Media release
7 May 2015
The NSW Ombudsman has included a statement on an obscure part of his website stating that his report on ‘Operation Prospect’ is “unlikely” to be tabled by June despite having informed a NSW Parliamentary Committee earlier this year that he intended to deliver his report by then.
This is the latest delay in the delivery of the Ombudsman’s police bugging report and will inevitably require the Premier to again extend the Ombudsman’s term of office so that this multi-million dollar inquiry can be finished.
Greens MP and Police Spokesperson David Shoebridge said:
“It’s not good enough for the Ombudsman, who is answerable to the taxpayers of NSW, to announce another indefinite delay in delivering his report.
“It has now taken the Ombudsman almost three years to investigate this one matter.
“Admittedly the Ombudsman’s inquiry is complex, but even the Wood Royal Commission that reviewed the entire NSW police force only took three years and it held 419 hearings, examined 856 witnesses and received 226 public submissions.
“What the Ombudsman has failed to address in announcing yet more delay is that his term of office expires on 30 June this year.
“By delaying his report the Ombudsman is effectively forcing the Premier to once again extend his term.
“This places the Premier in an extremely uncomfortable position of either agreeing to the extension or seeing the entire project fall into further disarray.”
“Mr Barbour has already had one temporary extension from the government, has he requested Premier Baird to give him another extension and, if so, on what terms?
“The police bugging scandal has plagued the top ranks of NSW Police for over a decade, and the Parliamentary Inquiry’s report was emphatic that it needs to be finalised as a priority.
“This interminable wait for the Ombudsman to deliver his report is prolonging the tension amongst senior police and delaying the government’s reform of police oversight.
“If the Ombudsman’s continued delay demonstrates anything it is the utter failure of the existing mechanisms to oversight NSW Police,” Mr Shoebridge said.
Media contact: David Shoebridge 9230 3030