State of corruption
by Marcus Browning 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. 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.