Revelations spark federal probe calls
FORMER Australian Federal Police officers, anti-corruption organisations and civil liberties groups are calling for the urgent establishment of a federal ICAC that also investigates law enforcement officials.
It comes after revelations by News Corp Australia over the AFP’s handling of claims two alleged mafia assassins were behind the murder of former assistant commissioner Colin Winchester and allegations a senior law enforcer is under investigation over his alleged links to mafia groups spanning decades.
“One of the major problems with the AFP over the years has been secrecy,” former AFP officer Dr Michael Kennedy said.
“Corruption occurs because of bad governance. They have been allowed to get away with secrecy and to an extent that has worked”.
Another former agent said a public inquiry was needed because otherwise the “only people who end up burnt are the whistleblowers”.
Centre for Public Integrity director Geoffrey Watson SC said that the revelations were so serious and the matter so urgent “nothing less than a royal commission should suffice”.
Mr Watson said this may yet be “the way to get to the bottom of the death of one of Australia’s most senior police officers”, as well as the jailing of an Australian for a murder (for which he was later acquitted), and corruption at the highest levels with links to the most serious organised crime groups in Australia. “There is also the question of how long the AFP has been sitting on it,” Mr Watson said.
He said the investigation was too big and burdensome for a federal ICAC, and the
They have been allowed to get away with secrecy and to an extent that has worked Dr Michael Kennedy
watchdog the Australian Commission for
Law Enforcement Integrity was not active enough.
“The whole time in ACLEI’s history it has never had any public hearings, and it needs public hearings.”
A spokesman for the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the government was aware of the allegations that the senior law enforcer may have compromised the Winchester investigation and multiple others during his lengthy career but could not comment further. “This is entirely a matter for the ACLEI, we’ll leave it at that,” he said.
NSW Civil Liberties Council president Josh Pallas said that he would not
be opposed to an inquiry into the AFP.
“I completely support, and in fact expect, that the draft Bill concerning a federal ICAC would ensure that the commission can investigate corrupt conduct arising from any law enforcement agency …,” Mr Pallas said. “Failure to include law enforcement agencies within the scope of agencies that the commission can investigate would put it out of step with many state models which clearly include them within the scope of their commissions’ powers.”
Greens senator and justice spokesman David Shoebridge said “if you want a case study into why we need a federal ICAC with unlimited retrospective powers then this is surely it”.
“Corruption allegations linked to the mafia that stretch back more than three decades raise deep and ongoing integrity risks for federal crime agencies,” Mr Shoebridge said.
Independent MP Dr Helen Haines, who has been a leading voice for a federal ICAC, said “this investigation highlights the importance of an independent commissioner having the ability to investigate allegations without limitations on how far back they can examine.”
Transparency International
retiring CEO Serena Lillywhite said at the Press Club in December that the lack of a federal integrity commission was a gaping hole in Australia’s integrity framework.
“It is the most important piece of legislation we need, right now, to restore public trust in our democracy,” Ms Lillywhite said.
Former AFP internal affairs officer Ray Cooper, who investigated corrupt cops in Sydney in the late 1980s said the secretive Harrison inquiry in the 1990s into alleged corruption within the AFP was a whitewash, with the findings never made public despite seven AFP officers being sacked and others allowed to leave with a “golden handshake”.