DONNELLAN MUST GO.

by CAA | Oct 12, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

12th October 2021

The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. Calls for Action.

Disgraced former Labor Minister, Luke Donnellan, must immediately resign from Parliament.  Donnellan said, “I don’t believe it is possible or appropriate to maintain my ministerial responsibilities given these rule breaches.”   The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc.  (CAA) agrees but simply resigning as a Minister is not acceptable.  Donnellan must go.

Donnellan has been named on oath at the current IBAC Inquiry as being involved in rorting of the public purse and in ‘branch stacking’ which strikes at the heart of our democracy.

Former New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, resigned as Premier and as a member of Parliament when simply faced with an announcement she was to be investigated.  This is right and proper under our Westminster System of Government.  Donnellan must do the same to preserve our ethical standards of government that have been so damaged by the Labor Government of Victoria.

The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA) has proposed that legislation be introduced in Victoria to allow a corrupt, inept, unaccountable government to be forced to an early election.  The details of the proposal for a ‘Recall Petition’ are on the CAA website (caainc.org.au) and this has already attracted over 22,000 signatures.

Recall Petition legislation is in use around the world to restrain governments and local governments and public officials from improper behaviour.  Signing the CAA Petition will exert pressure on every government, of whatever persuasion, to introduce legislation to ensure accountability in future.  Accountability sadly lacking in Victoria at present.

The public interest must be served and be seen to be served.

And Donnellan must go.

LABOR RORTS CONTINUE – TIME FOR CRIMINAL CHARGES.

by CAA | Oct 12, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

12th October 2021

Misconduct in public office is broadly defined. It can be any conduct by a public sector employee which is unlawful or fails to meet the ethical or professional standards required in the performance of duties or the exercise of powers entrusted to them.

Misconduct generally occurs when a public officer abuses authority for personal gain, causes detriment to another person or acts contrary to the public interest.

Following the notorious “Red Shirts Rort” heavily criticised by the Ombudsman where Labor paid back $388.000.00 of money rorted from the public purse, and where no criminal charges were brought, we are now faced with another major Labor scandal involving Branch Stacking.

Counsel assisting IBAC, Chris Carr SC, told the current inquiry there was evidence of systematic rorting of taxpayer resources in the Labor Party, and Branch stacking which strikes at the very heart of our democratic system of government.

Carr’s direct quote: “One would not have expected that the misuse of public officers for political purposes would have continued after the Ombudsman’s report was published in March 2018, “he told the inquiry.”

Federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne told the inquiry his staff were performing factional work during the day, while they were being paid by the taxpayer.

A claim that this is not unlawful fails any test.  Clearly those engaged are prima facie guilty of misconduct in public office under the definition set out above.

Are those responsible for this rort to be again excused?  Surely time to put those responsible before a court of law.  Or are politicians a protected species to whom the law does not apply?

The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. demands that no, “Get out of jail free” card be played in this matter and that prosecutions be brought against those involved in the public interest.

SENTENCING IS NOT UP TO IT

by CAA | Oct 7, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

7th October 2021

The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA) has been highly critical of the sentencing practices of Victorian Courts where judges persistently impose less than maximum sentences, which are set by Parliament, on habitual criminals.

The Herald-Sun of 3 October 2021, an article by Rebekah Cavanagh, describes the criminal career of one John Lindrea, a criminal who has been in jail for all but four years of his adult life and is currently awaiting sentencing for a violent armed robbery where a firearm was held to the head of an innocent victim.  The terror of this for the woman victim can only be imagined.

Lindrea has prior convictions for a double murder, bank hold-ups and escaping from prison.  When arrested for his latest armed robbery, Lindrea refused to identify his co-offender or disclose what happed to the firearms involved.  The firearms were found hidden at the scene of the robbery seven months later.

On 4 October 2021, John Lindrea was sentenced to eleven and a half years jail with a minimum of eight years and nine months before being eligible for parole.

The maximum penalty for armed robbery in Victoria is 25 years’ imprisonment. However, the most common imprisonment length for armed robbery from 2014–15 to 2018–19 was three to four years.  Why?

What is going on in our courts?  Where are the rights of victims being addressed?  What regard did the court have to the terror of the victim in Lindrea’s case having a loaded shotgun put to her head and expecting to be killed?

Lindrea is a double murderer and a convicted armed robber with a long criminal history.  Surely we can expect our courts to impose maximum sentences, as set by Parliament, in cases like that of Lindrea.  Only a maximum sentence could keep us safe from this habitual violent offender.

If judges continue to ignore Parliament, the CAA calls on Parliament to create a Commission of Judicial Performance Review with the capacity to sanction judges who consistently ignore Parliament and act as a law unto themselves.

768 DEATHS BY A ROGUE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT?

by CAA | Oct 3, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

4th October 2021

The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA) has consistently criticised the present Victorian Government for its inability to prevent its bureaucrats from acting corruptly.  The ICook Foods fiasco is a classic and ongoing example.

Now we have Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) facing 58 charges brought by WorkSafe, alleging the DHHS endangered the lives of its workers, security guards and hotel quarantine guests (not the bureaucrats) when it failed to provide a safe workplace for its employees and failed to ensure people were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Departments are not the decision makers – it is bureaucrats within those departments who make the decisions.  At the heart of these issues is that no one is held accountable.  The Coate Inquiry was unable to determine just who made the critical but flawed decisions.  A plethora of, “I can’t remember” responses from Ministers and officials was a plague of a different kind.

What is certain is that DHHS mistakes in hotel quarantine drove the state’s deadly second wave of COVID-19.

The effort to stop Covid 19 spreading was doomed from the moment already established protocols for dealing with disasters, including pandemics, were ignored by the Government and they set off on a frolic of their own proclaiming they knew best.  They did not.

The Coate ‘snowflake inquiry’ into the failed system linked 768 deaths during the second wave back to the hotels.

WorkSafe alleges the DHH failed to appoint people with infection prevention and control expertise at the hotels, failed to provide security guards with appropriate infection control training and did not provide, at least initially, written instructions on how to use protective gear.

In all charges, the health and safety regulator said the DHHS employees, the government’s authorised officers and security guards were put at risk of contracting COVID-19 and serious illness or death.

The Coate Inquiry linked ninety-nine per cent’ of Victoria’s second wave cases to the hotel quarantine fiasco.

The maximum penalty for each of the charges is irrelevant as any fines imposed are returned to the State’s coffers.

The charges are listed to go before a Magistrates Court for a filing hearing on October 22.  Of course, ultimately a plea of guilty would assure only a summary of the evidence would be given to the court again ensuring the guilty politicians and officials are protected.

Coate’s inquiry found poor infection prevention and control measures were the genesis of outbreaks that seeded in the community from the Rydges on Swanston and the Stamford Plaza.

