Ever been insanely deep in a heated argument when you realise that you are incredibly, incredibly wrong, but you’ve dedicated so much time and effort into your frankly absurd point that you need to keep fighting anyway? Queensland shadow Attorney-General Ian Walker knows that feeling. He knows that feeling well.
Bit of background. The Queensland Police has finished a nine-month investigation and a commissioned three month independent inquiry into Government MP Rick Walker over alleged intimidation and unscrupulous conduct, after which no charges were filed. The Liberal National Party Opposition clearly smelt blood in the water, and are demanding the Government release the results of the independent inquiry.
One problem: the Government are not the police. That’s a reasonably important foundation of our democracy. This was a police-initiated investigation. So when Walker decided to call a press conference demanding the Government explain the result of the investigation, it probably wasn’t ever going to go well.
What followed was an absolute trainwreck of a presser, in which journalists repeatedly schooled the man who wants to be Attorney-General on the absolute fundamentals of the separation of powers. The Brisbane Times released the transcript, and HOO BOY. Peep some highlights:
WALKER: I’m suggesting that the government owes Queenslanders a better explanation of what has happenedREPORTER: Why? It’s a police investigationW: Well, they need to explain the nature of that.R: But it’s a police investigation.
It continued. Agonisingly.
R: It’s not their investigation though, so why is the government responsible for a police investigation?W: Because the police are part of the executive arm of government, the executive arm of government deserves to explain to the people of Queensland what’s gone on here?R: But no, that’s not how the separation of power works.
You can almost pinpoint the part where he realised that his interpretation of the preceding events is dramatically, perhaps critically, wrong.
R: Can you understand the confusion – you are asking the government to explain the results of a police investigation – do you understand that a police investigation is separate to the government?W: Correct. I am asking the government to explain the process, and the process was a nine-month police investigation, a three month referral to an independent lawyer, during which time was Mr Williams himself asked anything. So he said this morning.
The entire thing is absolutely worth a read. There’s only so many times you can make a The Thick of It comparison before it becomes painfully laboured, but this fits the criteria. The peak is when a reporter asks Walker whether the very existence of this press conference “could perhaps harm [his] credibility as a future Attorney-General”.
We know Queensland has a very sketchy history with separating the police and the government, but c’mon.
Source: Brisbane Times.
Photo: The Simpsons.
