ELLIOT NESS NOT ELLIOT GOBLET

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?

Look what has happened in recent days:

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.

And now the ABC has reported that confidential information from a prominent Police informant was leaked to the underworld some days before he was shot dead – executed along with his wife – two weeks ago.

The document was so detailed that it not only identified Terence Hodson as a high level Police informant but included his official informer number.

And 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.

The Police Media unit is saying that these allegations of a leak are being taken “seriously” and will 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.

Opposition Leader Robert Doyle said: “Was the leaking of this information directly linked to the murder of Terence Hodson and his wife? Surely now, finally, Steve Bracks has to set up an independent crime commission”. And he is right.

We have had police issue bullets with names engraved on them dropped in investigators home letter boxes. We have nearly thirty people dead in a dirty underworld war that increasingly has tentacles reaching out to the thin blue line.

Last night 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. That 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.

What we need is Elliot Ness not Elliot Goblet.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2004