The then Health Minister, Ms Mikakos, resigned a day after Premier Daniel Andrews’ evidence to the Inquiry, in which he accepted he was ultimately responsible for Government decisions.

The CAA now asks, if Premier Andrews was ultimately responsible, why has he not been charged by Work Safe?  Why have other Ministers and Department Officials involved in these shambles not been charged?  Those responsible for the decisions that led to this tragedy of hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious illnesses must be charged and held to account.

The failure of Work Safe to bring charges against the individuals involved cannot remain unchallenged.

Victoria Police –Transparency? Accountability? Integrity? No!

by CAA | Sep 28, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

28th September 2021

Why do we have a Police Force?  So that by and large we can live together as a community in peace and harmony.  Police Forces have no intrinsic merit of their own.  They exist solely for the service they can provide to the community.

In providing that service we could reasonably expect high ethical standards, transparency and accountability.  Are we seeing that with the Victoria Police?

The Lawyer X scandal dates back years and the Victoria Police fought tooth and nail, at the cost of millions of dollars, to keep Nicola Gobbo’s name from public disclosure. VicPol took the case all the way to the High Court, which found in December 2018 that Victoria Police’s conduct in using Gobbo as a confidential informer was “reprehensible” and had corrupted prosecutions.

The outcome of this sorry saga is yet to be played out.  Some of the police involved could end up in jail.

Following this debacle, one could expect that the lessons have been learned.  But have they?  It appears not.

There is currently a case pending before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) where leave is being sought to call as witnesses four members of VicPol who were engaged in the first police investigation of the ICook Foods scandal.  An investigation that has been moved several times for reasons that have never been disclosed.  No transparency here, even when questions have been asked as to why the case was moved.

Who made the decisions to keep moving the case?  Why?  Who is accountable for these decisions?  Certainly no one at ICooks has been given any idea.  Victims of alleged corruption were ignored.  No accountability here.

One could expect that if there is nothing to hide then VicPol would be more than willing to accede to the request to call these police at the VCAT hearing.  Such is not the case.  VicPol is again taking every step possible to thwart the appearance of these three at VCAT.  Why?

There is an old legal adage, “Innocence demands the right to speak.  Guilt invokes the right to silence.”

A public body like VicPol should honour the “Model Litigant Rules” that apply to all Government Departments.  Why not in this case?

Ethical conduct, transparency and accountability must be embraced if we are to have faith in the integrity of the Victoria Police.

WHAT IS CORRUPTION?

by CAA | Sep 26, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

26th of September 2021

A commonly agreed definition of corruption—albeit a narrow one—is ‘the misuse of entrusted power for private gain’.

Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, dishonest lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement.

Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development, and exacerbates inequality, poverty, and social division.

However, exposing corruption and holding the corrupt to account can only happen if we understand the way corruption works and the systems that enable it.

Corruption has no limits, status, level of education, heritage, wealth, social, political views, cultural divides or what football team you follow.

There is just no limit to which sector of the socio-economic divisions where corruption may be spawned or who the purveyors might be.

Corruption per se, is also not a criminal offence of itself but a description applied to a raft of very serious criminal offences.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) defines corruption in the public sector as

• Taking or offering bribes.
• Dishonestly using influence.
• Committing fraud, theft or embezzlement.
• Misusing information or material acquired at work.
• Conspiring or attempting to engage in the above corrupt activity.

There is also a raft of Criminal Offences that can be applied to many alleged corrupt activities currently occurring in Victoria within the public sector disappointingly not seen by the IBAC definition,

• Perverting the Course of Justice.
• Perjury
• Misconduct in Public Office
• Malfeasance In Public Office
• Multiple conspiracies to commit these offences and a raft of lesser dishonesty crimes.

We strongly suspect that many people in the public sector will be horrified to know that they are unwittingly being used to commit such serious crimes.

Their station within the bureaucracy or the nature of their work across the whole of the government sector, including all the independent agencies- anywhere where the public purse is the employer, whether executive management or the lowest level of the sector we should  not allow them to escape the consequences of their unlawful actions.

Corruption has a unique capacity of being exposed no matter how careful or deceptive the perpetrators are.

Often, perpetrators foolishly believe that their superiors will protect them because they are only doing what they would want – absolute rubbish.

History is littered with those who suffer the consequences of doing illegal acts believing that is what the boss would want. The most striking of examples were exposed in the Hague War Crimes Tribunals. A cold cell is often the consequence.

At the first sign of trouble, the perpetrator’s subordinates go under the bus. If you are a friend of the perpetrator, you are guaranteed to be the first to go under well ahead of the subordinates.

Why is Victoria so corrupt?

The Government of the day has to take a fair amount of responsibility, but it matters little the Government’s political persuasion but most importantly, the example they set.

Rife corruption is an extension of behaviour and tolerance by executives within a system.

Corruption becomes a cycle and is normalised to such a degree; many do not realise they are corrupt or their unlawful behaviour.

Ironically, the purveyors of corruption are punished by corruption as much as everybody else. They are shooting themselves in the foot; how stupid is that?

The impact of corruption defined by IBAC is,

Corruption erodes the trust we have in the public sector to act in our best interests. It also wastes our taxes or rates that have been earmarked for important community projects – meaning we have to put up with poor quality services or infrastructure, or we miss out altogether.

How do we break this cycle and bring this State back?

The CAA proposes a Judicial body to deal with the current and historical corruption issues and, in the first instance, offer immunities to government employees from all sectors and levels who have witnessed, are aware of, or have been involved in corrupt practices.

The targets of the Inquiry are the leaders who perpetuated the corrupt evolution. To those people, the CAA warns you should be very concerned.

This Inquiry will allay a lot of concerns from employees who fear they have been unwitting participants either through coercion or ignorance in illegal activity and should be allowed to come forward without retribution.

Although the Inquiry will require powers to conduct in-camera hearings, the function of the Inquiry will be to allocate any investigations to the appropriate agency with the capacity to monitor and make directions to the agency as required.

A corruption buster that will remove the shackles of corruption from the many who have been burdened with the crimes by the unscrupulous is essential.

We are confident that the vast majority of people relying on the public purse to service their mortgage and lifestyle are basically honest and dedicated – they should not be put in the positions many find themselves in, just to retain or curry favour with a boss.

It is the boss that must be held to account.

SLUG-GATE SLITHERS ON

by CAA | Sep 13, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

14th September 2021

The saga of Slug-gate was further ventilated at the most recent hearings of the Parliamentary Inquiry into the affair.

Due to time constraints imposed on examining witnesses, by the nature of these inquiries, means evidence to the public is limited. Without the evidence being adequately tested, an observer could well draw incorrect assumptions.

Examples presented by the Health Department and the City of Greater Dandenong Officers that needed scrutiny but failed to attract adequate attention were evident.

The evidence of genome sequencing of listeria found in a deceased patient who allegedly ate food supplied by ICooks and a link to listeria located in the ICooks facility gave the impression the facility was the problem.

