CCC: Protection money can’t buy - unless you’re in a Bikies' Gang

How did Wally Cox do it? That wasn't in the CCC's script!

Jessica Strutt a gifted journalist in the Desert Rat’s opinion, reports in The West Australian that Justice Anthony Templemen of the WA Supreme Court has ruled that Dr Wally Cox former Chairman of the Environmental Protection Authority should be allowed to argue in the Court of Appeal that the Corruption and Crime Commission made serious errors in its findings and acted outside its powers.

What again?

Dr Cox has been cleared of any wrongdoing in respect of the Smith’s Beach affair by an independent government inquiry head by Agriculture supremo Ian Longson.

What again?

Jim McGinty will be wiping the tears from his eyes with his lavender-scented handkerchief.

Given the CCC officers have all the armour-plated protection of a Triassic dinosaur, it is no wonder the faceless, nameless Corruption and Crime Commission officers are so sloppy, amateurish and undisciplined in their investigations and reporting. They are almost untouchable, being heavily protected from their incompetence. There is precious little relief or come-back for those aggrieved.

The protections include Section 222 prohibits any defamation actions against the CCC:

“No action or proceeding, civil or criminal, lies against the State, against a Minister, or against a person employed or engaged by the State, in respect of the printing or publishing of a transcript of an examination or inquiry or a report of, or a recommendation made by, the Commission ...”

Section 219, protects officers (broadly defined) of the CCC against personal liability:

“An action in tort does not lie against the State, a Minister, the Commission, the Parliamentary Inspector or an official for anything done, in good faith, in the performance or purported performance of a function under this Act or any other written law.”

The Desert Rat is no lawyer (thank God) but thinks that, because the Commission has similar powers as the Supreme Court, there could be an opportunity under Section 147 to get redress if granted by the Supreme Court or his lawyers may have used a prerogative writ seeking relief.

Well done anyhow Dr Wally Cox – the CCC’s bluff appears to have been called!

Of course CEO Silverstone and Chairman Len Roberts-Smith will hide behind sub judice until the case is heard later this year. If they CCC thinks they will lose the appeal we can expect an appeal against Justice Templemen’s ruling.

CCC’s CEO Brigadier Silverstone AWOL?

Why has Corruption and Crime Commission CEO Mike “Children Overboard” Silverstone not been asked to explain his role in the secret McGinty - Fong hearings and the incredibly sloppy Smith’s Beach investigation and Report?

Why do we only read about a “comment from a CCC spokesperson”. Isn’t Brigadier Silveristone paid handsomely to explain CCC actions and show his mug on TV and in the newspapers? Silverstone was quick to jump in front of TV cameras when announcing the public hearing of Burke and Grill. Since then he has crawled into a hole. Strange?

Is it an offence to publish a picture of the Le Messenger in the “Children Overboard” scandal – our former chief refugee catcher?

Why is Silverstone, the head of such a bungling organisation too timid to communicate a few simple messages to the public to explain the extraordinary incompetence at the Corruption and Crime Commission that seems to pass for rigour and thorough investigation?

The CCC's Smith Beach Report has gratuitously destroyed many people reputations and businesses and is being shown as each day passes, to be grossly incompetent. So bad that the Desert Rat wonders if the authors were negligence or it is part of a grubby smear propaganda campaign against Burke and Grill.

How will they compensate the victims of this inquiry? So damning were the findings of the phoney report and the media frenzy that followed, it will be difficult to repair the damage to the reputations of people such as Burke and Grill; the public servants, business people and others who appear to have done no wrong?

Read about Silverstone's evidence in the Senate "Children Overboard" inquiry here.

Corruption watchdog chief refuses to justify secret McGinty - Fong hearings.

Corruption and Crime Commission Chairman Len Roberts-Smith’s refusal to reveal the factors taken in to account in making the decision not to hear in public the evidence from Jim McGinty and Neil Fong, is unacceptable.

The Desert Rat thinks he should front-up to his responsibilities and the media and immediately justify why the hearing were held in private. The public is waiting and becoming impatient.

