MARK COLVIN: Some of the furniture and other valuables allegedly stolen from Queensland’s Parliament House have been returned.
The Queensland Speaker called in police, after a former parliamentary staffer claimed that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of antiques had been pinched in the 1980s.
One current staff member has since admitted his involvement and been stood down, while police seized several truckloads of goods from the retirement home of another former staffer.
From Brisbane, Melanie Christiansen reports.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: After being missing for decades, the recovered furniture is now under lock and key in the Speaker’s Hall at the Queensland Parliament.
TONY MCGRADY: Well we have cabinets and bookcases. We have chairs and a beautiful table, but above all else this beautiful Waterford Crystal.
(sound of finger tapping on crystal)
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: Tony McGrady estimates that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of furniture was stolen from the Queensland Parliament around the 1980s.
He says a fraction of that, probably about $30,000 to $40,000 worth has now been returned, after being seized by police from the home of a former parliamentary staffer, who’d retired to New South Wales.
TONY MCGRADY: You’ve got these whiskey decanters. Now I know, they are very very expensive, extremely expensive. And the police have found them, even this water jug…
(sound of finger tapping on crystal)
… good stuff, the best. The best.
Then of course these magnificent cups, it’s a real good cup, good size.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: And is that gold?
TONY MCGRADY: That’s gold, well it’s gold and even the handle here is all gold. So you wouldn’t put them in the microwave.
And you’ve got the saucers and plates. So, you know, he’s got stuff here, fit for… I mean, I’m sure if the Queen was to come to New South Wales he would have had all the facilities here to put on a state banquet.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: What would be one of the more valuable pieces here?
TONY MCGRADY: Well, I think the clocks. That’s obviously very old. And there’s a number of clocks here. I made a bit of joke when I said the reason we found the clocks was the New South Wales noise abatement society made a formal complaint when they all started to chime together.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: Tony McGrady though is getting a bit tired of the jokes implying things are still going missing from the Queensland Parliament. He says that’s not true.
TONY MCGRADY: I’ve been in this place 17 years and the staff here are not thieves. And they’ve been through difficult time with comments from taxi drivers and others about this “house of thieves”, which I think it was referred to in one outlet.
And those people felt… and Members of Parliament too, they’ve been the butt of jokes and myself, I’ve been the butt of jokes too. Everywhere you go people check if you’ve got silver in your pocket and it wears a little bit thin.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: While no one’s yet been charged over the parliamentary furniture which did go missing in the ’80s, police say they’re still investigating.
And Speaker Tony McGrady is hoping the recovery of some of the missing those valuables will demonstrate that things have changed in Queensland.
TONY MCGRADY: You can’t understand today the culture which existed back in the ’70s in this State. And people accuse me of being political, I don’t care, where some people had the view that anything goes. And as you can see by this lots of things went. And, you know, this is a reminder to me and I hope to everybody that those days have gone from Queensland.
MARK COLVIN: The Queensland Speaker Tony McGrady speaking there to Melanie Christiansen.
