The heiner Affair Directory
A Directory of recent and historical news items and revelations from other sources.
Australian Story
Three Little Words
PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT: Monday, 17 May , 2004
CAROLINE JONES: Hello. I'm Caroline Jones. Tonight's Australian Story is about one man’s relentless pursuit of justice. To some, he's an obsessive crackpot who sees conspiracies at every turn. To others, he's a hero - fearlessly fighting for the rights and freedom of us all. He's Kevin Lindeberg, and his fourteen year crusade has even registered on the international scandal scale. This is his story.
KEVIN LINDEBERG: The people that I'm fighting against are people who have the levers of power at their hand. They have infinite power because it's the state. The consequences of if I win, is dire for them.
BRUCE GRUNDY – UNI. OF QLD: This is David and Goliath. And Goliath has enormous resources, and David only has one little human being. He's a pretty powerful human being.
ALASTAIR MacADAM – SENIOR LAW LECTURER: Kevin Lindeberg's been called a crackpot, an obsessive - he's been ridiculed. But in the fullness of time, everything he says turns out to be true. You can read the full original transcript here.
Daily Telegraph
Long running scandal threatens Rudd
by Piers Akerman 18.08.2007
On Thursday, Premier Peter Beattie was presented with a letter signed by former Western Australian Chief Justice (David Malcolm), two retired NSW Chief Judges (Jack Lee, now deceased, and Dr Frank McGrath), two retired NSW Supreme Court Justices (Roddy Meagher and Barry O’Keefe), one of Australia’s foremost QCs (Alec Shand) and a legal academic and barrister (Alastair MacAdam) all seeking the appointment of an Independent Special Prosecutor into an unresolved outrageous injustice now known as the Heiner Affair, which has been poisonously suppurating since the days of the Goss government.
A copy of this letter was also received by Queensland’s Governor, Chief Justice, Opposition Leader, Bar Association and Law Society.
It followed the completion of a two-year audit by leading NSW QC, David Rofe, who prepared a 3000-page, nine volume report on the case and concluded there were 67 alleged unaddressed prima facie criminal charges that needed to be urgently addressed.
At the heart of the matter is the order by the Goss Cabinet of March 5, 1990, to destroy all documents relating to an inquiry by retired magistrate Noel Heiner into the management of the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre. Read the Original Article Here
Daily Telegraph
Hiding in the shadows
by Piers Akerman 22.08.2007
IN THE space of a week, Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie have snubbed calls for an inquiry into the rape and abuse of children in the care of the Queensland Government, claiming previous investigations established there was nothing more to be investigated.
Through a spokesman, Beattie said: “Two Senate select committees and at least two Senate committee of privileges inquiries. The (Queensland) criminal justice committee, the parliamentary CJC and the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission (EARC) have also looked at this. The Auditor-General has considered it twice. There is nothing more to be investigated.’’
Rudd’s spokesman said something eerily similar: ``These alleged actions of the Goss Government have been exhaustively investigated in a number of inquiries, including two separate Federal parliamentary inquiries _ one joint select committee, and another by the House of Representatives’ legal and constitutional committee in 2004, chaired by Liberal MP, Bronwyn Bishop and with a government-controlled majority.
``Neither of these inquiries received or considered any allegations in relation to the federal Labor leader nor was he mentioned in transcripts, submissions or in the committee’s reports.
``He was also not included among the persons adversely named.’’
There is another similarity between the claims of Beattie and Rudd. Both are distinctly questionable (and both men must be well aware of that).
First, let’s look at the inquiries Beattie and Rudd are attempting to hide behind. Read the full original article here.
Daily Telegraph
Tragic story cries out for an ending
by Piers Akerman 25.08.2007
FEDERAL Opposition leader Kevin Rudd may be called to answer questions relating to the destruction of evidence as a police investigation into the rape of a Queensland girl 19 years ago gains new momentum.
The girl, who we will call Alice, was just 14 at the time and resident at the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre, in the care of the Queensland Government, when she was gang raped by other inmates.
Though some of the rapists confessed, no charges were pressed and the police inquiry at the time was at best belated and perfunctory.
Alice’s tragic story is but one strand of this horror, the other is the Goss ALP government’s attempt to ignore her plight and bury the incident without trace.
That attempt began when an investigation, directed by former magistrate Noel Heiner and launched by the Cooper National Party government, was shut down by the Goss government when it came to power.
The Goss cabinet ordered the shredding of all the documents collected by Heiner and this marked the beginning of the Heiner Affair.
Rudd was Premier Wayne Goss’s chief of staff at the time and subsequently became the director-general of his cabinet office.
It was widely held that nothing took place within cabinet without his knowledge, and he has also claimed his experience running Goss’s cabinet has equipped him to be prime minister of Australia. Read the full original article here.
