Queensland archives release 1994 Labor Goss government cabinet papers

Muriel’s Wedding was on the big screen, Allan Border played his last test match, and petrol in Brisbane cost an average of 60.8 cents per litre.

It was 1994 and in Queensland the second-term Labor government led by Wayne Goss was continuing with its agenda, but a number of issues were simmering — bubbling towards the next election.

Confidential cabinet minutes, released today after 30 years, shed light on some of the key decisions from that year — from koalas, to tension with an “accountability institution,” and whether to decriminalise public drunkenness.

James Cook University lecturer Anthony Marinac, who reviewed the minutes, said “it’s only in retrospect that we can see how important 1994 was”.

‘Blunt antagonism’ 

The Goss government had spent its first term overseeing many of the reforms recommended by the landmark Fitzgerald Inquiry report into police corruption.

One institution that came out of the inquiry was the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) — the predecessor to the Crime and Corruption Commission.

But Dr Marinac said the 1994 cabinet minutes suggest the Goss government had a “fractious relationship” with the criminal justice watchdog at times.

The CJC had appointed former judge Don Stewart QC to investigate allegations of misconduct involving staff at the Basil Stafford Centre, a residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities.

The documents reveal that in February 1994, after the inquiry was expanded and additional funding for legal and administrative costs was required, the Goss cabinet decided the Attorney-General would write to the CJC chair to express its concerns.

They included the CJC’s “propensity … to generate further public inquiries with Commission of Inquiry powers and broad scope of investigations”, the “need to limit inquiries to specific matters where precise allegations have been made, and to avoid canvassing the policy framework and social context of government administrative processes”, and “evidence that adequate measures to limit the costs of public inquiries have not been implemented”. 

Dr Marinac described it as “blunt antagonism”.

“This was unthinkable at the time for a government that was so closely associated with Fitzgerald implementation to find itself the target of a Fitzgerald institution,” he said.

“But it had to be that way, because the CJC was set up as an accountability institution.

“And what do accountability institutions do? Well, they hold a blowtorch to the government. And who was the government? Wayne Keith Goss.”

That same year the Goss government continued with implementing remaining post-Fitzgerald reforms — including introducing a Whistleblowers Protection Bill into state parliament.

Inmate ‘double-ups’

The Goss government was facing “significant” growth in prisoner numbers which was straining the state’s jails and watch houses.

A cabinet briefing paper from June 1994 sought approval for funding to “double up” inmates in 112 cells at two correctional centres.

Using now disused facilities — like Boggo Road Gaol, which permanently closed in the early 1990s — was another option, the document stated.

But it said the Queensland Corrective Services Commission (QCSC) advised it would be “inappropriate” for a “variety of reasons, including negative community reaction associated with Boggo Road”.

“This approach will need to be carefully monitored for possible prison disruption”.

Cabinet accepted the preferred plan to double up.

Decriminalisation debate

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had recommended that governments get rid of the offence of public intoxication.

Three years after the final report was handed down, the Goss cabinet was wrestling with the issue.

Public intoxication was already decriminalised in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, and the Queensland government had previously publicly announced its support for the move.

A cabinet briefing paper in May 1994 looked at two options — to keep the offence and set up an interdepartmental committee to look at strategies for reform; or, to extend a legislative sunset provision, essentially putting a time limit on the laws.

It shows differing views among government departments and other agencies about the preferred path.

The Queensland Police Service said the offence should be decriminalised provided “alternative legislation is in place to deal with these situations”.

History showed decriminalisation did not happen until 30 years later.

Last year law changes — removing public drunkenness as an offence — took effect in Queensland, making it the final state in Australia to do so.

Koala concern

Another key issue that year was the proposed eastern transport corridor and the growing community concerns over the impact on koala habitat.

In July, the government advertised that consideration had been narrowed to two alternative routes.

Days later, thousands of people staged a rally at Daisy Hill State Forest.

In a submission to cabinet the next month, the transport minister sought the ministry’s agreement to announce a “commitment” to a south coast motorway based on the modified route B, an impact assessment study and community consultation, and a $38 million koala coast protection plan and local communities assistance package.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the issue “became the beginning of the end for the Goss government”.

Although 1994 was “perhaps not the most scandalous year in Queensland’s political history,” it laid “the groundwork for an election”, she said. 

“As the Goss government began to move away from the glory of delivering some of the Fitzgerald inquiry reforms, it faced increasing scrutiny from those same accountability institutions and Queenslanders were taking note,” she said.

“And while the government focused on south-east Queensland, regional communities felt neglected amid severe droughts and rising Native Title claims.”

The Labor party would go on to lose power in 1996.