NEWS > 11 January 2007

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NEWS.com.au - Australia
11 January 2007

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Victorian police force is corr

VICTORIA'S police force is riddled with "deep-seated and continuing corruption" that will only be flushed out by a powerful and wide-ranging royal commission.

Don Stewart, one of Australia's most respected judicial figures, says Victoria Police and the state Government oppose a royal commission because they do not want the extent of corruption within the force made public.

"They know that it would reveal what they don't want revealed," says the former Supreme Court judge and founder of Australia's first national crime agency.

Dismissing arguments that dirty police are already being driven out of the force through the courts, he says the recent convictions of senior Victorian officers on corruption charges are "the tip of the iceberg".

"The arrest of some corrupt police only proves that corruption is deep-seated and continuing," Mr Stewart says in a book to be published in March.

The Australian revealed on Monday that the Office of Police Integrity - an offshoot of the Ombudsman's office - was launching an investigation into possible links between corrupt police and organised crime, including allegations that corrupt officers had protected underworld figures.

Mr Stewart - who conducted three royal commissions, including one into drug trafficking that led to the establishment of the National Crime Authority, which he then headed from 1984-89 - said cleansing Victoria Police was a "herculean" task.

"Only a wide-ranging royal commission will do it," he told The Australian.

His criticisms are expected to reignite debate about whether the Victorian Government has done enough to tackle police corruption.

The Bracks Government rejected growing pressure for a royal commission in 2004, opting instead to set up the Office of Police Integrity, which it claimed would be a de facto standing royal commission. The OPI has since been criticised for failing to do enough to tackle corruption.

Mr Stewart is one of the most senior legal figures in Australia to warn that Victoria has failed to address police corruption. In 2005, former royal commissioner and former ASIO head Edward Woodward said corruption in the state was at its highest level ever.

In his book Recollections of an Unreasonable Man: From the Beat to the Bench, to be published by ABC Books, Mr Stewart, 78, challenges public claims by Victoria's Chief Police Commissioner, Christine Nixon, and the state Government that recent corruption trials were proof that "the Victorian police are upright, honest and true".

"I take the opposite view," he says. "Why the Victoria Police don't want, and the Victorian Government will not have, an independent wide-ranging judicial inquiry into police corruption, such as was had in Queensland and NSW, is obvious. They know that it would reveal what they don't want revealed."

Mr Stewart says that, while head of the NCA, he met opposition from many members of Victoria Police, whom he describes as "bad as any". He says he had to terminate the secondments to the NCA of a number of state-based police because of concerns over their conduct.

The Victorian Government, Victoria Police and OPI all last night rejected Mr Stewart's call for a royal commission.

A government spokesman said the OPI was independent and had the powers of a royal commission. "Over 100 charges have been laid against former and serving members, resulting from work undertaken by the OPI and Victoria Police Ethical Standards Department," the spokesman said.

A Victoria Police spokesman said: "Justice Stewart is entitled to his opinion, however Victoria Police has a proven track record in not only identifying corruption but also successfully investigating and prosecuting corrupt officers."

An OPI spokesman said the debate about whether Victoria needed a royal commission into police corruption had "moved on". The OPI had a range of powers, including coercive powers to force witnesses to answer questions, telephone tapping powers and the ability to hold public or private hearings. But unlike a short-lived royal commission, it was an ongoing body, the spokesman said.

Victoria Police came under criticism from one of its own corruption investigators in October for failing to investigate adequately up to 24 allegedly corrupt officers in the force.

Mr Stewart declined to comment on the effectiveness of the OPI, but held up the NSW Police Integrity Commission as an "excellent model" for fighting police corruption.

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NEWS.com.au - Australia11 January 2007

Victorian police force is corr

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NEWS.com.au - Australia
11 January 2007