The CMC's webpage is http://www.cmc.qld.gov.au/asp/index.asp.

The chairman of the CMC Inquiry, Robert Needham, made many conclusions, including the following.

"It was also suggested in several of the final submissions to the inquiry that counsel assisting did not understand the political arena. They were accused of ‘political naivety’ for criticising candidates who made false or misleading statements during the election, and called pious and hypocritical for suggesting that councillors should be concerned about the likely public perception of their actions."

"More surprisingly, the accusation of political naivety was contained in submissions made on behalf of the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ), a body whose mission is, according to its website: ‘To strengthen the ability and performance of local government to better serve the community’. This is a commendable goal; yet the LGAQ submission to the inquiry suggested that the CMC should take a ‘real world’ view and accept that political candidates are entitled to do anything that does not contravene the law to advance the political causes they support. This may be true in a strict legal sense, but it is hard to see how encouraging local government members to this view equips them to better serve the community."

"In the Commission’s view, what happened in this matter could not legitimately be categorised as an ordinary political process unless the Gold Coast is to be treated as another country, where the ordinary responsibilities of public life and obligations to the law that bind the rest of Queensland do not apply."

"The report concluded that there had been an attempt to keep some payments to candidates confidential because of the belief that the public would react adversely to the knowledge that developers helped the election campaigns. The report also rejected the evidence of one developer that donations were made only to lift the standard of the council by actively assisting candidates of ‘superior fairness, intelligence, honesty and perhaps courtesy’.
Those who have followed the evidence in this inquiry would find it hard to identify which decade some of these comments relate to. In particular, the idea of a concerted effort to keep developer donations confidential for fear of voter backlash and the search for ‘courteous’ candidates to support will ring a bell with anyone who has shown even a passing interest in the inquiry."

The report also strongly criticised the mayor and the deputy mayor for their continued threats of the GCCC taking leagl action against the councillors who brought the relevant information the Queensland Government. It is unfortunate that many of the "likeminded" councillors, commonly known as the bloc, continue such actions.

To date, no "likeminded" councillors, those funded by developers, have explained why they deliberately and intentionally misled the voters. One or two have claimed what they did was legal; the CMC Inquiry had some interesting comments on this observation by the "likeminded" councillors and their developer backers. Many electors on the Gold Coast agree with the CMC's findings and still ask the developer funded councillors, why didn't you tell us about the Power/Robbins Trust Fund?

Contact Details
Phone:		(07) 55 765 306
Email:		divn12@gmail.com
Post:		PO Box 3424, Burleigh Town QLD 4220

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