[citation needed] It conducted a high-profile investigation into matters related to the 2004 Palm Island death in custody.

In 2007, the CMC Director of Intelligence claimed a lack of telephone interception or phone tapping powers meant crime bosses in Queensland were avoiding prosecution.

[12] In 2010, the first public hearings conducted by the CMC were held in relation to police corruption on the Gold Coast following the Operation Tesco misconduct probe.

[15] The review was criticised by some as arising from resentment about five complaints made to the CMC by the then Labor government about Campbell Newman in the lead-up to his election as premier.

[17] The criticism was backed up by former Queensland attorney-general Paul Clauson, who helped establish the corruption watchdog in the late 1980s, and who likened the organisation to the Stasi.

[21] The Crime and Misconduct Commission was the subject of further controversy in 2014, with former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty saying it was "obsessed with independence" and describing as in danger of becoming corrupt itself, and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie saying, "Over the years we have seen the CMC used as a political football by the Labor party and what we want to do is stop that from happening.

[25] On 31 January 2022, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Tony Fitzgerald would chair a commission of inquiry into the State's anti-corruption body after a scathing 2021 report.