{"id":559945,"date":"2026-03-23T23:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/559945\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T23:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:36:08","slug":"queensland-government-criticised-over-absurd-decision-to-appoint-former-police-officer-to-legal-aid-board-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/559945\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland government criticised over \u2018absurd\u2019 decision to appoint former police officer to Legal Aid board | Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

A barrister who acted for Mulrunji Doomadgee\u2019s family says it is \u201cunacceptable\u201d for a former police officer criticised for his conduct in investigating the 2004 death in custody<\/a> to serve on the Queensland\u2019s Legal Aid board.<\/p>\n

Andrew Boe represented Doomadgee\u2019s family and the Palm Island community council at an aborted coronial inquest in 2005 and then in subsequent inquests in 2006 and 2010.<\/p>\n

The Queensland<\/a> attorney general, Deb Frecklington, sacked all Labor-appointed members of the Legal Aid Queensland board in February and later appointed Darren Robinson, now a lawyer based in Townsville.<\/p>\n

Boe said the decision was \u201cabsurd\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere must be numerous other applicants with similar qualifications who don\u2019t have this very dark stain on their character and integrity, and it\u2019s a slap in the face to the family of Mulrunji Doomadgee and the community on Palm Island,\u201d Boe said.<\/p>\n

Robinson, then a senior sergeant, was a friend of Christopher Hurley, the officer accused of causing Doomadgee\u2019s death. He was appointed as part of a team of police sent to the island to investigate after Doomadgee\u2019s death in 2004 and also took part in subsequent raids of homes by tactical police after the island\u2019s police station was burned down.<\/p>\n

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Robinson had investigated a prior complaint by a Palm Island resident about Hurley and ruled the complaint was \u201cfictitious\u201d. An inquest described the investigation that lead to that conclusion as\u201csuperficial, biased and misleading\u201d and said his conclusion was \u201cdishonest and flew in the face of objective evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Crime and Misconduct Commission recommended that Robinson be disciplined<\/a>, alongside three other officers.<\/p>\n

He was admitted to practise as a solicitor in 2014.<\/p>\n

Boe said Robinson should not be allowed to serve on the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be astonishing if those who made the decision to appoint him were aware of his past and decided to continue with his appointment but equally unacceptable that they are not aware of substantial findings of a coroner and the federal court in relation to his conduct as a police officer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reveals that a board which is intended to protect the interests of the most vulnerable, including in the criminal justice system, has not ensured that a person that is appointed has the integrity that\u2019s needed for that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state Labor leader, Steven Miles, said the appointment was \u201ccontroversial\u201d and not one that Labor would not have \u201cever considered\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would urge David Crisafulli to meet with First Nations leaders to hear first-hand their concerns about this appointment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all, First Nations people are over-represented in the criminal justice system are more reliant than the rest of the population on legal aid and it\u2019s important that they have confidence in Legal Aid and I think this appointment will diminish that confidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

The education minister, John-Paul Langbroek, said the government believes Robinson is \u201ccompletely appropriate for the position\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that obviously is a cabinet process that I can\u2019t discuss\u201d.<\/p>\n

Langbroek said he did not accept the inquest finding that Robinson had been \u201cdishonest\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to accept that characterisation,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is something that you\u2019ll have to get specific details from the attorney general about. And for an appointment as important as that one, it\u2019s gone through all the processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson was contacted and offered the opportunity to comment.<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 24 March 2026. The findings about Robinson were made at a coronial inquest, not a commission of inquiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A barrister who acted for Mulrunji Doomadgee\u2019s family says it is \u201cunacceptable\u201d for a former police officer criticised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-559945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}