NEWS > 11 January 2007

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The Australian - Sydney,Austra
11 January 2007

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Editorial: Victorian police ro

Wise counsel from Don Stewart on police corruption
AS a former NSW police officer, Don Stewart has a practical understanding of police culture that gives him added authority when it comes to tackling corruption and preserving integrity within the service. Added to his distinguished career as a judge, royal commissioner and inaugural head of the National Crime Authority, few are better placed to comment on what is needed to root out wrongdoers and restore public confidence in the Victoria Police Service. Mr Stewart led the Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking in 1981 that exposed the murderous "Mr Asia" drug syndicate. He headed an inquiry into the Nugan Hand Bank and the public hearings that exposed corruption in the NSW police force.

In Victoria, the case for an open royal commission to restore public confidence is clear. The evidence includes a series of drug-related gangland murders, video evidence of police brutality, union hostility to official investigations and secret deals between the police union and the premier. In his forthcoming memoirs, Recollections of an unreasonable man, Mr Stewart rejects the view put by Victorian Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon and her supporters in government that the arrest and charging of police officers for leading roles in organised crime is proof the Victoria police force is upright, honest and true. Mr Stewart takes the opposite view. That is, the arrest of some corrupt police only proves corruption is deep-seated and continuing. Mr Stewart says it is obvious why the Victorian 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: they know it would reveal what they don't want revealed. Mr Stewart does not suggest all Victorian police are corrupt, but his experience tells him that what's known about police corruption in Victoria is just the tip of theiceberg.

The evidence to date paints an alarming picture. Twenty-eight people have been murdered in an underworld gang war over drugs that the Victorian police force appeared powerless to stop for almost 10 years. In September, the Office of Police Integrity presented damning video evidence in which officers of the now-disbanded armed offenders squad punched and abused a suspect as he pleaded for mercy. As bad as that was, of equal concern was the response of those embedded within the Victorian police culture. OPI proceedings were labelled a "Spanish Inquisition" by police union chief Paul Mullett, who argued they should be moved behind closed doors. The union had a similar response to revelations in The Australian this week that the OPI would conduct hearings later this year into links between allegedly corrupt officers and organised crime. The police union would closely monitor the investigation, while the Victoria Police Association assistant secretary, Inspector Bruce McKenzie, said the OPI was "unaccountable" and lacked proper oversight. The police union and police association are doing their job in defending their members. But they are not objective commentators. There is also evidence of an unhealthy relationship between the police union and executive government, with The Australian that exposing the union had made a secret deal with Premier Steve Bracks in the run-up to the November state election without the knowledge of Ms Nixon. Despite requests by this newspaper, details of what was promised remain secret.

Official corruption thrives on secrecy, as highlighted by corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald QC in his landmark report into corruption in Queensland. Mr Fitzgerald said it was improper for the police union to meet executive government members without the police commissioner present. Mr Stewart's support for a royal commission echoes that of Mark Le Grand, who argued in May 2004 that the Victorian government was neglecting its duty in leaving an investigation in the hands of Ms Nixon and the police service. Mr Le Grand, a former Criminal Justice Commission misconduct division director and deputy director of the commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions, said Victoria had clear evidence of third-level corruption of the type faced by the Fitzgerald inquiry, well beyond the threshold required for royal commission intervention. Third-level corruption is an entrenched system that ruthlessly protects itself.

The Australian first called for a royal commission into Victorian policing in an editorial in March 2004, after the gangland execution of Andrew "Benji" Veniamin, the 21st victim of a drug-related killing rampage that started with the slaying of standover merchant Alphonse Gangitano in 1998. We argued then that only a royal commission had the power to go to the root of police corruption, while satisfying the deep concerns of the public that the Victorian police force was up to the job. Nothing has changed. If anything, the case today for a royal commission, as expressed by Mr Stewart, is all the more compelling.

Horn of a dilemma
Challenges remain after the routing of Somalia's Islamists
AS George W. Bush puts the final touches on his plan to get a grip on the chaos that is Iraq, it is good to see dramatic progress on at least one front in the fight against al-Qa'ida and radical Islam. If the reports hold true, al-Qa'ida has suffered a stinging blow in Somalia, where a one-two punch has knocked out the hardline Council of Islamic Courts movement that had held control of the country over the past six months and in the process built a brutal theocracy that was a sanctuary for wanted terrorists and a threat to its neighbours. Attacks by Ethiopian troops drove the Islamist forces out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, earlier this month. And on Sunday, a US helicopter gunship took out what appears to be several high-ranking al-Qa'ida terrorists who were given succour by the Islamist council. Among those targeted in the raids were the engineers of the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 250 people, mostly local civilians, as well as the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned Kenyan hotel.

The attacks were strategically and symbolically important. In mounting a successful strike in Somalia, the US has gone some way towards putting to rest the bad memories of the "Black Hawk Down" disaster of 1993. It was the US's swift pullout from Somalia at the time that helped convince Osama bin Laden that the US was a paper tiger. Likewise, the operations in Somalia underscore the very international nature of the fight: among those killed in Somalia was an Australian, Ahmed Ali, who abandoned his family to join the jihad. At least seven British passport holders were captured during the fighting as well. British officials are also investigating the possibility that Somalis living in Britain helped finance the rise of the council.

Like Islamists everywhere, the council's theology was a thin veneer for its brutality. While a few analysts have praised the council for taking control of a previously anarchic Somalia, that control came at a heavy cost to life and liberty. Two Somalis were killed just for watching soccer's World Cup finals when gunmen opened fire at cinema-goers watching a match. The council also banned the use and cultivation of the mild stimulant khat, devastating one of the only productive sectors of the local economy. With the routing of the Islamists, young people came out to dance and celebrate in Mogadishu nightclubs for the first time in months. While the council's departure is unquestionably a good thing, much hard work remains to get Somalia's warring tribes to come together peacefully and prevent the Islamists' return.

Drought of sense
Selling Murray-Darling water to irrigators is a bad idea

WITH the nation's attention focused on falling dam levels and images of cracked riverbeds, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie's decision to sell off 8 billion litres of water a year from the parched upper reaches of the Murray-Darling rivers to irrigators appears perverse. And it suggests the Queensland Government does not get it when it comes to the powerful symbolism of this all-important resource.

At a time when Brisbane residents, who consume a small fraction of Queensland's water, are living with water restrictions that make it illegal to so much as fill a backyard kiddy pool, it is an insult to sell off water to irrigate such water-intensive crops as cotton � even if there is no way to get the water in question to the state's parched southeast. The plan also goes against the notion embodied in the possible buyout of Cubbie Station, namely that perhaps some crops are too thirsty for the region. The ultimate message of the water sale is that rivers are a first-come, first-served resource, where those at the top of the stream can take what they like. Mr Beattie needs to explain why he has taken such a parochial stand on an issue that requires enlightened national thought.

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Article sourced from

The Australian - Sydney,Austra11 January 2007

Editorial: Victorian police ro

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The Australian - Sydney,Austra
11 January 2007