It is now becoming clearer to the Desert Rat why former Chairman Judge Hammond jumped ship early.

How long will Roberts-Smith last as he find out more about the hopelessness and incompetence of this $70 million white elephant, known in some circles as “McGinty’s Baby”?

Who do we believe, Petrice Judge or the Corruption and Crime Commission?

Are McGinty and Carpenter interested in the truth?

The Chairman Len Roberts-Smith and Brigadier Mike “Children Overboard” Silverstone should publically respond to each finding in Petrice Judge’s Reports on Paul Frewer and Mike Allen. We need to know the truth. Something smells.

Someone will be very embarrassed. Either Petrice Judge should go or Brigadier Silverstone’s and those of his CCC Goon Platoon involved in the initial inquiry should be named, charged and shown the door.

Alan Carpenter’s announcement (instructed by McGinty?) to review the Public Service Act is less about responding to Buswell’s odd criticism of who undertook the Inquiry and more about distracting the media and public from the actual findings of the Inquiry. Neither Carpenter nor McGinty have defended the integrity of Petrice Judge – she has been left out to dry.

Ms Petrice Judge is indeed a very courageous woman. The Desert Rat, and I suspect most other observers, would have expected her to reinforce the criticisms of the Corruption and Crime Commission. She has certainly put herself off-side with Carpenter and McGinty as she has taken Frewer and Allen of the CCC’s butcher’s hook. Why would she do that unless the evidence was undisputable?

Petrice Judge is the very experienced public servant who undertook the investigation suggested by the CCC that found that Brian Burke had not requested a specific environmental officer. It found Mr Allen did not have the power to appoint the officer to undertake any tasks in relation to the development, and the alleged report did not even exist.

Grumpy Jack the well-connected forensic blogger claims that the CCC had tape recordings of the meetings. They should throw light on the truth. Was the exculpatory evidence ignored? Both Petrice Judge and the CCC cannot be right in their diametrically opposed findings. McGinty and Carpenter have made no suggestion that Petrice Judge’s report will be reviewed by a (Court) Judge! Do Carpenter and McGinty suspect they are on shakey ground?

Let's hear what Chairman Len Roberts-Smith and Brigadier Mike “Children Overboard” Silverstone have to say about each of the findings in Petrice Judge’s Report. Someone will be very embarrassed and either Petrice Judge should go or Brigadier Silverstone’s and those of his CCC Goon Platoon involved should be shown the door.

Let not fall for Carpenter and McGinty’s diversion about reviewing the Public Service Act!

The Desert Rat asks "What is the truth?" The tumbril awaits the incompetent frauds!

McGinty's Support for Global Solutions Privitisation Contract

The Desert Rat can remember when in Opposition Jim McGinty railed against the privatisation of prisons and prisoner transport. Since being in Government this practice has been embraced by McGinty and his comrade in the Labor Government. The private Acacia Prison contract near Wooroloo has been renewed and Court and prison transport services are still being run by multinational private security firms whose contracts have also been renewed.

The death of Aboriginal Mr Ward this week in the back of a prison transport vehicle during the first leg of a long Central Desert trip focussed attention on the private contractor Global Solutions Pty Ltd which has been embraced by McGinty and his "anti-privatisation" Labor Government mates. What are the boundaries to this Labor Government hypocrisy?

Read here the story in The Australian about this tragic death and the embarrassing history of Global Solutions Ltd. What Grumpy Jack has to say about Mr Ward’s lonely death in the back of an overheated, privatised outback prisoner transport vehicle can be read here.

For years now private prison transport vehicles have been ferrying Aboriginal offenders and remand prisoners from Kununurra to Broome an 2200 kilometre round trip in searing summer temperatures and freezing night temperatures during June July when inland temperature through Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing can be below zero. Other long prisoner transport trips are undertaken from Warburton in the Central Desert, Laverton and Wiluna, etc to Kalgoorlie and the coastal towns.

