Thursday, 1 September 2022

Victoria Police

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (18:07): (2123) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Police, and the action I am seeking is for the minister to initiate a royal commission into the police and political corruption. In the late 1980s Queensland conducted a police corruption royal commission that resulted in the resignation of its then Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen. This inquiry, known as the Fitzgerald inquiry, found corruption at the highest levels of the police force, including then commissioner Terry Lewis. In the mid-1990s New South Wales conducted the Wood royal commission into police corruption, which led to the resignation of the New South Wales police commissioner after it found officers engaged in bribery, corruption, child pornography and heroin trafficking.

Victoria has not had a royal commission to investigate corruption in its police force. It is clear that police are susceptible to corruption and that special care needs to be taken to audit the use of police authority and suppress opportunities to use that authority illegally. For years now I have brought Victoria Police corruption issues to the attention of the police minister, and they have been ignored. Firearms and ammunition go missing while in police custody. Senior officers have subordinates witness statements to explain away missing firearms. Senior officers ignore reports from junior officers about misconduct at gun clubs, comments of interest and suspect relationships throughout the licensing and regulation division (LRD).

The security industry is another hotbed for suspect behaviour, with special take-home permits that have no legal basis, exemptions from licensing requirements for some companies and not others and lucrative contracts for favoured mates. The hotel quarantine fiasco was arguably one such contract. When questioned about who made the decision to hire the security firm responsible, everyone responded with, ‘I can’t recall’.

It is not just the LRD though. Former Chief Commissioner of Police Simon Overland was accused of ‘evil, corrupt and dishonest behaviour’ by informant Nicola Gobbo, who herself is an example of police willingness to engage in corrupt behaviour. After being sacked, Overland landed himself a gig as the CEO of a Labor-held council in northern Melbourne. The current Chief Commissioner, Shane Patton, oversaw the botched investigation into the red shirts saga, which uncovered secret files showing police orders instructing police not to arrest, photograph or search MPs. We have recently received new evidence that this government suppressed the investigation of the red shirts case, and the government responded by trying to suppress the consideration of that new evidence.

The government is too close to VicPol. The Premier’s ex-chief of staff Brett Curran is now an assistant commissioner. There are many others in the high ranks of VicPol with Labor connections. Mr Curran is a two-time head of LRD and anointed Senior Sergeant Armstrong as his replacement, who you may remember from my previous contributions on suspect police behaviour. Curran is widely believed to have been anointed as the next commissioner.

Time and again complaints against police are referred back to police. A culture of police protecting other police leads to cover-up after cover-up. We need to clean up Victoria Police. Like Queensland and New South Wales, we need a Fitzgerald-style royal commission into the police force.