BITE THE BULLET

Mr. Premier. Bite the bullet.

And I am not talking about one of the threatening police issue bullets, engraved with the names of a corruption investigator and his wife and left in his home letter box.

Mr. Bracks, I implore you to bite the bullet and set up a permanent Crime Commission in this state of Victoria which is supposedly “ the place to be”.

Call it what you will. A Police Integrity Commission. A Corruption Investigation Commission. Give it the interrogation powers and coercion powers of a Royal Commission and just do it.

We have nearly thirty people dead in a dirty underworld war that increasingly has tentacles reaching out to the thin blue line.

This week I had a heated discussion with one of Melbourne’s best and most knowledgeable crime reporters. He argued I could not prove that corrupt cops, involved in drugs, were involved in any of the gangland slayings.

My argument was that he may be right… but the public perception is that we have some rotten coppers out there. Things got so bad they had to disband the Drug Squad.

And perception is what it is about.

When the community loses respect for its defenders of law and order then anarchy is just around the corner. Look at Chicago in the days of Al Capone and bootlegging.

Giving the Ombudsman extra powers is not the answer. He is a negotiator and a mediator. I know it sounds glib but when I said on radio that “what we need is Elliot Ness not Elliot Goblet” it was true.

By mid-week Premier Bracks was breathlessly announcing in Parliament that renowned crime buster Tony Fitzgerald had been hired by the Ombudsman to investigate the apparent leaking of a Police informer’s files to criminals.

Not, it seems, to investigate who killed informer Terence Hodson and his wife but who leaked the information. According to the ABC the document was so detailed that it included his official informer’s number.

Within hours alleged drug traffickers were on talkback radio saying that they had seen the document and Carl Williams estimated about “a hundred” crims had sighted it.

It detailed how Hodson had passed on info about an offer from crime figure Lewis Moran (now dead) to kill alleged drug trafficker Carl Williams (still alive) for $50,000.

Only hours before announcing the Fitzgerald appointment Premier Bracks was on radio doubting the authenticity of the document.

I hate to give Robert Doyle a free kick but you have to ask the question: What else has to happen before the Bracks Government admits it is wrong, admits it is hopelessly and ineptly out of step and sets up an independent crime and corruption commission?

Police Minister Andre Haermeyer has admitted that he cannot guarantee the safety of informers in police witness protection programmes.

This was after reports that an informer helping Victorian Police was shot at through the door of his supposed “ safe house” in Queensland last week.

The Police Media unit said allegations of Police leaks are being taken “seriously” and would be the subject of a “full and thorough “ investigation. Yeah, right. Police again investigating Police.

Wouldn’t it be smarter and cleaner if this investigation could be handled by a permanent Crime and Corruption Commission with the powers of a Royal Commission?

Reportedly senior Police knew this damning, fatal, document was out there weeks ago – at the same time as Premier Steve Bracks and his Police Minister were still protesting that there was no concrete evidence linking police corruption with the gangland murders.

No wonder Hodson told people before he died that he feared corrupt coppers more than he feared underworld enemies.

Premier Bracks must commit the money, and commit his government’s muscle, to setting up a permanent anti-corruption commission. Giving the Ombudsman a few more piddling powers is not the answer.

And maybe the Premier should go back and read some of the comments of the man his Ombudsman has employed, Justice Tony Fitzgerald.

The man, whose commission put a few crooks and bent coppers in jail in Queensland – including Police Commissioner Terry (formerly Sir Terrence) Lewis – wrote about the public interest in justice.

It comes, in my mind, under my broad umbrella of “ public perception” when corruption and coppers are mentioned in the same breath.

Fitzgerald wrote, and his words should be writ large in this stage, even chiseled into the stone walls of Spring Street:

“ The justification for a commission of inquiry is that certain allegations have been made which are not, or cannot be dealt with by ordinary processes and institutions, and which have caused great public concern”.

Fitzgerald talked about “ the restoration of public confidence” in the integrity of the Queensland police force and the judicial system up there.

He talked about the vital need for allegations of Police corruption to be thoroughly investigated so that the community, OUR community, is satisfied that the grubby problems don’t exist or have been exposed and eradicated. That bad apples have been exorcised from the barrel.

I believe we need a permanent crime commission with the powers of a Royal Commission to subpoena witnesses and documents and to jail people who refuse to testify. Look how many corrupt cops rolled over during the Wood inquiry in Sydney.

What more evidence do you need Mr. Bracks?

Sunday, 6th June 2004

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2004