Daily Telegraph
Why I won't miss Beattie.
by Piers Akerman 15.09.2007
But sadly, that appears not to the case. Governor Bryce was last month sent a copy of the now-famous Judges’ Letter on the scandalous Heiner Affair involving the cover-up of the rape of an Aboriginal girl in the care of the Queensland Cabinet, and the subsequent shredding by the Goss Cabinet of documents needed as evidence, but has so far failed to respond.
Nor do those pressing for this massive injustice to be remedied expect much action from Premier Bligh, given her haughty dismissal of the destruction of the Cabinet documents when the matter arose in the Queensland Parliament nine years ago.
The then-Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care and Minister for Disability Services superciliously branded the bid to win justice for the long-suffering Aboriginal victim, and others, like former trade union representative Kevin Lindeberg, as “a totally mad conspiracy theory’’.
The Justice Project Web site.
The Justice Project is a continuing endeavour to uncover, not only the appalling recent history of the treatment of children in care in Queensland, Australia, but to record the stories of those who survived, and, through the efforts of journalism, to assist the victims to find some justice -- and peace in their lives.
The activities of the Justice Project are focused primarily on the issue of the abuse of children in Queensland institutions, on related matters of injustice suffered by such children, and on the claim that in this country we operate under a system governed by the rule of law.
Visit the Justice Project web site.
Records and the Public Interest.
The shredding of the "Heiner" documents: An appreciation
By Chris Hurley (Archivist)
Abstract Government archives authorities have a discretion to allow or forbid the destruction of public records. Should they exercise this discretion to safeguard the rights and entitlements of private citizens or only on "historical" grounds? Should government archivists prevent hasty destruction of official documents which may provide evidence of government liability or wrong-doing? Who determines the public interest in retention and balances individual concerns against public benefit?
These and related questions were raised in the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Unresolved Whistleblower Cases entitled The Public Interest Revisited, published in October 1995. The Report dealt, inter alia, with the "Shredding of the Heiner Documents" in Queensland. In the course of the Senate's Inquiry, Queensland authorities argued that it was no business of the State Archivist to be concerned with disposal other than to determine what documents should be kept for reasons "of historical public interest".
Author Chris Hurley has post-graduate diplomas in Education (University of Sydney), Librarianship (University of New South Wales), and Archives (University of London). He has worked in government archives in Australia, both Federal (Australian Archives, 1971-1980) and State (Public Record Office of Victoria, 1981-1987). He worked on the 1983 Australian federal Archives Act and was a consultant on archives legislation for Queensland and New South Wales. He was appointed General Manager of the National Archives of New Zealand in 1996 and Acting Chief Archivist in 1998.
Read Mr. Hurley's appreciation.
Australian Society of Archivists Position Statement on the Heiner Affair
Approved by Council on 18 March 1999
Unbeknown to the archivist, access to the records was being sought in relation to legal claims arising out of the investigation. The question arose whether the State Archivist should have prevented the destruction to protect an intending litigant's right to pursue his claim in court. In the course of the 1995 Senate Inquiry, the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission, under attack for its handling of the case, claimed that these matters were not the State Archivist's concern. Our 1997 Statement was issued in large part to refute that claim.
Read the complete Statement.
Senator Woodley speaks on the abuse of children in Queensland Institutions.
But I say to the Queensland government, and even to this chamber: there is still serious unfinished business to attend to concerning the Heiner shredding. The shredding of the Heiner report is part of the reason that this abuse went on for so long without intervention. In that context, the culture of these institutions went unchallenged for all those extra years. The healing then has also taken longer. We owe it to the victims not to regard this report as the end of the matter.
Read the complete speech.
Heiner Affair related documents tabled by Alan Grice MLA
in Queensland Parliament on Thursday 10th June 1999
Does beattie Mislead Parliament?
View the documents here.
Did the Queensland Premier mislead Parliament?
Heiner Documents
DEBATE IN THE QUEENSLAND LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
Mr BEANLAND (Indooroopilly:LP)(10.15 a.m.): I give notice that I shall move:
"That this House (a) condemns the Goss Labor Government for destroying documents pertaining to the Heiner Inquiry and thereby covering up evidence of child abuse and paedophilia within the Queensland juvenile justice system; (b) direct the Beattie Labor Government to establish an independent commission of inquiry, separate from the Forde Commission of Inquiry, to investigate the destruction of these documents and the subsequent allegations of former Labor Cabinet Minister, Mr Pat Comben, on Sunday, 21 February 1999, that goss Labor government ministers were aware these contained evidence of child abuse and paedophilia; and (c) calls on Ministers Mackenroth, Gibbs, Hamill, Braddy and Wells to make a full disclosure of their involvement in this matter, to this House."