Crime and Misconduct Commission v. McLennan & Ors

The Crime and Misconduct Commission sought judicial review of decisions made by the disciplinary tribunals of the Queensland Police Service regarding the penalties imposed on three police officers, McLennan, Hughes, and McDonald. The tribunals had imposed penalties on the officers following a misconduct investigation, and the CMC was dissatisfied with the outcomes. The primary legal issues before the court were whether the first respondent tribunal had erred in the application of comparable judgments, whether the second respondent tribunal had acted beyond its powers in imposing a sanction of dismissal, whether the first respondent tribunal had erred by considering irrelevant considerations, specifically the length of service of the third respondent, and whether the weight given to factors of mitigation and dishonesty by the first respondent tribunal was so disproportionate as to render the decision manifestly unreasonable.

The court found that the tribunals had not erred in the application of comparable judgments, nor had they acted beyond their powers in imposing the sanction of dismissal. Regarding the consideration of the third respondent’s length of service, the court held that this was not an irrelevant consideration and did not constitute an error of law. Finally, the court determined that the weight given to factors of mitigation and dishonesty by the first respondent tribunal was not so disproportionate as to render the decision manifestly unreasonable.

The application for judicial review was dismissed. The court ordered that the CMC pay the respondents' costs of and incidental to the application, to be assessed on the standard basis.