LESSON FROM FITZGERALD

QUEENSLAND’S Fitzgerald Inquiry was a watershed moment in the state’s history.

It exposed corruption. Crooked cops and politicians were jailed, and the state vowed the blight that had threatened the systems put in place to protect the public would never be allowed to flourish again.

One important point to emerge was the need for transparency. Another was the need to change a culture that perverted the noble aims of police.

Today, in the wake of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s announcement this week that 15 Gold Coast officers are facing investigation for alleged corruption and misconduct, we are reminded of the need for transparency. The CCC looked into crime statistics and bullying of whistleblowers. It has handed responsibility back to police, with the 15 referred to the Ethical Standards Command.

No doubt the CCC has its reasons for that, but the public will be uneasy about police investigating their own under such circumstances. Gold Coast police have been in the spotlight over claims of officer burnout, arguments about overtime in domestic violence cases, poor morale, and reports of officers having sex on desks or in the back of police cars.

The Bulletin has urged Police Commissioner Ian Stewart to release a report from a Cultural Review into Coast policing conducted back in 2015 and the results from a Working for Queensland survey.

The Commissioner says systems are in place to protect whistleblowers.

But there was something else we learnt in the wake of Fitzgerald. Back then, the culture of ostracising honest cops who exposed corruption remained, even though they had done the right thing and despite the cleanout brought on by that inquiry. Brave police who speak up now must know there is an iron-clad guarantee they will not suffer.