This week the NSW Parliament voted to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Conduct and Progress of the Ombudsman’s Inquiry “Operation Prospect.
In 2012 the Coalition Government shut down any parliamentary questioning about the matter by referring it to the NSW Ombudsman alongside a suite of oppressive secrecy provisions.
This has meant that, to date, there has been no public hearings, no documents publicly reported and no public accountability.
David spoke to Ray Hadley about the appallingly long saga of secrecy including statements from former Police Minister Mike Gallacher who previously promised openness and transparency in investigating the matter.
An inquiry into the New South Wales Ombudsman’s investigation of a phone-tap scandal will be cleansing for the state’s police force, the inquiry’s chairman says.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.See the full terms of reference for the Select Committee.
Upper House MPs voted to establish the inquiry despite Ombudsman Bruce Barbour’s concerns it could “frustrate and impede” his investigation, known as Operation Prospect.
Shooters Party MLC Robert Borsak will chair a select committee to examine the two-year-long investigation, which has been looking at a police unit’s secret surveillance of senior police and journalists.
More than 100 police officers’ phones were allegedly tapped during the Special Crime and Internal Affairs (SCIA) unit’s operation between 1998 and 2002.
In the lead-up to the 2011 state election, then shadow Police Minister Mike Gallacher vowed to shine a bright light on how illegal warrants were issued against more than 100 honest police officers, including the current Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas.
The dodgy operations were codenamed Mascot and Florida, and executed in an atmosphere of post Wood Royal Commission paranoia about police and their associates.
Working with the NSW Crime Commission, internal affairs police somehow convinced Supreme Court judges to sanction the recording of conversations of police under no suspicion of any indictable offence.
It was basically a fishing expedition, casting a wide net that would end up entangling many innocent people who have been dealing with the stress of these unjustified/non-existent suspicions ever since.
Current Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and deputy Catherine Burn were working at the Special Crimes and Internal Affairs unit as the secret bugging operation continued.
On February 13, 2011, six weeks before he became police minister, Gallacher told 7News: “We’ve never got the answers – and at the end of the day people are left wondering because it’s in a secretive world.”
“The public needs to know that everything is being done to maintain levels of integrity and accountability.”
Gallacher was referring to the refusal of his successor to release the findings of Strike Force Emblems – which investigated operations Mascot and Florida. This failure was in spite of assurances by former Police Commissioner Ken Moroney.
At one stage Tony Abbott, in opposition, wrote to one of the bugging victims and said: “I’m shocked that any Australian police force could get away with tapping a journalist’s phone (unless that journo is suspected of a crime) and a little surprised that this issue has not been run hard and big by the State Opposition and the media.”
In Government, Gallacher joined then Premier Barry O’Farrell in ordering an investigation into the inadequacies and injustices of Strike Force Emblems.
But by November 2012, barely 18 months after Gallacher’s pre-election pledge for transparency, he was refusing to release the findings of an investigation into Strike Force Emblems by Police Integrity Commission Inspector David Levine.
“To say that Mr Levine has been critical of this Emblems investigation would be an understatement,” Mr Gallacher said, but still he refused to publicly release Mr Levine’s review of the report.
The whole mess was then referred to the NSW Ombudsman for yet another investigation, codenamed Prospect.
In almost two years of secret inquisition the Ombudsman’s office has spent much of its time focusing on “leaks to the media.”
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Clik here to view.That was enough for Greens upper house MP, David Shoebridge and he successfully led calls for a parliamentary investigation.
“Warrants were issued naming scores of people,” Shoebridge told the Legislative Council.
“They were giving warrants against scores of people who were not even named in the affidavits that are put before the judges when they are signing off on warrants.
“It was not even possible to match the name on the warrants to a single shred of evidence in the affidavits that had been presented to the courts, but they are stamped, they are stamped, and they are stamped.
“Wiretaps and intrusive covert surveillances are operating as a result of that. That is what needs to be the subject of serious public and open investigation.”
Find out more about this issue and the longstanding work David has done:
– Inquiry to probe police bugging claims, SBS News
– Government tries to avoid Emblems questioning in Budget Estimates 2012
– Taskforce Emblems: Judicial inquiry “the only way” October 2012
For more information about the Inquiry, when submissions will open as well as hearing and report dates, please contact the Secretariat of Committees on (02) 9230 3367 or conductandprogress@parliament.nsw.gov.au