The Mayor of Logan Darren Power says Queensland needs better protections for whistleblowers.
His comments come after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk appointed Tony Fitzgerald to conduct an inquiry into the structure and powers of Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).
The Queensland government has accepted the effectiveness of protections offered to people who make public interest disclosures to the corruption watchdog needs to be reviewed, including the role the CCC plays once they make them.
"I think the CCC have got responsibility to obviously look after their whistleblowers," Mr Power told 7.30.
"If someone came to me, in my office as mayor, and asked for advice about being a whistleblower, I don't know whether I could actually tell them the truth about what they were in for.
"We've got an onus under the act to report corruption. But I can understand why people look the other way."
CCC chair resigns
At the centre of the current debate is the conduct of the former head of the corruption watchdog, Alan MacSporran.
The experienced prosecutor took over in 2015 and set about exposing perceived corruption and donor influence in local government.
The complex corruption investigation that proved to be Mr MacSporran's undoing was in Logan City.
The controversy involved the council's new chief executive Sharon Kelsey.
She had a critical performance review meeting led by then-mayor Luke Smith. Two days later, Ms Kelsey decided to become a whistleblower, alleging misconduct by Mr Smith, and months later she was sacked.
The CCC charged seven Logan councillors and the then-mayor with fraud, claiming they'd acted dishonestly by terminating the chief executive. All eight lost their jobs, despite the charges later being dropped.
"I lost a job that I loved," former Logan councillor Russell Lutton said.
"I represented the people of division two in Logan City Council for 34 years, I'd won 10 elections."
Alison Smith, chief executive of the Local Government Association Queensland, said: "Cases have been put through, charged by the CCC, but have fallen over lack of evidence."
"We need to restore the confidence of the public in the CCC."
The CCC's case against the former mayor Luke Smith is still alive — he's been committed to stand trial on official corruption and other charges — charges he's vowed to fight.
Ms Kelsey lost her unfair dismissal case at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC).
She had alleged that the group of councillors who voted to sack her were "politically affiliated" and plotted to sack her as reprisal for her reporting possible alleged misconduct about Mr Smith to the CCC.
But that was rejected by the QIRC which found even though councillors had been critical of Ms Kelsey or showed her animosity, the evidence didn't support a conclusion of political alignment or that it was done as a consequence of the public interest disclosure.
Ms Kelsey has vehemently rejected concerns about her performance and plans to appeal the decision.
New Logan Mayor Darren Power, who was a councillor at the time, was amongst the minority who voted to keep Ms Kelsey.
He claims he wasn't aware of any substantial concerns about her performance within council until after she had lodged the public interest disclosure with the CCC.
A parliamentary inquiry questioned Mr MacSporran about his organisation's efforts to assist Ms Kelsey in her industrial relations case.
It found the watchdog had acted outside its powers and the chair had failed to ensure the organisation acted independently and impartially.
Mr MacSporran strongly rejected allegations made during the inquiry and argued his actions and that of his organisation were justified in large part due to Ms Kelsey's whistleblower status.
Last week, Mr MacSporran resigned saying he was quitting because his relationship with the committee had broken down, but strongly defending his record.
"There were corporate governance, governance issues that can be permeated right through the organisation," Alison Smith said.
"As the chair of such an important integrity watchdog, the buck stops with him."
'Should be an organisation to protect whistleblowers'
Mr Power says he believes the state government should consider creating a new organisation to assist whistleblowers that's separate from the Crime and Corruption Commission.
"I think there should be an organisation that protects whistleblowers, somewhere for whistleblowers to get advice, because, you know, they've got to go and get their own legal advice," he said.
"I don't think that's right, I think that we should encourage whistleblowers to come forward. Otherwise, you know, if we make it harder for them, they're not going to come forward."
His call for better protection for whistleblowers has been echoed by Professor AJ Brown from Griffith University.
"That's why both this second Fitzgerald inquiry and the other reforms that need to follow the overhaul of Queensland's whistleblower protection act, which is recommendation one of the parliamentary committee, which has been accepted - these are such important opportunities to make sure that the system is as strong as it should be off the back of a system that has proven itself over the last 20 or 30 years has been pretty strong most of the time," Professor Brown said.
7.30 sought interviews with Alan MacSporran, Luke Smith and Sharon Kelsey.
Watch this 7.30 story on ABC iview.
