SMH Breaking News Tuesday, March 9, 1999 Carr unlocks secret police files A vault containing secret files on citizens kept by the disbanded police Special Branch was unlocked today by the New South Wales Government. Premier Bob Carr said members of the public could read the files under freedom of information laws where they were kept in a basement vault of a police building in Sydney. The 58,000 files on journalists, politicians and other citizens were seized in 1997 after the Special Branch was discredited by the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Opening the vault today, Mr Carr pulled out a file on a protest group called Women Behind Bars which had demonstrated outside the State Office Block in 1980. Mr Carr told reporters it was wrong that a file had been kept on the activists. "People ought to be able to do what you can in a democracy - stand outside a government building or a courthouse with a protest sign without having their names recorded by people pretending they are Special Branch agents in the FBI," he said. Mr Carr said the files pre-dated the Cold War and were often kept by police who took it on themselves to monitor dissident activity. "I imagine they were some sort of tin-pot ASIO," he said referring to the national intelligence service. Individuals can apply for their file at a reduced rate of $15 but will have to pay $30 after 12 months. Mr Carr also announced a three-year independent audit of the police service. The audit will report on reforms to the police service and advise on ways to make changes to it. Hay Group Pty Ltd won a tender for the audit and it would be supervised by the Police Integrity Commission. - Australian Associated Press This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
