27th August 2019
Soon after the last State election, the Victorian government launched a full-blown Royal Commission into certain alleged activities involving senior police.
CAA has complained for several years about misconduct by senior police – potentially, and now it can be said the same senior police.
It is simply not possible that the latest revelations were completely unknown to the government before the elections. The announcement on 3 December of the launch action is ample proof that the matters were under consideration for some considerable time before then.
The lid just could not be kept on any longer. Coverup ceased to be an option.
The coverup of the allegations levelled by CAA is also no longer an option. The community of Victoria is surely entitled to have honest people running the machinery of government set up to protect us all – honest men and women whom themselves respect the law and morality underpinning our society.
It remains to be seen just how far the rot spread and precisely who was involved in what the High Court has termed “reprehensible” police misconduct, but it beggars belief that their misconduct was limited merely to one facet of police behaviour.
Having regard to the terms of reference of the current Commission, Professor Colleen Lewis has called for a wide-ranging Royal Commission into our police force and argued that such inquiries have been beneficial in the past. CAA fully concurs.
The Alliance will be watching, and advocating “Integrity and transparency” as the watchwords for police – in place of “denial and coverup” – in the public interest.