Once upon a time Aboriginal offenders stayed at police lock-ups at Wyndham, Derby, Wiluna and many other towns where they did community work under the eyes of police officers. This was considered more humane than forced travel over long distances in chain. Now they use suffocating metal vans instead. Prisoners were close to family and support and if kept away from alcohol were generally no threat or problem to townsfolk. The police (or their wives) made a few dollars cooking meals for the offenders and this was described as a rort by Leftist agitators and the practice was eventually stopped.

The cops we were told, had the temerity to feed Aboriginal offenders kangaroo meat which was shot locally. This was thought to be unhygienic and also another police rort. No consideration was given to the possibility that the Aboriginal offenders preferred kangaroo meat and it was healthier for them.

Now Aboriginal offenders such as the deceased are put in a much higher risk situation, at phenomenal expense, and trucked 1100 km to Broome or Kalgoorlie while on remand for a drunkenness offence. Many are released on bail in a town far away from home where they get into more trouble. If they are not convicted, they have to find their own way home.

This is the justice that McGinty and his mates preside over. McGinty now seems to need expensive court processes and a human right act to tell him what he should and should not do.

Stupid costly solutions are McGinty’s Ministerial trademark. The Desert Rat thinks that McGinty must believe that common sense doesn't cost enough. The great pity is not many of McGinty's initiatives are practical and therefore rarely work.

Professor Richard Harding the Inspector of Custodial Services made this indicting comment after this most recent custodial death.

"Recent media coverage has understandably tended to speculate about individual fault and failures. In that regard, the Inspector deplores the way in which Government gencies hide behind the fiction that the matter is subjudice until the Coroner has dealt with it, so that basic information of genuine public interest is suppressed.

At present the Coroner's Court has a delay of about two years before a custodial death can be heard, but identification of problems and the implementation of remedial action must commence before then."

"The present system falls short of international minimum standards (the UN Convention on Torture and other forms of Cruel, Unusual and Degrading Punishment and Treatment)."

So much for social justice of McGinty's ALP Socialist Left.

Privileged Treatment for Emperor McGinty - Different Treatment for Foe Burke & others

The Corruption and Crime Commission questioned Jim McGinty and Neil Fong in secret rather than hold a public hearing into Fong's contact with Brian Burke.

Why did Jim McGinty get special treatment from the CCC when business people, senior public servants and politicians are grilled and humiliated in public?

The Desert Rat thinks that McGinty should have insisted that he did not have a special private hearing. That would ensure the process was transparent and he would have been seen to be getting the same treatment as others - albiet being interrogated by lawyers who have to rely on McGinty renewing their 5 year contactat the end of this year.

The private hearing smacks of the CCC giving preferential treatment to McGinty. Because of CCC powers, McGinty and Fong can never reveal what they had to say a long as they live. The public will never know the allegations they were asked to answer and we will never know what evidence was was given against them.

The priveleged treatment that McGinty has been afforded by the CCC is obscene when his whole political philosophy is supposedly built on a fair go for all. One law for McGinty and another for the rest.

Crucifixion of Frewer. Credibility of McGinty’s CCC - Shot

The Independent Review of the conduct of Paul Frewer as recommended by the Corruption and Crime Commission has completely exonerated Frewer and can be read here.

In the Desert Rat’s view, the Independent Review reflects poorly on the rigour and methodology of the inquiry by Brigadier Silverstone’s Goon Platoon down at the CCC – an investigation that can now be described as horribly pathetic and amateurish.

Grumpy Jack makes some startling claims about the conduct of the CCC Inquiry including one that the CCC had a tape recording of the Planning Committee meeting which does not fit the picture painted by the CCC. He asks was this tape recording, allegedly in the possession of the CCC, overlooked or deliberately ignored by the investigators.

Grumpy Jack’s forensic analysis can be read here.

The Desert Rat has concluded that the CCC is desperately in need of a full Parliamentary or Judicial Inquiry into its activities. The Burke and Grill crusade is now deteriorating into a farce driven by politics and not by any sense of propriety or justice.

What’s your opinion?