The listeria, however, was found in Corned Beef and Ham at the facility. Neither products were produced by ICooks but bought in from national suppliers. This crucial evidence was omitted.

Evidence was given that this connection to the patient’s death was significant in issuing the Closure Order that ended the ICooks Business.

We know that this information was not conclusive and was not fully available to the CHO until days after the Order was served.

So how the issue of listeria played a significant role in the decision to close ICooks, is at best oblique, with the timelines critical to relevance omitted.

Omitted also from the evidence was that the listeria sample located at ICooks was 90% below the Regulated level for this pathogen to be considered a health problem. Under food standards legislation, the ICook sample levels are deemed to be safe for human consumption. Another critical omission.

The evidence instead inferred using selective adjectives that the patient and the factory sample were a close match or nearly the same. For professional witnesses to emphasise words in oral presentations to create a false narrative was inexcusable.

Health Department and Greater Dandenong Council witnesses should have given evidence that was fair and frank but was instead selective and deceptive.

Those witnesses had a Doherty Institute analysis that stated clearly that the match was probable, not the same, as the evidence implied. There is no such thing as a genetic fingerprint; the use of this term was a scientific fraud.

There was compelling evidence before the inquiry from an independent Environmental Health Inspector that investigated the listeria issue and found the patient who died never consumed any foods from ICooks.

During the inspection of ICooks by the Greater Dandenong Council, there was a high probability that the factory may have been contaminated by officials undertaking the inspection.

There is video footage showing the Heath Inspectors who obtained these samples routinely contaminating the site during their inspection, but the witnesses were not examined on this critical point.

Whether this contamination was deliberate, or incompetence will ultimately be tested in court.

Also of significance, a substantial quantity of evidence was presented from bureaucrats portraying that the Health Department Closure Order’s decisions, were distinct and independent from the Inspections conducted by local bureaucrats that resulted in the ninety-six charges against ICooks and later withdrawn.

This perception was debunked entirely, not by opposing evidence but from one of the local inspectors letting slip towards the end of her testimony that her superior was in constant contact with the Health Department during the inspection. An attempt to cover a conspiracy, blown.

There were many other anomalies or attempted manipulations of the evidence around the listeria issue.

• ICooks produced and delivered 120,000 meals, and in excess of 15,000 Salads and sandwiches to the most vulnerable in the community between when samples were taken on 01/02/2019, the elderly patient died (04/02/2019), and the factory was closed 22/02/2019. No other listeria (a reportable disease) was recorded anywhere in the food chains linked to ICooks or any of their suppliers. There were four other cases with a similar Genome sequence in WA and QLD;
• ICook Foods doesn’t sell to these States but these incidents were never investigated. This is critical as the listeria found elsewhere could have entered the hospital via any one of the other six food suppliers who service Knox Private Hospital.
• The patient arrived at Knox Private Hospital displaying listeria symptoms with that relevance being incorrectly dismissed by Health Officials based on the incubation period of the disease. That incubation period was completely erroneous. The patient was not in the incubation period when she presented at Knox Hospital; she was already symptomatic
• That a Knox Hospital patient died from eating ICooks Foods laced with listeria was emphasised by some witnesses as an absolute. This is again erroneous. The patient died, with listeria, not from it, and no link was ever identified between the sandwiches the patient allegedly consumed and those ICooks supplied to the Hospital. Suspecting or believing is in the realm of gossip unless substantive confirmation is obtained
• Unfortunately, the patient had severe heart problems and was probably in the end-of-life phase at 89 years of age.

• Of significance, none of the other food suppliers in the chain of the alleged sandwiches was tested or interviewed by officials.
• Six other suppliers had provided to the Knox Hospital Kitchen and the Hudson’s Coffee Shop that provides cakes and sandwiches to patients and staff on-site but no investigation of these possible sources of listeria were investigated: why not? What happened to the abundance of caution so regularly proffered by Health Officials?
• Of greatest significance, with Departmental witnesses emphasising that a listeria outbreak was averted. There was no plausible explanation given whether ICooks was the source and how nobody else who consumed the 135,000 meals, salads, and sandwiches supplied to the vulnerable in that period displayed listeria.
• That the hospital kitchen was never inspected or examined concerning this event is significant as it goes to the crux of this issue.
• Evidence from an independent Environmental Health Officer tasked by the Health Department to investigate the listeria issue gave compelling and emphatic evidence that the patient was on a soft food diet prepared in-house by the Hospital and not from external suppliers. His findings were provided to the Health Department; however, the Closure Order was issued despite this evidence.
• The Deputy Chief Health Officer in an email subsequent to the closure advised the Chief Health Officer and others, that there were two food production lines at ICooks and one line that food was pasteurised through could re-open but that advice was apparently ignored.
• The inquiry was repeatedly told that no one issue caused the formation of the decision by the Chief Health Officer to issue the closure order. The inquiry was never told what these ‘issues’ were.
• A picture was painted in evidence that ICooks lacked qualified food safety and hygiene staff for a facility of this type. Evidence to highlight this deficiency was derived from casual conversations with ICooks staff during inspections once ICook were closed. There was no food handling to observe, and the evidence was clearly designed to create a false impression.

• The health investigators knew that ICooks had on staff, a person qualified at the same level as the auditors used in the industry. The skills and training exceed that of a local Environmental Health Officer and having a person on staff at that level well exceeds any statutory or regulatory requirements for this type of business.

Oral evidence should have been fair and impartial from public service officers. Instead, it was biased in favour of a predetermined position. Any evidence that did not support their hypothesis was overlooked or deliberately manipulated to deflect that ICooks was targeted which when looking at the totality of the evidence they clearly were.

Alleged attempts by Environmental Health Officers to contaminate the factory are astounding given the breadth of video footage covering the Inspectors’ actions. Although they must be aware that they were under surveillance, as is every other person on the premises at ICooks, as part of their food security protocols, they chose to give evidence contrary to the vision.

And then there is the Slug. A nocturnal mollusc that is sensitive to chlorine (the floor cleaning product) swanning around the factory floor in a high traffic area forty-six meters away from the closest leafy vegetables identified initially by Inspectors as the access for the slug.

By the time the evidence was presented the route of the slug was changed to plastic bins a few meters away from the find.

The Variety of Slug was Limas Maximus. This Slug does not eat leafy vegetables; it only consumes rotting matter and is found in compost bins; it would not have come in with fresh produce; it had to have been brought in.

That it was planted was vehemently denied by bureaucrats. Still, there was equally strong evidence that the picture of the Slug used in the prosecution of ICooks had been photo-shopped to remove an incriminating piece of tissue. In that process the colour of the factory floor changed from grey to green.

Evidence that bureaucrats were observed altering the image of the slug photo was compelling from independent witnesses. However, the doctoring was explained away by an admission that they were editing body camera footage removing personal material.

