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Qld govt's committee sacking 'illegal'

An independent MP says Qld's attorney-general must quit for illegally sacking an entire parliamentary committee.

Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie
An independent MP says Queensland's attorney-general (pic) must quit for sacking a committee. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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The Queensland government's sacking of an entire parliamentary committee was illegal and the attorney-general must resign, an independent MP says.

Earlier this month, the Newman government used it's massive parliamentary majority to dismiss the entire cross-party Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee.

Independent MP Peter Wellington, who sat on the sacked committee, said on Friday the move was illegal.

He said the Crime and Misconduct Act, which governs the PCMC, clearly says the government only has the power to appoint or remove its own committee members.

Mr Wellington said the government had no right to remove members appointed by the opposition.

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He has written to Speaker Fiona Simpson asking her to rule on the government's "illegal action".

He has also called on Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie to resign immediately.

"The first law officer of the state ignored the law. He did not comply with it," Mr Wellington told AAP.

"There's no way in the world he can argue he didn't know about the law.

"The government did that to get square with members of the committee they didn't agree with. His position is no longer tenable and he must resign now."

Mr Bleijie has said the government had to sack the committee for bias against the head of the Crime and Misconduct Commission, Ken Levy.

The PCMC had been investigating whether Dr Levy misled it over contact he had with the government before penning an opinion piece in support of the Newman government's contentious anti-bikie laws.

On Thursday, Premier Campbell Newman said Mr Wellington had been part of a tainted and prejudicial process.

He said Mr Wellington and other committee members had called for Dr Levy's head even before the PCMC had finished investigating him.

"Not one, not two, not three, but four participants in that trial or that Committee hearing had declared the accused guilty prior to the verdict being handed down," Mr Newman told Fairfax radio.

Mr Bleijie denied the government's actions were illegal.

PCMC members were delegates of the House, he said in a statement on Friday.


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