Queensland Clerk of state Parliament Nick Laurie says some of the “wider safeguards,” implemented in the wake of the Fitzgerald inquiry have been “fatally weakened,” in his submission to a committee review into Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission. Mr Laurie was particularly critical of the Commission’s increasing use of closed hearings and what he called “secrecy restraints,” saying the measures reduced the amount of information available to the public and made scrutiny more difficult. Mr Laurie also used his submission to voice concerns over the decline of investigative journalism, blaming social media for gutting media revenue and undermining the media’s ability to hold state institutions to account.