Faith restored after disenchantment
19.07.2004
WHEN I began work with this newspaper 22 years ago, Queensland was a vastly different place in which to live, and on which to report.
Young people in this state were not happy. I was not worldly enough to appreciate that the unhappiness which manifested itself in street marches and university protests was a direct result of that entire section of the community feeling they were being ignored.
Academics such as Dr Paul Wilson, Dr Paul Reynolds and Professor Ken Wiltshire were making every effort to teach and demonstrate that the policies of the governing parties did not treat all people equally.
The Council for Civil Liberties and some progressive church representatives repeated that message -- and urged change. That change went from a mirage to a possibility in October 1983, when Wayne Goss was elected to Parliament.
It was accelerated and became real in 1987 when the National Party deputy premier Bill Gunn appointed Tony Fitzgerald QC to head an inquiry into police and public service corruption in Queensland. Fitzgerald's report, released in July 1989, turned Queensland on its head.
The evidence given to him -- ranging from endemic corruption to the corruption of politics through rigged boundaries which entrenched one party and excluded all others -- rammed home to everybody just how rotten the administration in Queensland had become.
That generation of Queenslanders -- my generation -- developed and lived with an unhealthy suspicion of the pillars that form such an important part of a democratic society -- the parliament, the courts, the police, the bureaucracy.
People did not have respect for those institutions. The prisons were in a mess. Inmates on detention were kept in an underground unit at Boggo Rd, and one cell block still had no sewerage. Children in care, as history shows, were in many instances subjected to appalling abuse. The ``mental hospitals'' were understaffed and Dickensian, and facilities for physically and intellectually impaired people generally were dreadful.
The parliament was a mere rubber stamp for regressive laws aimed to ensure that nothing changed.
It is my view that it took the Fitzgerald inquiry to make us all look at where we really were, and what sort of a place we wanted to live in, and to leave for our children. And it is most definitely my view that the sector which responded most was the news media. Fitzgerald was scathing of the ``watchdog'' role that had, to a large extent, been neglected or abandoned by those of us whose job it was to be vigilant.
The Courier-Mail, along with other media, heeded the message. This newspaper, under a succession of progressive editors, responded to the public demand that social inequality be righted.
There was a relentless campaign maintained on the prison administration, resulting in another great Queenslander, businessman Jim Kennedy, reviewing the system and recommending that Boggo Rd be bulldozed and three new, humane facilities be built, and that emphasis be placed on rehabilitation.
Prison officers Tom Challis and Paul Gallagher paid a huge price for being the whistleblowers who first exposed the dreadful prison conditions. They were courageous people.
The embarrassment the courts suffered through Fitzgerald could be righted only by government, and that was done. It is doubtful if there is another state in Australia that has a chief justice like Queensland's Paul de Jersey who makes himself available openly to media or anybody else with genuine concerns.
Following the jailing of corrupt police commissioner Terry Lewis, a succession of competent and honest administrators have ruled, with positive results.
The Criminal Justice Commission (now the Crime and Misconduct Commission) is a permanent watchdog organisation that at least is available should any citizen have reason for complaint about public corruption or misbehaviour.
The living conditions of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have not improved greatly in the past two decades. To a degree their own elected representatives bear some responsibility because, as ATSIC commissioners, they achieved little in the 12 years of their existence.
But successive federal governments and the current Beattie Government are making a real effort to address indigenous disadvantage. Black spokesmen and leaders such as Noel Pearson, Grace Smallwood, Murrandoo Yanner, Tiga Bayles, Terry O'Shane, Pat Thompson, Boni Robertson, Steve Hagan and Jacki Huggins are contributing to make a difference -- and have been enormously supported by media and, in particular, by this newspaper.
Young people today -- perhaps those attending university and looking to vote for the first time -- have every reason to have faith in the institutions in Queensland. They might not always be perfect, but at least Queensland operates from a base of honesty and equality.
It has been encouraging to be a witness to that progress in the past 22 years, and a matter of pride to note the role played by The Courier-Mail in demanding and overseeing genuine social change.
This is my last column for The Courier-Mail as next week I take up a position with The Australian in Brisbane.
My thanks to all those people who helped me with information, advice and criticism. It's been a lot of fun!
