The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, 15th May 2002, 2002
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1. State of corruption
New laws in NSW allow police officers with sniffer dogs to patrol train
carriages throughout Sydney's metropolitan rail network. They will range as
far as the trains running to Nowra and Newcastle, with plans to extend their
patrols to other train services. These new police powers have been joined on
the books by new legislation passed last week that dumps the fundamental
legal right of the assumption of innocence.
By Marcus Browning
The sniffer dogs and their handlers will be invading people's privacy based
on the assumption they are carrying an illegal substance. Both sets of new
laws are just the latest developments in the law and order strategy of a
government bristling with arrogance and contempt for the people of NSW. The
fear factor generated by them is meant also to boost Carr's re-election
chances in the poll due next year.
Cameron Murphy, of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, put it bluntly. "We
are moving towards a police state." He noted the contradiction in the
sniffer dog powers. "What they're doing clearly is targeting people at the
bottom end of the drug pyramid, people who are users.
"It means someone carrying a small amount of cannabis on a suburban train
will be picked up, while the dealer driving around the North Shore in his
BMW is not going to be affected at all."
That hits the nail on the head: there is the hypocrisy that characterises
the Carr Government. It is hypocrisy born of corruption and ruthless
disregard for people's rights. In such a world, profound statements of moral
fortitude and highblown principles are merely a smokescreen to cover up
dirty deals and collusive practices.
Intent on fueling the prison industry, new legislation, which passed into
law last week, will make access to bail for people with previous offences
conditional on the accused proving his/her innocence. The Government
predicts that, as a result, the state's prison population will increase by
25 percent.
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said NSW was now a strong contender for the title
"Prison State" following the passage of the Bail Bill, and warned that many
innocent people will be locked up under its draconian statutes.
"Indigenous people will suffer the most because the bill puts the burden of
proof against them so their counsel, who are often community lawyers, will
have to prove a watertight case for bail", said Ms Rhiannon.
"The Greens believe this bill goes against the whole thrust of the Royal
Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Premier Carr is holding this
State to financial ransom with his lock-'em up election."
And what of the law enforcers themselves, and the Ministers supposedly
ensuring the accountability of their activities? Currently at the NSW Police
Integrity Commission inquiry into corruption in the police force, one
officer after another owns up and rolls over. It is an endless queue.
The list of corrupt officers is long because the corruption is systemic,
i.e. deep and entrenched, permeating every level of government, all the way
to the top echelon.
As such three of Carr's righteous guardians -- including the Police
Minister -- last week were mentioned in relation to a corruption scandal in
Rockdale Council, in Sydney's south.
Investigating claims of bribe-taking by Rockdale councillors, the
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), was told that Police
Minister Michael Costa was at a function where councillors were taking
bribes from developers.
Naturally Costa went into denial -- "I have nothing to do with this."
(Special Minister for State John Della Bosca and Deputy Premier Andrew
Refshauge have also issued denials).
Costa tried to brush it off as "councillors big-noting themselves by
dropping the names of prominent Ministers". He also claimed he was at the
function only because it was a "Greek Labor dinner". In fact it was an ALP
function organised by his right-wing Labor mates. Interestingly it was a
developer, Con Chartofillis, who named Costa in the ICAC inquiry.
Carr decided that bluster and insults would be a nice contrast next to
Costa's outright denial (elements of good-cop-bad-cop here). "Grubby local
councillors who tout for bribes for development applications are in my view
the scum of the earth and they ought to be frogmarched out of local
government", Carr told Parliament.
Costa, after all, is Carr's boy, fast-tracked to Police Minister from the
right-wing clique that controls the Trades and Labor Council.
What Carr wants us to believe is that his right-wing Labor faction is
somehow different and not connected to those members from that same faction
who the Party machine gets elected to local councils.
Rockdale Labor councillor Adam McCormick and Liberal Rockdale councillor
Andrew Smyrnis admit they colluded in order to get support for the proposed
developments from the majority Labor Rockdale councillors.
Following the revelations, both major parties have scrambled to protect
their privileged positions and dominance of Parliament, Liberal and Labor
vowing to punish transgressing local councillors.
But there is another agenda here: Carr is to introduce legislation (with
Liberal support of course) to amend the Local Government Act so as to allow
the Government to sack a council deemed corrupt and appoint an administrator
in its place.
That will place enormous power in the hands of the government of the day
over democratically elected local governments. Fact is, the most effective
way to address corrupt practices in local councils would be to go to the
root of the problem and end Liberal and Labor dominance of them.
The major parties see councils as power bases where they can fire up a gravy
train to give themselves and their big business mates a free ride at the
expense of the ratepayers of local communities.
Perhaps the answer would be to train sniffer dogs to detect the smell of
corruption -- but they'd be rendered unconscious within a kilometre of the
stench emanating from NSW Parliament.
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