That admission creates another problem. All the footage on a body camera is evidence, and any tampering is arguably Perverting the Course of Justice a serious criminal offence. A court order is required to remove anything from the recorded images.

The working hypothesis is that the targeting of ICooks was not motivated by health concerns but an attempt to remove the last competitor to the Local Government owned and run Community Chef, a company beset by financial woes.

ICooks was deliberately targeted by the Health Department and the City of Greater Dandenong. The evidence of this is overwhelming.

The sin of ICooks would appear to be being a commercial success when the competitor company, Community Chef, owned by the City of Greater Dandenong and fifteen other municipal councils, funded to the tune of millions with our money by the Councils and the Health Department, continued to fail even with preferred supplier status.

It is worthy of note that most commercial competition to Community Chef had been decimated with kitchens similar to ICooks supplying the same market closed putting many workers out of a job because of market manipulation by Community Chef, ICooks was the last impediment to total domination of the market.

Trumpeted at its inception as a GFC job building initiative, the net effect on employment was a substantial loss. Still, it moved the employment to Melbourne western suburbs, perhaps that was the plan all along.

In addition, ICooks had developed the world-leading technology that was patented to produce Texture Modified food. Technology that was valued in the millions of dollars and Community Chef were unable to replicate.

As a sole supplier and with this technology, Community Chef could charge what they wanted and reap millions in international technology sales.

This whole saga is about the money – greed the motivator.

The failure of the Community Chef experiment that had already cost taxpayers over $20m, cost Taxpayers a further $6m to bail out as it was closed and taken over by Western Health.

Why the Community Chef business was not placed on the open market to reduce taxpayers’ exposure is a question somebody must answer; that somebody is the current Health Minister.

This maneuver reeks of cover-up because the anomalies and any criminal behaviours would be exposed if Community Chef had been sold. By keeping the resource in-house allows for the cover-up to continue and be hidden within the giant Health Department bureaucracy and budgets.

When this whole saga is settled financially, the actual cost could well exceed $100m, and for what?

When all is said and done, apart from the rivers of gold flowing out of Community Chef this may also have been about servicing a few bureaucrats’ egos, and crime was not too high a price to pay to cover it up.

There must be people held to account, and perpetrators given lengthy jail terms not just as a penalty but to dissuade other bureaucrats from similar fraud on the taxpayer.

If this does not happen soon, a Royal Commission is the next step, and we are advised that the markers exist for that to happen. From what we know, there are some very embarrassing facts that will be exposed.

It was inserting in evidence before the inquiry by a former Health Minister Jenny Mikakos that a Royal Commission was warranted.

Evidence from Mikakos at a Royal Commission would be riveting.

Slug-Gate is a classic example of why we need the Community Advocacy Alliance’s recommended Recall Legislation, the communities’ weapon against government or bureaucratic corruption.

To register your further support for the Recall Petition, go to caainc.org.au and scroll down to the prompts.

OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA

by CAA | Sep 4, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

4th September 2021

The latest Covid infection figures are alarming.  However, while the temporary lockdown of some geographic areas may be required, we have seen the lockdown of rural areas that have never had a case of a Covid infection within more than one hundred kilometres, which is ludicrous.  Numerous areas in the Melbourne Metropolitan area are also in lockdown despite having no active cases.

More and more businesses will fail if lockdowns continue.  Unnecessary, draconian restrictions cause frustration, anger and a loss of respect for the Government, and, importantly, for police required to enforce these restrictions.  It will take many years for the Victoria Police to regain the respect it deserves that has been lost due to no fault of its own.

We have accurately predicted anti-social trends in the past. Currently, we are predicting that unless there is significant capitulation by the Government, civil disobedience on a scale never seen before will erupt. Already families are reconnecting despite the rules, using all sorts of clandestine techniques.

Did our leaders expect that the ingenuity of the populous could be suspended by fear indefinitely?  Experience from any form of detention throughout history shows that detainees will initially be compliant, but as their servitude extends, they dedicate more time to achieve any forms of noncompliance.

If you are prepared to look, the signs already exist. Road traffic has increased dramatically, and factory carparks are full, compared to earlier and previous lockdowns. The numbers of citizens walking the streets and parks without masks are growing. Talk within the community has shifted from frustration to palpable anger.

Government be warned, start releasing the community from purgatory now; take too long and social disobedience will spread more rapidly than the virus, leading to anarchy. And a real possibility you will be held to account for any outcomes of that nature.

The community that switched the gift of compliance on, will have no trouble turning it off. Once the gift is removed, the Government will never get it back.

The first step is to start lifting restraints on those who are double jabbed and pose minimal risk, something we are told is based on medical advice.

When that happens, the numbers of vaccinations will escalate dramatically.

Too many people are now suffering Mental Health issues, and the number of suicides exceeds the Covid death toll. Most disturbing is that the damage to our children may be permanent, socially, if not clinically.

It is time for a more balanced approach to Covid.

The response must always be proportionate to risk.

Policing-Service Delivery v Service Management

by CAA | Aug 29, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

30th August  2021

Two terms that are often confused.

Service Delivery is often referred to as an essential strategy of any enterprise. In many ways, it transcends most other corporate functions. It relates to the interaction between the service provider and the consumer of that service, a facet of all organisations, no matter their function, and is quantifiable, so success or otherwise can be monitored.

Service Management, however, refers to the whole of the organisation and how its function is targeted at delivering the service it produces. Resourcing, infrastructure, personnel, recruiting, training, management strategies, and policies form this function.

By its nature, it is introspective and global in the organisational sense. Its focus will tend to be influenced by efficiencies rather than consumer experiences or effectiveness.

Although at ‘first blush’ the difference seems subtle, Service Management is quite significantly different from Service Delivery which is very extrospective.

Service delivery is a component of business that defines the interaction between providers and clients where the provider offers a service, whether that be information or a task, and the client either finds value or loses value as a result.

‘Good service delivery provides clients with an increase in value.

We are encouraged that Victoria Police have identified that it needs to apply more resources to Service Delivery. That function is relatively new; early signs are that the function is weighted heavily to Service Management instead of Service Delivery, as the functional title infers.

In this symbiotic partnership, however, the Service Delivery function must prioritise above Service Management, and the best way to describe this relationship is by way of examples.

• Police Stations/complexes-

The telephone is an essential device to connect the Police to its community, a connection at the heart of good policing. In recent years the phone has been, in part, rendered redundant. It probably seemed sensible and saved valuable time absorbed in telephone reception functions. Service Management has spawned the development of the current practice of multi-choice options for callers. But when you apply Service Delivery, the following flaws become evident;

• Callers will not know which is the correct option for them.
• The call can bounce around an extensive complex sapping up resource time, frustrating the caller. When a connection is eventually found starts the interaction off negatively, a service delivery failure. Not to mention the resource waste in every bounce.
• One of the options never included is the Officer In Charge, option a trait within the organisation that separates those responsible; from the functionaries and outputs of the organisation.

