Minister ducks OPI questions

VICTORIA'S Police Minister and Chief Commissioner yesterday dodged questions on the police corruption watchdog at a parliamentary committee hearing.

VICTORIA'S Police Minister and Chief Commissioner yesterday dodged questions about the state's embattled police corruption watchdog as a parliamentary committee hearing descended into a farcical shouting match.

The Labor-controlled public accounts and estimates committee stopped both Bob Cameron and Simon Overland from directly answering questions by the opposition about the effectiveness of the Office of Police Integrity and a need for an independent inquiry into police corruption.

Amid howls and accusations of "cover-up" and "railroading" witnesses, committee chairman Bob Stensholt ruled the questions were not related to the purpose of the estimates hearing and Mr Cameron and Mr Overland did not have to directly answer them.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Kim Wells presented an affidavit written by Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius in 2007, which stated that an operation into suspected police involvement in an underworld killing might "reawaken calls for a royal commission". He asked Mr Cameron why the government had ignored concerns coming from police command for a royal commission.

He also said that the OPI prosecution of former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby was "one of the greatest debacles in years".

"We are funding this agency (the OPI) for $26 million a year and all we get are cover-ups."

Before Mr Cameron answered, Mr Stensholt interceded and told Mr Cameron to answer the question only in relation to the budget.

"Minister . . . your answer needs to relate to the estimates, not something that has happened in the past," Mr Stensholt said. "There are other places to raise these issues."

The dramatic collapse of the OPI against case Mr Ashby and former police association boss Paul Mullet has put the police watchdog under intense scrutiny. Phillip Priest QC, the lawyer who successfully defended Mr Ashby against perjury charges, has described the behaviour of OPI investigators as "corrupt" and called for a judicial inquiry.

A series of revelations by The Australian has exposed how an OPI investigator entered Mr Ashby's office late at night without a warrant and copied his diary, and a belief among senior homicide investigators in 2007 that the OPI might have been responsible for a series of "catastrophic" leaks about a murder probe.

The OPI investigators who questioned Mr Ashby are accused of giving preferential treatment to former assistant commissioner Leigh Gassner in related hearings and helping him to "mould" his evidence against Mr Ashby.

Mr Cameron yesterday defended the OPI director, Michael Strong. "Michael is a man of enormous integrity and he is going about his business accordingly."