Fitzgerald Inquiry Queensland: Whistleblower Nigel Powell reveals role

THIS former cop tried several times to get his story about corruption heard. What he saw and did while operating inside the licensing branch helped kick off the state’s biggest-ever political storm. READ HIS LETTER

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JUST before Christmas ’86, I was living in Highgate Hill on Austudy still trying to make sense of my life after resigning about a year before from the Queensland Police Force.

For a few days with some close friends I’d gone down to the most easterly point of Australia, Cape Byron. In those days it didn’t require a small bank loan to rent a house at Wategos Beach.

After a few glasses of wine one night, the conversation flowed to my experiences of policing, both in Birmingham in the UK and in Queensland, with a bit of an emphasis on my three years in the Queensland Police Licensing Branch.

I knew I was in safe hands and was probably a bit more expansive than usual. I was, however, still somewhat ruled by my two years as a police prosecutor. I felt shackled and somewhat frustrated by what I thought was my lack of direct evidence of any corruption.

Fitzgerald years in pictures

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Good people, sea air, perhaps the red, and I resolved to try again to find a way to get the information I did know into some forum where it might be looked at seriously.

Whistleblower Nigel Powell. Picture: Annette Dew

A couple of weeks or so later on Monday the 12th of January 1987, an article appeared in The Courier-Mail. Essentially, it revisited and highlighted the lack of action on information provided by a 1985 official inquiry into sexual offences against children which had included a coded analysis of part of the vice scene in southeast Queensland. I knew I could add a lot more information.

Three problems: I’d spent the last 12 months expecting further action against me now that I no longer had the “protection” of the uniform. Even for the troglodytes among the crooked cops, organising a BYO exhibits raid was relatively easy. If I went public the precautions I had put in place might not help. I trusted few people and the ones I did would not have been much use in dealing with bent police.

Second, as a police officer I had never viewed any section of the media with anything other than wariness.

Finally, the article had no byline so I couldn’t even research the bona fides of the writer. Impelled by the timing, I tried to get some legal back-up and in the meantime called the Courier’s office only to be told the writer, Phil Dickie, was on holiday.

Did I want to speak to another reporter? I agreed to speak to Phil Hammond who rapidly suggested we talk in the canteen, which we did for two to three hours.

He took copious notes but looked a bit concerned and tired at the end, explaining that with a story like this he would have to talk to the editor. Could I perhaps also write it down in my own words, then he would contact me. I pretty quickly got a 12-page letter together and delivered it.

A few days later he called saying, “They’re not interested. Did I want him to pass it to The Sunday Mail? I agreed and it had the same result.

A few days passed and I was called by Phil Dickie and arranged to meet him. I learnt that Chris Masters and a crew from the ABC’s Four Corners program were in Brisbane and unknown to either Phil or myself had been working on the story since September 1986. Through a third party I arranged to meet Chris and I met Phil.

Then the whirlwind of activity that helped start the Fitzgerald inquiry began.