VicPol is providing, in this case, non-service. Therefore, Vicpol’s responsibility to ensure the Service is appropriate from the perspective of those who are being served, not the organisation. That is a failing of Service Management.

• Police Headquarters

Believe it or not, but the main telephone administrative number for Victoria Police is no longer functional.

If you do not know who is responsible for your issue, your only option is the internet (if you have access), which leaves the public confused and not better off.

If you want to talk to somebody within headquarters or the Headquarters complex, good luck.

Recently a former executive member of VicPol wanted some very basic information and decided not to bother operational resources, 000, or 113444 with his simple request, so he tried to ring the Headquarters switchboard to find it no longer functions. After other futile attempts, he finished up speaking with a real person at Crime Stoppers.

His request was, what is the current title of what was called D24?

The answer given was, what is D24?

• 113444

A senior manager of the 113444 operations advised us that the issue of people not knowing where to ring was not the responsibility of VicPol; if they want our Service, they are obliged to make sure they are ringing the right place; really?

We do not blame that Officer but the culture of Service Management that has lost sight of Service Delivery, a culture that must be changed.

• Operational responses.

Did you know that if more than one person rings in to report an incident when the Operator asks whether you would like Police to follow up with you – it only takes one person to say no, and the ‘card’ is marked Police are not required to attend? And that is irrespective of what everybody else may request. So, if you have called the Police and said, ‘yes’ to see them, you may be waiting forever if somebody else says, ‘no’.

The card only has one option. Service Management again trumps Service Delivery.

By the way, do not expect a callback, either from the Operator or the police attending – there is no provision on the ‘Card’ for either. You can’t even get feedback on how; your card was marked.

For a service that relies heavily on community support to function correctly with near-daily requests for public help and demand for public compliance, it seems incongruous that the organisation with that essential reliance treats the public they want help from in the manner they do.

And this problem does not only beset VicPol. The mantle in this space is occupied by VicRoads who are operating at a level of Service Delivery that defies description it is that poor and illogical.

These operational approaches to Service Delivery are not the construct of VicPol but the product of misguided private corporations and the spawning of mammoth call centres (many offshore) as a supposed solution. It is easy to see how the management would be attracted to Service Management – internal efficiency at all costs.

Plenty of consultants will gladly fleece you and tell you how good you are for letting them ruin your organisation.

Poor quality Manager’s incapable of logical decision-making also feed this phenomenon. They are too frightened or cannot make a decision, so they get a consultant in to guide them. That’s called outsourcing management; why have that manager at all, is the efficiency question posed?

However, corporations are now on another path. They are moving towards ensuring customers or recipients of their service have easy access to face-to-face or real person contact experiences away from the previous trends that more often than not created false economies in resources and expenses.

They have realised that Service Delivery out trumps Service Management which regularly damages an organisation.

VicPol needs to be ahead of the game and make the move now.

Good service delivery is the cost of doing good business.

RESPONSE MUST ALWAYS BE PROPORTIONATE TO RISK.

by CAA | Aug 24, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

24th August 2021

The recent violent demonstration about Covid restrictions saw much vitriol aimed at police.  This was entirely misplaced.  The Government ought to have been the target of community frustration and anger, not the police.  Police are not an instrument of Government but an instrument of the people.  It is the people of Victoria who have elected this Government.  It is Parliament that makes the laws.  The police role is to enforce those laws made by Parliament, “Without fear or favour, malice or ill will.”  This police do to the best of their ability.  No one claims they always get it right.

If the general populace is so dissatisfied with their Government that they want change their remedy is at the ballot box.  The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) has vehemently argued that there needs to be a process to force a poorly performing Government to call an election.  We have a petition circulating calling for a recall petition process to be legislated.  Signing that petition may assist in this process being adopted. https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-the-legislative-council-of-victoria-give-democracy-back-to-the-people-with-recall-elections?

In the meantime, the CAA advocates that every legal means available should be utilised to make the Government accountable for the myriad of poor decisions they are making that are so frustrating to most of us.

While the temporary lockdown of some geographic areas may be required, we have seen the lockdown of rural areas that have never had a case of a Covid infection within more than one hundred kilometres.  This is nonsensical and has put many small businesses either out of business or teetering on the brink.

In the larger centres of the State, hundreds of small businesses have failed or will fail if lockdowns continue.  Unnecessary, draconian restrictions cause frustration, anger and a loss of respect for the Government, and, importantly, for police required to enforce these restrictions.  It will take many years for the Victoria Police to regain the respect it deserves and that has been lost due to no fault of its own.

The economic damage being caused by continual lockdowns will take generations to undo.  With rising numbers of those vaccinated it is time to remove many of the restrictions that are said to be based on scientific/medical advice that we, who are most affected, are never permitted to see or question.

Too many people are now suffering Mental health issues and the number of suicides is disturbing.

Closing playgrounds, golf courses and banning take-away food and drink, while supermarkets are open, is ludicrous.

It is time for a more balanced approach to Covid.

The response must always be proportionate to risk.

IBAC – Victoria’s Anti-Corruption Watchdog – Why is it failing?

by CAA | Aug 14, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

15th of August 2021

Extracts cited from the Annual Report of IBAC 2019-2020.

“Public trust is crucial for effective government and functioning of our public institutions. Preventing and exposing public sector corruption builds community confidence and trust in the Victorian public sector and builds confidence in the Victorian integrity system.

It is imperative that IBAC is visibly and practically independent from the government of the day, while being accountable to the Victorian community. IBAC has the powers of a standing Royal Commission. These are significant powers with serious obligations.

A strong anti-corruption agency must be independent, accountable and adequately resourced.”

Why is this not happening?  Why is IBAC failing to investigate the serious misconduct of public officials of which almost everyone in the State must be aware?

Why has IBAC not received additional resources as its workload increases?

Given the outcomes achieved shown in their Annual Report, the additional resources needed may not be a quantitative but a qualitative issue given IBAC’s apparent investigative skills?

Could it be that the Government is content to see an anti-corruption watchdog that has no teeth?

When the following matters are considered it is no wonder that the efficacy of IBAC is in question.

Red Shirt Rorts – The services of electoral office staff were misused, the minions on the ground were arrested and interrogated by police, the Government claimed they would fully cooperate with the police inquiry but did not. Police failed to arrest and interview a single politician involved.  Why?  The perpetrators of these frauds walked away scot-free.  It should be noted that when the Government was caught out a large sum of money was promptly repaid.  Evidence of guilt?

Cancelling the East-West Link claiming no compensation would be paid on legal advice that the contracts were invalid. It was true, it did not cost a cent, just $1.3billion. The so-called legal advice was never released.

