George Pell case is latest black mark for a Labor state of denial

Public confidence in the justice system is critical in a healthy democracy.

In Victoria, following several questionable incidents and peculiar decisions, that public confidence is wavering.

Cardinal George Pell’s legal saga has become a lightning rod for many for the crimes of the Catholic Church and its failure both to hold sexual abusers to account, on one hand, and to support the victims of this abuse on the other.

However, Pell wasn’t on trial for being vicariously liable for his church’s many failings; rather, he was charged and convicted of specific sexual offending, which, in a major embarrassment for the Victorian Court of Appeal, the High Court quashed unanimously.

While courts disagree with each other regularly and the ability to appeal decisions is part of the inherent checks and balances our system affords, it is extremely rare (and humiliating) for a matter of such public importance, that has gone on for so long and cost so much, to be dispensed so quickly and unequivocally.

The decisions of Victoria Police, Director of Public Prosecutions and others to pursue this case so aggressively must now be questioned.

The Premier also must answer as to whether there was any political pressure brought to bear to pursue this case.

The decision to quash Pell’s conviction was the second major embarrassment in as many years wrought on Victoria Police and the Victorian justice system by the High Court.

Its judgment in 2018 to lift the suppression order on Nicola Gobbo’s identity, which described Victoria Police’s decision to get information from Informer 3838 (Lawyer X) as “atrocious” and “reprehensible conduct”, ultim­ately led to the establishment of the Lawyer X (Gobbo) royal commission.

The royal commission itself has now heard hundreds of hours of salacious evidence about the mismanagement and failures of Victoria Police, from the mishandling of police informants with an end-justifies-the-means approach, to more straight forward but nonetheless troubling deficiencies.

These include three chief commissioners not following basic policing discipline by their failure to keep diaries during key periods of the Lawyer X scandal and Victoria Police’s poor document management practices meaning it simply cannot say if they hold relevant evidence or not.

The royal commission also has heard of the close links between the then Labor government and the issues in question at the commission.

Former police minister Bob Cameron approved a multimillion-dollar payment to Gobbo on the advice of Brett Curran, his then chief of staff and now Victoria Police assistant commissioner (and former chief of staff to Premier Daniel Andrews when opposition leader), along with former Victorian government solicitor and now coroner John Cain (son of former Labor premier John Cain).

The outcome of the Lawyer X royal commission and what it has uncovered could be the consequential release from prison of some of the most dangerous criminals from the time of Victoria’s gangland war.

While the community awaits the findings of that royal commission in a few months, many are still scratching their heads at the outcome last year of the “red shirts” rorts saga in which 21 state Labor MPs, including serving senior government ministers, confessed to being part of an elaborate misuse of taxpayer funds.

The rorting scheme, described by the Victorian Ombudsman as an “artifice”, involved the MPs signing off on blank time sheets for Victorian parliament employees who were campaigning for the Labor Party at taxpayer expense in the run-up to the 2014 state election.

The police investigation into this very simple set of facts took more than a year to complete, meaning the outcome wasn’t known until after the 2018 state election, and not a single MP was interviewed (all Labor MPs refused to co-operate with police and none was subpoenaed).

Despite hundreds of pre-signed time sheets, Victoria Police and the DPP (by this time John Cain Jr had been promoted to be solicitor for public prosecutions, running the Office of Public Prosecutions) concluded there was not enough evidence to press charges.

Despite my request, the chief commissioner refused to release any of the advice on which Victoria Police made its decision.

By comparison, respected senior Melbourne QC Gerard Nash concluded in just a matter of days in a 2018 advice provided to the opposition that “the completion of the time sheets in advance of the work done constituted an offence”.

When asked about any of these issues, Andrews, in his typical manner, brushes them off and says “there’s nothing to see here”.

At a time when the parliament has been sidelined indefinitely in an unprecedented way during the COVID-19 crisis, delivering less accountability and record power to the Premier and executive government, it’s even more critical that the legal system be, and be seen, as a pillar of independence, liberty and a check on that power. Sadly, there are now many in the community who have lost faith in elements of our legal system.

As a Liberal, I deeply believe in the institutions that make our democracy strong and our freedoms robust. However, no person or institution is above critique, and must all be open to scrutiny, in the interests of the community.

The Andrews and Labor approach of turning a blind eye is no longer good enough given the enormous issues facing our justice system. While we wait for the findings of the royal commission, the 7-0 decision of the highest court in the land in the Pell case suggests it’s time Labor moved past its state of denial.

Edward O’Donohue is Victoria’s opposition legal affairs spokesman.