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The Victorian Greens have seized the opportunity to call for the government to give more power and money to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission to investigate police.
"Currently police officers themselves investigate nearly all complaints about their colleagues because IBAC lacks the resources to do so," the Greens said in a statement this afternoon.
"The state government has repeatedly delayed responding to recommendations for IBAC to be funded for this role, claiming that their hands were tied until the royal commission had completed its work.
"A 2018 parliamentary inquiry, anti-corruption groups and the Greens have repeatedly called for an independent body such as IBAC to have the oversight role along with the necessary funding, given ongoing reports of excessive force and misconduct, and because broader discretionary powers have been provided to police and PSOs."
Victorian Greens spokesperson for integrity, Dr Tim Read, said IBAC should be empowered and funded to independently oversee the police, rather than the police themselves.
"Today’s report means there’s no longer any excuse for allowing police to investigate their friends and colleagues," Mr Read said.
"There is now no excuse for the state government not to create a truly independent and well-resourced police anti-corruption body."
In its final report, the commission has released a list of the 124 people whose cases may have been been tainted by Nicola Gobbo's informing. Some people are only listed by the pseudonym.
The commission actually identified 1011 cases that may have been affected by Ms Gobbo. Of those cases, counsel assisting the commission used 124 of them as case studies to examine how they might have been tainted.
In 36 of cases, the commission said the evidence used in their prosecution was improperly or illegally obtained from Ms Gobbo and she also represented them as a lawyer.
In 71 cases, she didn't act for them, but the commission considers the evidence may have been improperly or illegally obtained.
In 85 cases, Ms Gobbo acted for them, and also either provided information about them, or assisted or tried to assist in their prosecution before or during the period she represented them.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy has said the government will act on all recommendations made by the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.
In a statement released just before she addressed the media this afternoon, Ms Hennessy said the government intended to address the "significant historical shortfalls in the criminal justice system", and as recommended, would appoint an implementation taskforce and implementation monitor to oversee the implementation of all recommendations.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.Credit:Justin McManus
"The commissioner has also recommended a special investigator be established - and where criminal conduct or police misconduct may have occurred, the government will ensure it is thoroughly investigated," the statement says.
That role will be introduced as soon as possible.
"The commission's findings are serious and significant and individuals and organisations must be held accountable," Ms Hennessy said.
"We've already taken action to make appeal proceedings more efficient and transparent - allowing for further appeals if new evidence emerges showing a substantial miscarriage of justice - and if we need to go further, we will.
"There is still a long and challenging road ahead, but we will do whatever it takes to restore confidence in our justice system."
Victoria Police's "public interest immunity claims" (which makes information confidential if it's deemed sensitive) hindered the work of the commission, Margaret McMurdo said.
She has also recommended an amendment to the Inquiries Act to prevent organisations refusing to produce documents to a royal commission on the basis of public interest immunity.
A document that has been heavily redacted due to public interest immunity (PII) claims.
It can be extraordinarily difficult for readers to make sense of the Victoria Police documents obtained by the royal commission, some of which have been redacted into virtual nonsense due to public interest immunity (PII) claims.
PII claims are nominally made to protect the identities of officers, informers or operational methodologies.
Victoria Police has requested thousands of these redactions in virtually every document tendered to the royal commission and they have flowed through to the reports that are produced.
Here’s an example of how extensive these redactions can be:
A document that has been heavily redacted due to public interest immunity (PII) claims.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo has found that neither Victoria Police nor IBAC can be trusted to investigate police accused of criminal conduct in their dealings with Nicola Gobbo.
"The commission considers that, for various reasons, it would be problematic or challenging for the conduct of Ms Gobbo and Victoria Police officers to be examined by existing investigative authorities; that is, Victoria Police or IBAC," the report says.
"Instead, it recommends that the Victorian government establishes a dedicated special investigator with all necessary powers to investigate potential criminal conduct on the part of Ms Gobbo and relevant current and former Victoria Police officers, and any disciplinary breaches by relevant current Victoria Police officers."
Commissioner McMurdo has rejected Victoria Police's submission that its failings were organisational and systemic and not due to the conduct of individuals.
"The commission does not accept that there was no knowing impropriety on the part of any officer involved in these events. The conduct of some officers fell well short of an acceptable standard.
"If the organisation and systems were flawed, it was because the individuals who made up the organisation and developed its systems, particularly senior leaders, lacked the moral clarity, vision and ability to fix those flaws."