Government chauffeurs used to ferry MP’s dogs. New political strategy evolves. Ignore any misstep by politicians and it will go away. The old news approach, later to be followed by the ‘I can’t remember’ strategy.

Travelling expenses rort – how two politicians can blatantly steal from the State by submitting false travel claims and then be let off by repaying the money in part- is one of the most egregious failures of accountability in Political history – if you or I did this we would be locked up. But as with the Chauffer affair, سكس the politicians were quietly moved out of politics to avoid embarrassing the government.

The ‘Coate Inquiry’. Supposedly designed to quell community disquiet about contracts for millions of dollars not being properly awarded and other matters.  Politicians and bureaucrats gave evidence to the Inquiry, notable for the number of, ‘I can’t remember,’ responses to limited questioning by Counsel Assisting.  The handpicked legal team that seemingly failed to test witnesses and certain phone records, documents and witnesses who should have had knowledge of events were not called to give evidence.

This Inquiry raises further questions.  The Inquiry was into the actions of Government Ministers and Senior Bureaucrats.  Who chose the Inquiry Head?  Who chose Counsel Assisting?  Why was the Government Solicitor’s Office used as instructing Solicitors?  While not suggesting any impropriety on the part of the lawyers involved, surely this process was totally unethical and corrupt.

I-Cook Foods is the latest scandal to surface with the obvious deliberate effort to destroy a legitimate small business and steal its technology. This scandal looks to be multiple Local Governments acting in concert with the State Government to destroy a small business by allegedly criminal activity.

How many of these cases involved corruption?  Very hard to know since IBAC apparently did not deem any of them worth investigating.

But they did find time to charge a highly decorated Policemen with telling his partner he was interviewed by IBAC. The State might be better served by IBAC readjusting their priorities to address what they are allegedly there for. Applying allegedly scarce resources to trivial matters hardly justifies demanding more.

The CAA submits that IBAC is failing dismally in its function and should be held accountable for this failure. Additionally, the Inspectorate responsible for oversighting IBAC must also accept responsibility for these failures.

We repeat the words from IBAC itself:

“It is imperative that IBAC is visibly and practically independent from the government of the day, while being accountable to the Victorian community. IBAC has the powers of a standing Royal Commission. These are significant powers with serious obligations.

A strong anti-corruption agency must be independent, accountable and adequately resourced.”

SLUG-GATE NEEDS RECALL

by CAA | Aug 5, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

6th of August 2021

How does Slug-Gate relate to Recall?

Your Rates and State taxes have been squandered on the alleged criminal endeavours perpetrated on ICook Foods, a long-standing family catering business in Dandenong South, by a conglomerate of Local Governments, sixteen of them.

ICooks were forced to close down due to a number of alleged criminal conspiratorial actions by bureaucrats putting over forty workers out of a job just because the bureaucrats wanted to have no competition to their business and to get their hands on technology owned by ICooks.

The story of Slug Gate centres on the establishment by the sixteen councils of a competing catering business called Community Chef established as a private company with a Board of Directors. We will be publishing more detail at caainc.org.au soon.

This was no ordinary business, established with Government grants and access to Government catering contracts with extraordinary life spans, without the nuisance of tendering, exempted from some taxes and fees usually attracted by these businesses, Community Chef was a dead cert to be a huge success, and a model governments could replicate in other industries.

The concept would be attractive to many who despise small businesses, particularly successful ones, and killing off the theory of free enterprise would be the ultimate ideological prize.

No small business and even some larger ones that contract to Government were at risk of similar treatment.

But it didn’t work out well for the architects. It was a disaster.

They didn’t account for Ian Cook in their criminal plans. The tenacity with which Ian has stood up to these bullies at huge personal cost has probably prevented many more businesses from being taken over by Councils.

After ten years of operation propped up by Government funding, the company, Community Chef, never achieved a profit in any of those years. It was an absolute basket case and was eventually sold back to the Government with its liabilities running into the many millions.

Why it took ten years for the Board of Directors to stop the million-dollar cash bleed is a question they will have to answer.

One councillor of one of the sixteen council owners was quoted as saying to the effect that the financial exposure of all councils is not yet known but selling the entity of Community Chef to the Government for $1.00 (with the multi-million-dollar debts) was still the best option, really?

Running the company properly and paying down debt would have been a better option.

That exposure he referrers to, we suspect, is a civil action by ICook Foods. Still, the exposure many public servants at State and local levels and employees of Community Chef do not comprehend yet is the consequence of their alleged behaviour, which is, without a shadow of a doubt, criminal, and very serious criminal offences at that.

Ironically it will be prophetic if many of them end up working in a jail kitchen.

As the Police investigation proceeds and they get a knock on their door at five in the morning greeted by a Detective, arrest warrant in hand, the penny may drop.

The offences these people are exposed to are all severe, with maximum penalties ranging from ten to twenty-five years jail time, and some may be exposed to multiple offences in that order.

That this type of abhorrent behaviour is allowed to happen is the responsibility of our elected officials who cannot be allowed to avoid accountability, the buck stops with them.

We the tax and ratepayers who fund this bureaucratic flight of fancy, have no power to force elected officials to take responsibility for this failure to manage our Government bureaucracies effectively.

That is where Recall comes in – even in this shameful artifice, a Recall instigated against the sixteen councils elected councillors and the responsible Government Ministers would send a strong message that we will not tolerate corrupt behaviours by governments, and elected officials must take responsibility.

We, the other victims of this bold artifice, which will eclipse in both the number of perpetrators and the ultimate cost to tax and ratepayers, the other most egregious abuse of power thus far, the Red Shirts corruption scandal.

It seems that our corruption watchdog IBAC is asleep at the wheel as it was with Red Shirts (notice any similarities?) but thankfully our new Chief Commissioner is up to it and we can at least thank VicPol for the action they are taking.

Would you please encourage your family, friends and partners to support this petition?

https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-the-legislative-council-of-victoria-give-democracy-back-to-the-people-with-recall-elections?

Donations when signing are entirely voluntary and is the last option on the change.org page.

If you wish to donate to change.org.au follow the prompts. If, however, you want to contribute to the CAA, go to caainc.org.au and follow the prompts.

TASK FORCES – SAVIOUR OR ALBATROSS

by CAA | Jul 25, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

25th June 2021

The use of Task Forces, or any other of the myriad of names given to Police investigation or operational teams, is another slow-burning issue of Police strategies arguably misused in times past; over time, they have created inertia of their own to the detriment of efficient and effective policing.

Dedicated units are an ‘easy get‘ for less competent managers. We have a problem; so, create a Task Force (or specialist group), problem solved. Some of these groups have continued for years.  Used in a wide range of serious crime targeting, they are a significant drain on operational resources impacting police capacity to respond to the broader policing function.

When Task Force’s become a fetish of management, this reduces the capacity of Police to respond more broadly and directly drives the need for more task Forces.

