Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 15 September 2007 The Australian reported on Victoria: “Crime and corruption”

History has shown police cannot investigate themselves. Victorian police for the first time this week conceded links between police corruption and organised crime, saying: But we have found it, and we are following it. We at The Weekend Australian are staggered. There has always, and will always, be a link between organised crime and police corruption - something we have been saying for many years. Did anybody in Victoria ever believe that corrupt police weren't connected to the gangland violence that gripped Melbourne between 2003 and 2005? That 28 people were killed, mafia-style, on the streets without corrupt police involved?  

The Australian's Melbourne bureau has for years been reporting, in great detail, corruption in the Victoria police. It has helped expose such scandals as the five officers from the Victorian drug squad, including the head of the squad, Wayne Strawhorn, who were last year found guilty of trafficking drugs, and other offences. The Australian last October asked police chief Christine Nixon whether corrupt officers were still in the force. She conceded there were but claimed they were in small, isolated groups. Former premier Steve Bracks nevertheless ruled out a royal commission, saying the arrest and conviction of a handful of officers proved the force was strong and robust.

Meanwhile, there have been officers from the sexual assault unit implicated in the sex industry, and officers from the armed robbery unit implicated in police brutality. Now we are assured - by police, mind you - that police have found the corruption and are on top of the corruption. The Age yesterday questioned whether the state has the right system in place to deal with police corruption. It has been obvious for some time that Victoria does not have the right system in place to deal with police corruption. Currently, it has the Office of Police Integrity - that is, police, investigating police, and only police.

Corruption has flourished in Victoria so happily and for so long that it will have spread its way into every corner of Victorian society, including the judiciary, the racing industry, the gaming industry, money laundering and the manufacture and trafficking of drugs. It will have reached some level of government, that is certain. It is the opinion of this newspaper that the best place to start an investigation is with every organisation that does not think an investigation is necessary. In saying this, we do not claim any special knowledge. It is just that every scandal, government or otherwise, in Australian history has proven this to be so. It was The Australian that last year revealed a deal between Mr Bracks and the police union - a secret deal, made before the election - in exchange for the police union's support at the election. It involves getting the taxpayer to pay the legal fees of police officers accused of corruption. It stinks to high heaven. We say again: what is needed is a royal commission.

Victorians have every right to be proud of the way they have led Australia in many areas including the successful privatisation of utilities and the management of scarce resources such as river water. But they have been short-changed by their government when it comes to rooting out corruption in the police force. The police union says it supports investigations into its members only if the process is open and fair. Very well, let's make it open and fair, and bring it on. What could the Government, the bureaucrats, the police, the criminals, possibly have to hide?

Source: 15 September 2007 The Australian “Crime and corruption”

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