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Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission chair Bruce Barbour,permanently appointed in July after the departure of Alan MacSporran,previously held positions including the NSW Ombudsman before joining the CCC in 2021.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

In August,Barbour told a Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee hearing the CCC wouldseek a High Court review of former public trustee Peter Carne’s case.

During that public meeting,Barbour was also asked for a list of the reports,media statements and other releases by the agency and its various iterations that would have fallen foul of the majority decision by the Supreme Court.

Barbour’s response was published by the opposition-chaired,bipartisan committee after a further meeting on Tuesday.

In the letter,he said that without authority to give a public update on a probe that did not hold public hearings,the anti-corruption agency would have been stopped from publishing 32 reports since September 1998.

“Since January 2006,a total of 256 media releases related to corruption investigations would not have been published,” Barbour said.

Committee members on Tuesday voted to write back to Barbour seeking an itemised list of the reports and statements involved.

“There was a great deal of concern expressed to us by[Barbour] about the impact of that decision on their future reporting functions,” committee chair and Scenic Rim LNP MP Jon Krause said.

“Not putting words in anyone’s mouth,but it was a pretty dire outlook in terms of public reporting if that decision stands.”

Former deputy premier Jackie Trad hasbrought a similar legal case to that of Carne’s against the CCC in an attempt to prevent the release of a report into her alleged role in the recruitment of a senior Treasury official.

The federal government’s recently detailed vision of a national anti-corruption commission has come under scrutiny by some for having too narrow a scopeto hold public hearings of its own.

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