Does John Brumby think he’s Elliot Ness?  Has he been watching too many episodes of The Untouchables on late night television? Why else would he even be thinking of giving the Office of Police Integrity, the OPI, unbelievable new powers.

Is our Police force so corrupt that he has to give guns to OPI agents, make them above judicial scrutiny and virtually immune to prosecution?

When we’ve seen how deep corruption has seeped into Victoria Police in the past who’s to say – without casting aspersions on current OPI members – that future staff won’t be corrupt. And they would be The Untouchables. Remember in some areas of the force corruption has been so endemic they’ve had to disband the squad.

And if you have a complaint about the OPI who do you complain to? The Ombudsman of course. But the Ombudsman, George Brouwer, is also the head of OPI. Figure that out.

Currently there are some checks and balances  through the OPI watchdog, the Special Investigations Monitor,  but the OPI is trying to abolish that unit.

A Cabinet briefing note on all this, prepared by the Department of Justice, has been revealed in The Age today.

A stubborn Premier Brumby won’t do the correct and obvious thing. He won’t appoint an independent crime commission like ICAC in New South Wales and in Queensland and the Crimes Investigation Commission in Western Australia.

Already those units, separate from the Police Force and the Parliament have claimed scalps in all three states. Not only policemen, but politicians and public servants.  Right now in Sydney ICAC is probing into horror stories about sex and bribes and corruption inside the Wollongong City Council over favoured treatment for high rise developers.

In this day and age, where criminals have technology even more sophisticated than police, and where developers have millions of clean and dirty dollars to spread around, every state needs a powerful watchdog. Needs an ICAC.

It’s not just about the Police. And it’s certainly shouldn’t be about Police investigating Police. Steve Bracks opposed ICAC and Brumby has followed suit. You are entitled to ask how come we are the only state in step.

And if John Brumby keeps fudging on this and if he thinks an OPI on steroids is the answer people will start asking the unjust but obvious question: What have you go to hide? What are you scared of?

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008