Not to be confused with Crime investigation Squads that target a particular crime category, Homicide, Drugs, Fraud etc., rather than solely focused on just one crime or criminal group.

This issue also raises yet another conundrum of whether it is more effective and efficient to have generalists rather than specialists in Policing.

It is an empirically established long-held policing philosophy that prevention is the most effective policing tool. Equally, as all crime has its origins in the community, effectively policing the community will reduce the frequency of all crimes, serious or otherwise.

The question here is not whether Police should, or should not, target significant criminals or crimes, but what and how resources should be applied. And how is the cost-benefit, in the dollar and social impact terms, applied to decision making and how continuous functions are measured and monitored?

We often hear that a serious criminal has been charged with multiple crimes and assets seized, and there is no doubt the community appreciates these outcomes. Still, the kicker is always that the investigation took two or three years to bring about the result. Which, of course, will take another two or three years to progress through the Legal System, so cumulatively, criminals can continue their unlawful activities for years, with Police in effect, acquiescing to the criminal endeavor to continue while they gather the evidence.

The community pays a sometimes-heavy price during this time of continued criminal activity as victims. Something often overlooked by Police in their quest, sometimes doggedly, to build successful prosecutions.

That is something the community (the victims) would no doubt have an opinion on.

In most cases, the community carries the risk to allow a successful Police outcome, which may not always be acceptable.

Task Forces can be very inefficient from the Policing perspective.  The drawdown of Police (usually the most competent) from the operational front line service the needs of a Task Force directly impacts the standard of policing at the community level and overall Policing effectiveness.

Successfully negotiating this and other vexed questions is not an easy task given the competing priorities faced by Police. Still, a solution would catapult Victoria Police to the forefront of leading Police services in this country.

An honest Police member who has served on a task force will tell you that although the concept of focusing exclusively on a target/s has advantages, it is incredibly inefficient as the downtime or inactivity for periods is boring and non-productive. Team members often create non-essential work to fill the allotted time.

We accept that downtime, to some extent, is unavoidable but needs to be better managed.

Rather than the Task Force model, the adequate staffing of Criminal Investigation Squads may well be the answer. A Squad can focus on a particular crime type and manage resources to achieve Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) in that crime category and prioritise multiple investigations targeting multiple suspects rather than focus on one suspect or just one crime. The broader approach ensures that resources of VicPol are more efficiently and strategically applied without reducing but improving effectiveness.

Individuals within a Squad or Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) can still focus on a particular target but perform other support functions in the Squad or unit. This model is currently replicated across the State in local Crime Investigation Units.

Skill sets of investigators are broadened, making it easier to up-skill and maintain effective management controls. Investigators can focus on more than one narrow field, maximising the efficient use of the resource.

The average Detective can deal with multiple issues and, in varying team scenarios working with one Detective on one case while working with another on a completely different case. Sometimes they hold the lead and others the support roles. Nevertheless, the fundamental skill of a Detective is the multitasking model, and we would argue that they are at least as good, if not more so than a Task Force or Squad Detective that is one dimensional.

The proviso is that they are properly resourced with support services as that is usually the only difference between a Local detective and a Task Force or Squad Detective.

With the advances in technology to follow the current model is not a good management practice.

The organisational aspect is but one part; the management is another.

The management of Task Forces, and their failings, was bought into sharp focus by the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, the ‘Gobbo affair’.

Day after day, as many of us sat through the evidence, the one common thread we saw was repeated failures of management, particularly at the Executive level. The direct involvement of Senior Executives and the subsequent failures by them losing objectivity was laid bare.

They became embroiled in the detail, micro-management, instead of standing back and maintaining a global perspective. Task Force members became ensnared in inappropriate actions, which must be placed at the Executives’ feet who failed to perform their proper function. They were just too close to the action to see the failings. That assumes they have the skills to see them.

To emphasise the issue, there are many parallels in the current Government management failures in Victoria’s COVID response where the State Executive class has become totally involved in the function and failed to maintain objectivity.

Interestingly the Victorian Premier, in this case, after a hiatus of some months, recently returned to the job and early signs are that his views have become more pragmatic. He was forced to remove himself from detailed daily management and forced to adopt a global perspective. We can only hope that he has learned from the experience.

Now, and in just a couple of weeks, it appears evident that the Premier has returned to type, again losing objectivity which will inevitably create poor management outcomes. Furthermore, he is delving into micro-management the more severe affliction of this management malady and guaranteed to spawn failure.

It seems that leaders who suffer this affliction confuse leadership and management. We are yet to meet anybody who can do both effectively; it is not a dual interwoven function, but two distinct and separate ones.

These two examples amplify that if the executives get it wrong, the whole system fails. The unfortunate consequence is that the lower-ranking individuals in the organisation will wear blame and suffer consequences for the failure of executive management.

To illustrate the issue further, the actions of the executives in both the Gobbo debacle and the COVID response failures would be like the Chairman of a Board venturing onto the factory floor in an embarrassingly vain effort to help a forklift driver tighten wheel nuts on a forklift. If the executive had caused the company mechanic to intervene, it would have been discovered that the wheel nuts were reverse thread.

The purpose of these comments is to strengthen the argument for a solution.

There is, however, a solution that must be considered.

By adopting the Squad model, with very few exceptions, the management Teams responsible for the oversight of Task Forces will be reduced.

They, however, need to be replaced with an Independent Crime Audit team that can review the ongoing operations of a Squad or any remaining Task Force or any other like grouping anywhere in the organisation to ensure that they are meeting predetermined targets that continually measure the functions and outcomes.

A Crime Audit team must be outside the Crime and Operational departments and form part of the Chief Commissioners Office.

We have previously argued for establishing an Inspectorate within VicPol, which is where this function could lay.

An Audit Team would be essentially global in its function, and checks and balances would be needed to ensure the objectivity and impartiality of that team.

This work must be based on a careful Cost-Benefit Analysis where the fiscal impact is weighed against the social, resource, and legal impacts.

A successful audit team well-resourced with actuarial, research and legal expertise will ensure many members return to the coal face impacting all ranks. The Audit Team must also monitor that process to ensure it is not abused or manipulated.

There will be cries of anguish as some will see their comfortable existence and elitism under challenge by these proposals; however, the current model has not significantly impacted crime overall. Although there are specific successes, the global impact is somewhat opaque; they are less than optimum.

To allay any concerns that organised crime might flourish, the models in New South Wales and Queensland include a Crime Commission with substantially more coercive powers than the Police and much better equipped to deal with the high-end crime syndicates. As part of the reform in modernising crime-fighting in this State, serious consideration must be given to establishing a Crime Commission headed by a Judge on three-year rotations from a superior Court. Not some bureaucrat with a Law Degree given a Clayton’s legal title.

