queensland, St Lucia

Head of School: Professor Jan Servaes

Editor: Bruce Grundy

Administration: Jenny Hearn

Advertising: Joan Burnett

Enqiries: Phone: 3365 3300

Fax: 3365 1377

Email: b.grundy@uq.edu.au

Grievance inquiry startsShreddergate latest

Justin Rooks

THE SENATE has begun its investigationinto whether false or misleading informa-tion was given to previous Senate inquiriesinvestigating the Heiner affair.

The Sena te Select Comm itte e on theLindeberg Grievance will consider whetherthe Goss Labor government deliberatelymisled two Senate Select Committees anda Committee of Privileges in 1995.

The present committee will be chai red byTasmanian Senator John Watson, who toldThe Independent Monthly they had beguncollecting information and would soon becalling for witnesses and submissions.

Central to the inquiry will be whether theSenate has the ability to summon currentor former members of the Queensland stategovernment to give evidence.

On that matter we are getting advice atthe present time, Senator Watson said.

Senate Select Committees have the powerto compel witnesses and request documentsas evidence, but these powers of compulsion

are rarely used.In regard to the current inquiry Senator

Watson said in some cases that may benecessary.

I have requested advice from the Clerkof the Senate about the extent to which theSenate can demand information from officersin terms of limitations of the constitution,he said.

The Clerk of the Senate, Mr Harry Evans,told The Independent Monthly that thereseemed to be a legal limit on the Senatesability to compel current state members toappear before a federal inquiry.

Its an implied limit in the constitutionthat has never been settled through a disputein the High Court, he said.

Senator Watson said there were a range ofissues that the committee had yet to satisfy

itself with before it began to call for witnessesand submissions.Ive had a lot of experience chairing lots of

committees and I certainly dont intend totry to pursue matters where I think they aregoing to lead to a dead-end or to be embar-rassed as a result of having limited powersunder the constitution, he said.

The senator said there were problems interms of accountability and transparency inrelation to federal and state governments andit was unfortunate that the Senates abilityto investigate issues could be restricted asa result.

Its a little bit unfortunate from a trans-parency point of view, because we are allabout openness, transparency and account-ability nowadays, he said.

There were measures that could be takento ensure that certain individuals appearedbefore the inquiry.

It all depends who the witness is, and howrelevant the witness is germane to your termsof inquiry.

There is a whole list of people we haveasked advice on but I dont want to go throughthe whole list at this stage, he said.

Senator Watson said he expected all partiesand individuals involved to be cooperative.We havent called for witnesses or

submissions yet but they will be advertisedshortly.

When asked if the Queensland governmentwould tak e the sam e vie w as the Gossgovernment in 1995 and instruct its public

Senator Watson

Australian Storyat work ... shooting in The Independent Monthlynewsroom

... the ABC producesan Australian StoryMilton Sau

FORMER union representative KevinLinderbergs 14 years battle to expose injus-tices involved in the shredding of the Heinerinquiry documents will be documented byABC - TVs Australian Story this month.

Australi an Story producer Caitlin Sheasaid the focus of the story would be on MrLinderbergs highs and lows in his longbattle.

It also focuses on the family side of things,and how difficult it has been for his wife andchildren, Ms Shea said.

He got sacked, and his wife had to go outto work, so it has been quite difficult for hisfamily.

There are a lot of people in the story whobelieve Kevin is on a futile quest, but there area lot of credible people who believe that Kevin

is exposing a great injustice, she said.So I put it all out there, and Im hopingthat people can make up their own mindsabout this.

Ms Shea said she had also interv iewedMr Linderbergs daughter, Naomi, who isa journalism student in the University ofQueensland.

Since shes been to university, and realisedthat people take it seriously, and people lectureon it in universities all over the world, shesrealised that her father is pursuing somethingvery important, Ms Shea sa id.

She said the program would also be showing

footage of students delivering the JournalismSchools newspaper, The Independent Monthly,as well as lectures, tutorials and activities inthe student newsroom.

We also filmed students going on a tripto the Lower Portals, to see for themselves,where the pack rape [of a girl in custody]occurred, she said.

Ms Shea said she had interviewed MrLindeberg ten years ago as a junior reporteron the Seven-Thirty Report, never thinkingshe would be doing a major profile on him,ten years later.

I have seen this Heiner story in the newspa-per, and never really fully understood it, so it hasbeen good, through Bruce [Grundy] and Kevin,to learn what its actually all about, she said.

Now I have a full understanding of it, andI supposed thats given me some insights intoit.

Ms Shea said in recent times the media inQueensland had not been particularly inter-ested in the story.

The Courier-Mail has decided, it seemsto me, not to run any more stories unlesssomething really new breaks, she said.

So I think there is this general perceptionin the media in Queensland, that they are abit tired of it all.

But Ms Shea said it is very timely to belooking at this story because Kevin Linderberghad managed to get another Senate inquiryestablished.

Kevin manages to keep getting inquiryafter inquiry, and he manages to keep puttingit on the public agenda, she said.

Whether you agree with Kevin or not, you

have to admire him for his persistence.Ms Shea said she had also interviewedPremier Peter Beattie to get a reaction fromthe government.

Kevin and Bruce have been making somefairly serious allegations, so I make sure thatit is balanced by getting Peter Beatties sideof the story, she said.

The story is due to air on Monday May 17 onABC TVs Australian Story at 8.00 pm.

Australian Story has an audience of 1.2million viewers nation wide.

... and no response yet to TIM queries

servants not to cooperate with a Senatecommittee, the Premiers office said therehad been no contact from the committeeand when there was an appropriate decisionwould be made.

EFFORTS by The Independent Monthly toobtain information from the Child Safety

Minister about the rape of a girl being heldin the John Oxley Youth Centre in the late1980s have so far been unsuccessful.

As reported in recent editions of the paper,former Minister Craig Sherrin told the pressin 1989 that a 17-year-old girl had been rapedon an outing from the centre.

Over the last two months The IndependentMonthly has asked current Child Safety

Minister Mike Reynolds whether the girlwas in fact 17, whether she was Caucasian

or Aboriginal and where the rape had takenplace.

To date there has been no response fromthe Minister.

And in light of the charging in 2001 (andthe recent conviction) of a man for destroy-ing evidence in 1995, we have also asked thePolice Commissioner if he intends to chargethose who destroyed evidence relating to the

John Oxley Youth Centre in 1990.To date Mr Atkinson has not provided any

response to our questions.We have also asked CMC Chair Brendan

Butler if he wished to respond to a claimby House of Representatives Legal andConstitutional Affairs Committee ChairBronwyn Bishop that a CJC investigation intothe rape of a girl in the John Oxley Centre wasa whitewash.

To date there has been no reply.

Photo: Milton Sau

TIM 4 page 2.indd 1 04/05/04, 4:47:46 PM