BLUE CARD AWARDED TO FORMER ICE ADDICT
A FORMER ice addict has been granted a Blue Card despite Justice Department concerns about his “recent and frequent’’ drug history.
Michael Patraic Murray, 40, has a history of drug convictions and was found not guilty of dangerous driving causing death after killing a pedestrian on the Gold Coast in 2006.
The Justice Department rejected his Blue Card application last year on the grounds of “recent, frequent and extensive drug related activities”.
“Drug use and drugrelated activities will be likely to detract from his ability to provide a protective environment for children placed in his care, and his ability to present as an appropriate role model for them,’’ Blue Card Services screening unit director Michelle Miller stated in her decision.
But Mr Murray appealed to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), which ruled that he had made a “remarkable and significant turnaround in his life’’ after a year in the Salvation Army’s Fairhaven drug rehabilitation centre.
“Mr Murray would only present a risk to children if still using illicit drugs,’’ QCAT member Andrew McLean Williams stated in his decision in February.
“Yet it appears improbable that Mr Murray would now return to a life of drug addiction.’’
Mr McLean Williams said QCAT had heard evidence from representatives of the Australian Anti-Ice Campaign, the Salvation Army and two psychologists who “were able to testify to the redemption that he has since undergone.”
The QCAT ruling reveals Mr Murray was convicted of drug offences in 1999 and 2014, and convicted for breach of privacy when he was “high on ice’’ on Anzac Day 2014, and peered in a beachside shower block while a man was showering.
Mr Murray could not be contacted yesterday.