Webb has many enemies and they will not stop until they topple her

When a senior public servant is lurching from controversy to controversy, any misstep can explode into a full-blown crisis. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s failure to declare that she had a long-standing friendship with the supplier of taxpayer-funded gin proves that.

Webb was on Wednesday cleared by the police watchdog of any serious misconduct after an anonymous complaint was made accusing her of a conflict of interest over her purchase of 50 bottles of Commissioner’s Gin to hand out as gifts to visiting dignitaries.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb faces enemies within. Credit: Louise Kennerley

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission found she followed the rules but highlighted that she should have declared that she was mates with the supplier.

Her predecessor Mick Fuller had already used that supplier – Michael Hope from Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley. And when Webb’s turn came, she did not declare her friendship with him.

It was not the most egregious mistake but when you are being hunted by your own – both current and former high-ranking members of the force – any error is pounced on and weaponised. And this is Webb’s biggest threat. There is a well-organised group determined to end her.

Webb is a commissioner under fire. She has enjoyed a period of relative calm as she aptly handled the horrific Bondi Junction stabbings and the Wakeley priest attack in western Sydney. But she had endured waves of unrelenting criticism before those events.

In May last year, Webb was slammed for her failure to not front the media after 95-year-old nursing home resident Clare Nowland was Tasered by a police officer and later died.

In March this year, Webb was defending her position after not addressing the public early enough after Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot and killed couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a Paddington home, using his police pistol. Ducking the media in a crisis involving her own staff was becoming a recurring theme for Webb.

And then her choice of new media adviser, designed to improve her lacking communication skills, backfired spectacularly. Webb planned to appoint former Spotlight producer Steve Jackson to the role, before facing a barrage of criticism that the veteran journalist was highly unsuitable for the role. She ultimately terminated his contract before he even started.

Webb is the first female police commissioner in NSW. The NSW Police Force remains blokey, highly political and deeply divided.

Webb was also going to come under increased scrutiny, possibly because of gender, but also her lower public profile and relationship with the media, which is vastly different to that of Fuller, who was close to radio kings Ben Fordham and Ray Hadley (who work for Nine Entertainment, which also owns this masthead), as well as Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph.

Fuller also took advantage of the alcohol as gifts policy, ordering $85 bottles of shiraz from Hope Estate. Yet, it is Webb who is dealing with the fallout from spending taxpayers’ money on wine and spirits. The gin will not kill her but her enemies will.

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