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo has also lashed Victoria Police's inconsistent messaging on its involvement in the scandal, alternating between offering a public apology but continuing to seek to mitigate the misconduct of members and senior command.
"The chief commissioner is the highest ranking Victorian police officer. The person in that role is the chief constable and chief executive officer of Victoria Police, and is responsible for the management and control of the organisation, including its general conduct, performance and operations," the report says.
Former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton at the royal commission last year.
"The chief commissioner could and should have conveyed a clear public message about the improper and unacceptable conduct perpetrated by Victoria Police in its use of Ms Gobbo as a human source ... The public statements of Mr Ashton ... did not do this."
Despite the damage done to the justice system by Nicola Gobbo and Victoria Police, the royal commission has stopped short of recommending a total ban on using lawyers as informers.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo said while "it is almost never appropriate for police to use a lawyer as a human source to provide information about their own client", a prohibition is not warranted.
"There may be limited circumstances in which the use of such sources may be justified - for example, when there is a compelling public interest reason for acquiring and using the information, there is an unambiguous exception to the duty of confidentiality or privilege, and/or the source is providing information they have come by well beyond the scope of their professional obligations," her report says.
"In addition, if Victoria Police was seeking to use a human source with the intention of obtaining confidential or privileged information, it would need to establish that there were exceptional and compelling reasons for doing so - for example, to avert a risk to the community or the safety of a person, in circumstances where the information cannot be obtained by any other reasonable means."
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo has urged the Andrews government to refer to a special investigator some of the most distinguished crime fighters from its current and former ranks to determine whether they engaged in criminal conduct through their involvement with or oversight of Nicola Gobbo as a human source.
Ms McMurdo recommended that the "conduct of current and former Victoria Police officers named in this report or the complete and unredacted submissions of counsel assisting" be referred to a special investigator.
This would include former chief commissioner Simon Overland, former Purana taskforce bosses Jim O'Brien and Gavan Ryan, current Victoria Police Commander Stuart Bateson, Superintendent Jason Kelly and Inspector Dale Flynn and retired superintendent Tony Biggin.
Former police commissioner Simon Overland arrives at the royal commission last year.Credit:Jason South
If the recommendation is accepted by the Andrews government, Ms Gobbo's former Source Development Unit handlers, who are known as Mr White, Mr Black, Mr Green and Mr Smith, would also face criminal investigation and potentially, prosecution.
In her recorded message, Commissioner Margaret McMurdo also said police "tolerated bending the rules, to help solve serious crime".
"As Victoria Police recognised in their belated apology, the use of Ms Gobbo as a human source was also a systemic failure. It continued unchecked for years, even though many Victoria Police officers, including very senior officers were aware of it, but did nothing to investigate it or prevent it," she said.
Nicola Gobbo in 2008, while she was working as secret police informerCredit:Angela Wylie
Ms McMurdo accepted there were several organisational conditions, structures or cultures that contributed to the events including failures of leadership and governance, of management and supervision and policies and training.
The commissioner also took a swipe at Victoria Police for delays in not only disclosing information to the inquiry, but to those - many convicted criminals - affected by her conduct.
"Victoria Police has long been on notice ... the commission is concerned about the slowness of which Victoria Police has acquitted its disclosure obligations and provided people with the information they should have received many years ago, before their trials," Ms McMurdo said.
She has recommended police report monthly on their progress in disclosing documents.
She noted Victoria Police has overhauled the way it handles police sources, but recommended the force's use of human sources be regulated by way of an independent oversight model.
The Victorian government should undertake a review of the broader police oversight system, Ms McMurdo recommended.
She said the establishment of an independent oversight model, along with the exposure of Ms Gobbo and police's conduct to those affected by it, the creation of a special investigator and the government's commitment to implement all of the commission's recommendation would safeguard the criminal justice system.
"Victorians can be satisfied their criminal justice system is again working as it should now, and into the future," she said.
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2020-11-30 03:45:00Z
CBMihAFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL3ZpY3RvcmlhL2xhd3llci14LWlucXVpcnktbGl2ZS1uaWNvbGEtZ29iYm8tY29tbWlzc2lvbi1yZWxlYXNlcy1maW5hbC1yZXBvcnQtMjAyMDExMzAtcDU2ajIzLmh0bWzSAYQBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlYWdlLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9sYXd5ZXIteC1pbnF1aXJ5LWxpdmUtbmljb2xhLWdvYmJvLWNvbW1pc3Npb24tcmVsZWFzZXMtZmluYWwtcmVwb3J0LTIwMjAxMTMwLXA1NmoyMy5odG1s
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