By Heath Aston Political reporter Date May 20 2012
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| Police Minister Mike Gallacher ... the Police Association, at its recent
conference, called on the minister to order the "direct release of the
report of Task Force Emblems". Photo: Max Mason-Hubers |
THE inspector of the Police Integrity Commission will face questions
tomorrow about why a report into a secret operation to bug more than 100
of the force's own officers has remained buried for a decade.
David Levine, QC, the inspector of PIC, will front a
parliamentary committee at State Parliament and will be asked about the
status of the report into Strike Force Emblems.
Emblems investigated an internal affairs operation in which a
former corrupt policeman, codenamed M5, used a listening device to
gather evidence against colleagues in 2000. More than 100 police
officers and some civilians, including a lawyer and a journalist, were
approved as targets for surveillance. But there have been questions over
the legitimacy of the warrants approving M5's targets.
The Sun-Herald understands one officer on the list was already dead.
Operation Mascot, led by former internal affairs chief Mal Brammer
and his assistant, Sergeant Catherine Burn, now a deputy commissioner,
targeted some of the force's brightest and best.
Senior police such as Nick Kaldas - a current deputy
commissioner - were on the warrants, as were the former commander of
Taskforce Gain, Bob Inkster, and Mike Hagan, Brian Harding and Dennis
Gilligan, now a lawyer. No one has been told why they were under
surveillance.
The Police Association, at its recent conference, called on
the Police Minister, Mike Gallacher, to order the ''direct release of
the report of Task Force Emblems''.
Catherine Cusack, the Liberal MP who chairs the statutory
committee on the Office of the Ombudsman and the PIC, said she was keen
to get an answer on Emblems from Mr Devine, who has asked to take at
least some of the hearing in-camera.
''We will have a lot of questions about the report,'' she
said. ''For committee proceedings, the onus is always in favour of
public disclosure.''
Mr Gallacher, who asked for the report to be made public
while in opposition, has now referred it to Mr Levine, despite the PIC
watchdog having already reviewed it in April 2002.
A spokesman for Mr Gallacher said he was committed to
resolving the concerns without compromising ''sensitive police
operations''. He said the government had already given the new PIC
inspector powers to release reports such as Emblems.
''These powers were not available to the PIC inspector who
previously examined the matter of the warrants. The minister did not
think it appropriate to order the release of sensitive investigations
himself. It should be properly reviewed by the appropriate authority.''
