The report from the inquiry led to the resignation of the Premier of Queensland Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and the jailing of several ministers and a police commissioner.

[1] "Unless there is an effective parliamentary opposition to advocate alternative policies, criticise government errors, denounce excesses of power and reflect, inform and influence public opinion, the checks and balances needed for democracy are entirely missing.

[1] In 1990 and 1991, Fitzgerald also chaired the Commission of Inquiry into the Conservation, Management and Use of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region.

Fitzgerald has been the chairperson of both the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Institute for Law, Ethics and Public Affairs, as well as being the inaugural chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.

His "Fitzgerald Report" (Cape York Justice Study, presented to Parliament in November 2001[7]) recommended to the Queensland Government that unless things improved dramatically within a period of three years, that alcohol should be banned, in consultation with the communities.

[8] One of the findings related to communities relying on the income generated by sales of alcohol in canteens, recommending that this perceived conflict of interest end.