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Time to come clean, Mr Brumby
Today’s revelations in The Age about proposals to reduce OPI accountability strengthens the call for a public inquiry and standing ICAC-style commission against corruption. The proposals to give the OPI more powers are completely at odds with the principles of an open, representative and democratic government. The Office of Police Integrity needs more accountability not less. Proposals to place it above judicial scrutiny and make it effectively immune from prosecution are an insult to democracy and a recipe for a witch hunt against members. The Police Association has one question for Mr Brumby: what have you got to hide? This is 21st Century Victoria, not Stalinist Russia. The Premier does not need his own KGB unless he really does have something to hide. The government’s own human rights legislation enshrines the right of the most vile and wicked criminals not to be treated in a degrading manner, but under Mr Brumby’s proposals, 11,000 police officers will be treated as second class non-citizens. If that’s not degrading, we’re yet to see what is. We need more accountability, not less. We need more transparency, not more cover up. To not be accountable, even to the courts, gives free reign to the OPI - an organisation that already leaks like a sieve. We need a wide-ranging, long-standing crime commission to investigate all aspects of corruption that is fully transparent to the public and accountable to parliament. Click HERE to view the article that appeared in today’s Age.
Greg Davies Discipline/Legal Manager |
27 February
