NEWS > 26 November 2006

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Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New S
26 November 2006

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The power of a single vote

BY a single-vote margin, the NSW Legislative Council has moved to throw light on what may well be the greatest cover-up of maladministration and corruption among the most senior police officers in NSW.

Although members of the Carr-Iemma government tried to block the move, Liberal, National, Greens and independent MLCs succeeded on Thursday in demanding that all papers relating to Operation RETZ be provided to the Upper House by December 7.

If this is not done, the Opposition has no alternative but to demand a recall of parliament. Operation RETZ began in the 1990s, but its report has been buried by a succession of politicians and senior police because of its capacity to destroy the reputations of some of the highest-ranking officers.

Although John Della Bosca, who represented the Government in opposing the presentation of the RETZ files to parliament, told the Upper House "the Government has been open in these matters'', that is most definitely not so.

For 10 months, the Government and Police Commissioner Ken Moroney have been in defiance of Justice Johnson's January 28 order in the NSW Supreme Court to hand over Operation RETZ files to former former NSW detective Tim Priest, whose reputation has been grossly traduced by media figures Chris Masters and Mike Carlton.

Justice Johnson did not come to his decision lightly. He took eight months to read all the documents and consider his opinion.

The Government had the option of taking his decision to the Court of Appeal, but has not done so.

The stonewalling cannot be permitted to continue. The report includes the official diaries of lightweight former commissioner Peter Ryan and former deputy commissioner Jeff Jarratt, whom Ryan wrongfully dismissed.

It largely centres on the extraordinary behaviour of former assistant commissioner Lola Scott, who was the subject ofa psychological review in 2000 that found she made either "a conscious and deliberate attempt to subvert due process'' or had "an inadequate understanding of the limits of her proper authority''.

A related report by Chief Inspector Jeff Tunks into events at Cabramatta from 1991 to 2001 should also be tabled. State and federal Labor MPs have an inglorious history of trying to block inquiries into NSW police corruption.

One objector has been federal MP Darryl Melham, who repeatedly interrupted testimony by former undercover officer Glen McNamara to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in 2003.

Despite Melham's constant complaints, McNamara told the committee about corrupt police officer Larry Churchill and the standover racket he ran protecting drug dealer Allan Saunders and notorious pedophiles Robert "Dolly'' Dunn and Colin Fisk.

Dunn and Fisk were then engaged in manufacturing amphetamines to finance their criminal sexual activities. During his evidence, McNamara said he had seen a set of priest's robes the pedophiles said Dunn wore when he met the parents of the boys he used for sex - and during sex with the boys.

McNamara said he replayed taped conversations with the two men to police internal security officers Lola Scott (subsequently appointed assistant commissioner by Ryan) and Ken Watson, but they refused his request to make immediate arrests.

McNamara said his undercover role was subsequently revealed and Scott recommended that he be charged with crimes based on allegations made by Saunders and Churchill, but that Dunn fled.
The charges against McNamara were later dropped, and he received an apology from the NSW Ombudsman. When Churchill, Saunders and Fisk were arrested, all pleaded guilty. Dunn, whom Scott had given an indemnity from prosecution, was traced to Lombok, then Honduras, where he was arrested.

McNamara said that when Scott applied for Dunn's indemnity, she did not mention the undercover tape, nor tell a judge she had seen videos of Dunn having sex with boys. That, he said, was proof of perjury and conspiracy by Scott to pervert the course of justice.

Scott refused to be interviewed about the indemnities she sought from then head of police internal affairs Mal Brammer. She was not charged with refusing to obey a lawful direction because then deputy commissioner Ken Moroney intervened and named a lowly sergeant to conduct the interview.

McNamara said Moroney curtailed the interview when Scott began to cry. Brammer filed a complaint about Moroney's behaviour with the Police Integrity Commission, but it has still not been resolved.

The Government's attempts to block investigation of Operation RETZ are in line with its recent attacks on Opposition Leader Peter Debnam for raising questions about NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus's handling of the corrective services ministry.

A thorough investigation of Operation RETZ could be the trigger needed to flush out government cover-ups and move on corrupt police.

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Article sourced from

Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New S26 November 2006

The power of a single vote

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Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New S
26 November 2006