COURIER-MAIL: A Political
Kill [Indiscretion ends a political career]
Saturday, March 20, 1999
Queensland's Children's Commissioner Norm Alford
quit this week in the face of a Criminal Justice
Commission investigation and revelations by The
Courier-Mail. Michael Ware reports
IT ALL began with the ramblings of a "drug-addicted
transsexual". A man whose motives some tried
carefully to dress up, using the subtlest of
insinuations, as the perverse retribution of an
unrequited love.
But it ended with the political killing of a champion
for children's rights.
The ordeal has put the Queensland political system
and the public through the sausage-grinder after a
Criminal Justice Commission report this week forced
ousted Children's Commissioner Norm Alford to resign.
The Children's Commissioner's role was always going
to be a tough one, with Alford making it clear his
mission was to rid the state of paedophilia and
protect the rights of children.
"In my early 20s, when I was at university, I became
shocked and acutely aware of the billions of hungry
mouths in the world," he said. "I took a decision
then that I wouldn't marry and contribute to the
numbers of hungry mouths but I would do what I could
to help the children already on the Earth."
Within nine months, he was attacking the CJC and
police for failing to aggressively combat paedophile
networks -- immediately putting him at loggerheads
over files alleging official misconduct in relation
to paedophilia.
On such a daring path he was bound to make enemies --
and he did in abundance. Not from the scores he
helped but from those within politics who appeared to
resent his uncompromising agenda.
But Alford also had -- and has -- his backers who
cling to the wispy vestiges of a conspiracy or,
instead, struggle with their personal reconciliation
of the enigma that is Norm Alford.
They are trying to fit the man they knew as a bold
adversary for children's rights to the now-bloodied
image of the flawed public official.
Alford, 65, is a gentle, affable man who came from a
small country town called Traveston, near Gympie. A
man who, it was reported, was the dux of his high
school, and a prestigious Fulbright scholar who
became a teacher and administrator.
His career in the public service took him through the
ranks of the Education Department, rising to become
deputy director-general before taking a voluntary
redundancy in 1990 with the change of government,
only to return in 1996 as a researcher for the
National Party family services minister. From there,
he became Children's Commissioner.
Even today, he maintains a strong interest in
Traveston, where he owns five properties, as well as
two houses in Brisbane's "old money" suburb of
Graceville.
He was not viewed by many as the ideal man for the
job of Children's Commissioner, and even he admitted
that he was not prepared for the role, telling the
public service's in-house magazine 18 months ago that
he "wasn't ready for the experience".
As a servant of government, Alford achieved much. As
Children's Commissioner, he did not resile from what
he believed had to be done for the sake of what's
right.
In the performance of his official functions -- the
watchdog over the treatment of children by government
and the community -- it's hard to find an occasion
when he wavered.
This week, however, it all fell apart -- not so much
because of his public role, but more because of the
fact it had intersected with his private life.
Alford quit over an alleged drug and misconduct
scandal which has enveloped his former office.
An interim CJC report claimed a member of his staff
-- a 22-year-old man with whom Alford has admitted
having a physical relationship -- had allegedly used
Alford's government-supplied car to deal drugs and
allegedly used government computers to download
pornography.
The young man was Michael Birnie, whom Alford met
when the youth was a 17-year-old attendant at the
McDonald's fast-food restaurant in Toowong Village.
Alford, then working at various universities, helped
Birnie with his tertiary applications.
But it was later, as Children's Commissioner, that he
employed or, at the very least, allowed to be
employed on his staff that same young man.
He then compounded his mismanagement by actions that
suggest he protected and sponsored Birnie once he was
given a junior administrative officer's job: twice
reacting oddly to complaints of the young man's
alleged wrongdoing.
From the first day of his appointment as Children's
Commissioner, there had been a smear campaign against
Alford, for his role was an unpopular one, with
faceless political advisers whispering mean-spirited
nothings to journalists in the parliamentary gallery
at the time of his 1997 paedophilia report.
The attacks quickly became public, though, when he
stoutly challenged the CJC and successive
governments' histories of combating child sex issues.
War erupted between his office and the
anti-corruption body, with the Labor Party's forces
on the flanks.
And when allegations against him were made to his
office and the police by a transsexual man who had
befriended Birnie at a popular gay hotel, Alford
claimed it was yet another smear campaign.
But after a 16-week investigation, the "smear" has
produced a case the CJC says Alford must answer.
Meanwhile, police continue criminal investigations
into unresolved allegations about Birnie's "unlawful
drug-related activity" and pornography.
The scandal started brewing last August, when the
transsexual called the Children's Commission and made
allegations about Birnie, drugs, the Commissioner's
car and the Commissioner.
As the CJC puts it, "rather than immediately refer
the matter to the CJC, (Alford) directed that an
internal investigation be conducted" into the young
man with whom he had a physical relationship.
The transsexual also went to the police, who launched
a secret investigation. Alford gave the names of
purported drug dealers, which the transsexual had
provided, to a police assistant commissioner, unaware
he himself was under investigation.
About two weeks later, with the matter coming
increasingly to a head within his own office, Alford
bundled up his "investigation", including exculpatory
statements for himself and Birnie, and sent it to
then CJC chairman Frank Clair.
Alford's lawyer claims that in the three months after
he gave his file to the CJC, the Children's
Commissioner "had not received a reply from the CJC"
and at no time "did the CJC in any way criticise any
action" he took.
