Victoria Police royal commission: Lawyer X inquiry outlook widened

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews says the Lawyer X royal commission will take a broad look at the use of informants.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announcing the royal commission earlier this month, with Police Minister Lisa Neville, left, and Attorney-General Jill Hennessy. Picture: AAP

Premier Daniel Andrews says the Lawyer X royal commission will take a broad look at Victoria Police’s use of informants, going beyond the case of the lawyer at the centre of the investigation.

Mr Andrews said yesterday he expected to name commissioners and terms of reference “quite soon”, with the focus on appointing people with “some distance” from the Victorian criminal justice system.

The Andrews government announced the inquiry last week after High Court and Court of Appeal judgments were made public, revealing Victoria Police’s two-year, $4.52 million court battle to try to keep secret its use of a defence lawyer as a registered informant.

“There are essentially three key tasks to complete: how many people are in fact affected, how many convictions are unsafe becaus­e of the practices that went on in terms of (Lawyer X), secondly what changes need to be made in terms of culture and practice around the management of human sources,” Mr Andrew­s said.

“That’s not limited just to this instance. It’s a broader remit than that. And thirdly, what advice can a royal commission give us on a process to deal with clemency claims, as well as any compensation that might be sought.

“Those three areas are divid­ed into two parts. The first will have to report before July 1, and the second and third areas will be dealt with by December 1.”

Asked whether the government intended to announce the two royal commissioners and the inquiry’s terms of reference this week, Mr Andrews would only say he expected to make an announcement “quite soon”.

“And the reason I say that is that to find the right people — and I think you all appreciate that some distance away from the Victorian criminal justice system is a very important part of this — we’ve been working very hard,” the Premier said.

“We’re very close to making some announcements, but the other thing too is as a courtesy and in order to get the right outcome­, the proper outcome, you need to make sure that there’s a bit of an iterative proces­s between draft terms of reference and what the royal commissioners think is abso­lutely necessary, so that work is ongoing and we’ll have some ­announcements to make.”

Mr Andrews declined to say whether the $4.52m spent by Victoria Police to try to keep the use of Lawyer X suppressed was money well spent.

“There were a number of appeal­s that were motivated (accordin­g to Victoria Police) … in the first instance in terms of the safety of the person involved and that person’s children,” he said. “The key point here is that what went on shouldn’t have. What went on was completely unacceptable.

“We need to have this royal commission and we will.”

Asked to respond to calls from retired barrister Peter Faris QC for Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton to resign due to his role at the Offic­e of Police Integrity when Lawyer X was engaged as an inform­ant, Mr Andrews said Mr Ashton had his full confidence.

“He’s doing a very important job and he’s doing it well.”