SERVICE DELIVERY – THE CENTREPIECE OF A GOOD ORGANISATION

by CAA | Jul 16, 2021 | Library, Uncategorized

16th July 2021

Another of the very vexed issues confronting policing is the issue of police Service Delivery.

The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) has regularly received anecdotal reports of service delivery failure by police members.

We suspect some of the issues raised with us are because there is no mechanism that the public feels confident about bringing the matter to VicPol attention.

A couple of examples.

1. The proprietors of an Asian Grocery in a shopping strip were so frustrated with the amount of blatant stealing happening in their store they resorted to enlarging pictures to paste on the shop front and throughout the store showing perpetrators clearly identifiable in the act. A shaming strategy.

The store owners had become sick of contacting the Police, who never attended. The local Station Commander was notified, and he contacted the shop owners and advised them to ring his station. The owners tried, but found that extremely difficult and time-consuming as they had to wade through the myriad of options offered. They had no idea which would be the correct option to select. This was a small business with usually only the owner present, so hanging on a phone line for what seemed like an eternity was just too hard with legitimate customers queued up for Service.

2. A member of the CAA had to visit a police station. While waiting to be attended to, the person in front relayed a tale to the attending member on the not unsubstantial thefts that had occurred at his business perpetrated by an employee. The businessman was advised that those type of thefts are civil matters and was not a Police matter. No crime reports were taken.

At best, this was ignorance by the police member but more likely laziness and the knowledge that there would be no repercussions for his actions. Like in all matters involving behaviour, human or otherwise, unless there is a likelihood of a consequence for bad or non-compliant conduct, a correction is unlikely.

We have also received advice from a retired Chief Superintendent.

3. Travelling along a major thoroughfare at a slow pace because of traffic congestion, a vehicle charged out of a side street, turning left, sideswiping the ex-members car. The offending vehicle did not stop but took off at speed, weaving through traffic recklessly like a fleeing villain.

 Lo and behold, there just happened to be Div Van in the same traffic flow, and when the ex-member spoke to the members in the van, they claimed they didn’t see anything. Failing to even get out of the van, the members advised the ex to report it at the station as they were on their way to a burglary. The burglary was in the same area as where the offending vehicle had come.

The next day the ex, dutifully reported the incident at a Police station and handed over the number of the offending vehicle. The attending member made inquiries and advised the ex that the car that had sideswiped him was stolen. The attending member was clearly annoyed and did not attempt to justify the actions, or more precisely, the inaction of the van crew.

Any half-competent police member having only a moderate degree of situational awareness and experience should have suspected a link between the fleeing vehicle to the burglary. Of course, we have no way of knowing if it was, but most members would put a quid on it that it was the crooks.

Victoria Police has established a Service Delivery Command, and that is a very positive step; however, Service Delivery does not happen or is not measured at the command level but where the organisation interacts with the public, where the rubber hits the road.

There have been a number of corporate initiatives that seem to be of good value, but that is the wrong end to start to bring about change.

A couple of standout failures that, if rectified, would improve Service Delivery very quickly; the member’s attitude is one, but technology is the primary culprit.

Firstly, the telecommunications protocols set up of VicPol need a major overhaul.

We are strong advocates for the Police Advice Line (PAL), but unfortunately, the organisation saw this as a way to redirect all manner of issues away from the police stations.

Police stations got onto the wagon and designed answering services for calls offering a multitude of options to redirect callers within the Police Station. Always notably excluding the Officer in charge option.

The caller does not operate the station; the staff within it do, so all incoming calls must be answered by an assigned member, and they can redirect if necessary. In practice, this current approach has shades of the ‘send the fool further, and they will lose interest’ or alternatively ‘our work is too important to be answering phones‘.

The executive needs to make some calls to test the system. We suggest extending past Police Stations and try to ring somebody within the organisation using the police headquarters number. From a public’s perspective, a logical number in many circumstances. Provided the call is made during office hours and not during the one-hour daily shut down for lunch, they will find the operator unable to assist and, in our experience, exhibiting disinterest.

After hours, good luck. Not having an after-hours service is disgraceful in a State that now functions 24/7 and has done so for many years.

It may not be an issue for Police members; they have access to the police intranet to locate direct phone numbers. The public does not have a competent directory, online or otherwise. The online function at https://m.vic.gov.au/contactsandservices/directory/?ea0_lfz149_120.&organizationalUnit&6a9c1235-0bdc-401c-a080-dbbd19b5ac3c# only includes Command and refers only to the main switchboard. Bad luck if you want to talk to anybody else.

On the issue of a helpful directory, that is a matter that should be quickly resolved with accurate data with an online public directory.

The provision of mobile phones for members is another initiative strongly supported by the CAA; however, this has spawned a one-way communications system limiting effectiveness.  Caller ID numbers should not be blocked from Police phones; argued as a security issue, but the member can block any inappropriate caller at any time. Many members of the public will not answer calls with blocked IDs as marketing companies often use this to interact and harass customers.

Unfortunately, this problem was caused by Police operating in a Police bubble not understanding the community they serve.

Another technology, albatross, is demonstrated in most patrolling police vehicles. It is far too common to see the observer not observing but being a passenger, head down assumingly using an electronic device. This makes it look like Police are disinterested, not focused on the community they are supposed to service.

It is also not uncommon to see a parked Police car with both members, head down, engrossed in the issue at hand. We accept there has to be an element of this, but the overuse regularly observed is very concerning. Not only is the engrossed member not performing the observer role, but the Situational Awareness, or lack thereof, puts both members at substantial personal risk.

This behaviour must be curbed, whether their distraction is addressing correspondence, undertaking online training or focusing on tips from The Marketing Heaven for creating successful videos and keeping up with friends on social media. The use of headphones may help?

When addressing the Service Delivery issue, little progress will be made at the coal face while less than efficient members can take shortcuts and fail in delivering the police service with impunity, as is currently the case. It is not purely a supervision issue as Supervisors cannot be everywhere; this needs to be addressed culturally. Pressure from colleagues (concerned for their own safety) is the most effective way to solve this issue.

The Service delivery test is to identify if a member of the public experience’s dissatisfaction with the Police service and it be bought to the attention of the organisation in a measurable way.

Until that is achieved, all effort to fix the problem will be futile. A Police complaints or Service Delivery line is essential to identify where the weaknesses are occurring so that remedial action can be taken.

There is a long-held misconception, often trotted out as a quaint old-fashioned rationalisation, that has held policing back for decades. The belief that anybody that complains is ‘anti-police’.

We thought this nonsense was assigned to the Ark a long time ago, but behaviours today suggest the philosophy is alive and well.

A priority must be to establish a mechanism where members who fail can be held to account. Notations on their PDA would work.  It would not take long for the Service to achieve substantial improvements if a member knew that they might have to explain their actions and there are possible consequences for failure.

Good material in evaluating members for promotion or appointments.