But on November 4, while he was being interviewed by
The Courier-Mail, Alford rang Clair and spoke
directly to him about the status of his information.
It now appears Clair was necessarily circumspect.
Later that month, Premier Peter Beattie learnt of the
matter and empowered the CJC to take over the
investigation, which tried, unsuccessfully,
throughout December and January to interview Alford
and an "uncooperative" Birnie.
The CJC's governing body authorised use of the
draconian "star chamber" on January 29 after Alford's
lawyers notified investigators he would not speak to
them of his own accord. During the star chamber's
hearings between February 8 and 12, Alford admitted
having a physical relationship with Birnie.
That proved a mortal blow.
IT'S an unexpected end for a Children's Commissioner
who, before the furore, expressed a determination to
"get on with his job", despite smear campaigns.
But as a long-surviving bureaucrat, schooled in the
hard politics of the Bjelke-Petersen era, he well
knew what was at stake, the level of scrutiny he
would be under and the real meaning of accountability
of government.
Wise in the ways of departmental politics, he spoke
of personal victories over individual ministers in
Bjelke-Petersen's former cabinets.
He was no innocent abroad.
In 1997, at the height of a tug-of-war over files
about alleged official misconduct, he placed guards
in his office to forestall any CJC raid. It was also
he who repeatedly out-manoeuvred his own minister on
a number of key issues while Children's Commissioner.
But as he stepped down this week, he said that he
felt privileged to have assisted victims of child
abuse through his office, saying: "I trust they will
accept me into their ranks as a co-victim of systemic
abuse."
While he made his enemies, though, Alford also made
his friends and does not stand alone at this time.
Some of those he once helped, particularly from
former children's homes such as Neerkol, have rallied
behind him, calling themselves Alford's Army and have
launched a legally dangerous attack on those they
believe are behind his downfall.
The media also has come under attack. Critics have
rejected the need for aggressive vigilance to ensure
transparency in government and law enforcement. But
when the Premier's advisers quip they do not
advertise everything government does, when asked
about a crucial review of crime-fighting agencies,
many believe the need is clear, even when it comes to
the Children's Commission.
The question now is who will take on the vital role
of Children's Commissioner.
[SIDEBAR]
December
1996: Norm
Alford, former schoolteacher and research officer
with the department of Families, Youth and Community
Care, is appointed by the Borbidge Coalition
government as Queensland's Commissioner for Children
-- the first such appointment in Australia. Alford's
suitability for the position is questioned because he
is a childless bachelor. He says this is the result
of a decision he made as a young man.
June
1997: Alford
refers two cases of alleged official misconduct by
officers of the Families, Youth and Community Care
Department to the Criminal Justice Commission. He
attacks secrecy provisions contained in the
Children's Services Act, saying they provide a shield
for "unethical behaviour" by bureaucrats.
August
1997: Alford's
report on paedophilia in Queensland is tabled in
State Parliament and accuses the Criminal Justice
Commission of failing to aggressively combat
paedophile networks, and criticises the police
Juvenile Aid Bureau and the Child Exploitation Unit
for failing to give paedophilia a high priority.
Alford says there is evidence that an interstate
network of paedophiles, which included some
high-profile Queensland figures, had been protected.
A tug-of-war then develops between the Children's
Commission and the CJC over files alleging official
misconduct in relation to paedophilia.
September
1997: Alford
upsets the people of Logan by calling the satellite
city south of Brisbane "an unplanned social
experiment" in a newspaper article. He also suggests,
later in the month, that the State Government should
consider castrating convicted paedophiles.
March
1998: Alford
attacks the Families, Youth and Community Care
Department for contravening the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child, and says his
office is receiving about 10 complaints a day about
the department.
April
1998: Alford
calls for adoption reform and suggests the Government
consider laws which would terminate the rights of
natural parents who had chronically abused or
neglected their children.
August
1998: Alford's
report on allegations of abuse at the Neerkol
orphanage is tabled in Parliament. It claims the
Families, Youth and Community Care Department
hindered the investigation.
November
1998: The
Courier-Mail reports that Alford is at the centre of
a police, CJC and Crime Commission investigation into
the activities of a junior administrative officer on
his staff who is a close personal friend. The
allegations relate to how Michael Birnie, 22, was
appointed to the commission, and use of Alford's
government-supplied car to allegedly deal drugs.
Alford himself says that he is being targeted in a
smear campaign by a "drug addicted transsexual".
Alford says there has been no physical or improper
relationship between himself and Birnie, and denies
wrongdoing over Birnie's appointment. Alford agrees
to stand aside and Birnie is suspended on full pay
during the investigation.
December
1998: Investigations
are intensified following the discovery of alleged
child pornography on a Children's Commission
computer. Photographs taken at Alford's home which
suggest a "level of openness" between himself and
Birnie are also said to exist.
February
1999: Alford is
summonsed to appear before a CJC investigative
hearing to answer allegations of misconduct.
March
1999: Birnie
resigns from the public service. The Courier-Mail
reports that Alford told CJC investigators under
cross-examination during an investigative hearing
that there was a physical element to his relationship
with Birnie. Alford resigns on March 17 as Children's
Commissioner, claiming he has been a victim of
"systematic abuse" and has lost confidence in the
CJC. "While maintaining absolute innocence of any
wrongdoing, legal costs to date have been
considerable and I simply cannot afford the further
costs of pursuing justice through the legal system,"
Alford says in a statement.