I demonstrated in The Most Dangerous Detective that a royal commission had rorted its investigation of the Federal Narcotics Bureau. Here are fresh insights on the scandal.
Former Narcotics Bureau chief Harvey Bates has died but his frank testimony about the bureau's battle with the corrupt Williams Royal Commission into Drugs in the late 1970s can be told for the first time.
Bates says he was attacked for three and a half days in 1978 by counsel assisting the commission, Cedric Hampson QC, "...in an attempt to undermine my credibility."
The attack took place in a secret session but Bates reveals what happened in a lengthy interview for the National Library on the proviso it was only released after his death.
In 1979 the battle would intensify as the bureau sought to investigate corrupt Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis while the commission was intent on closing the bureau.
Bates recounts how Hampson accused him of changing his testimony from the previous day."I said I had not and he said I had...I said to our barrister 'I am not going to continue. I am being called here a liar and I want the previous day's transcript brought in and I want it read out'...
"...when it was brought in it was exactly as I'd said...It was clearly, in my mind, an attempt to turn around some of the evidence that I had given."
A concerted attempt to discredit a man with a blameless record was in stark contrast to the commission's deferential treatment of Lewis despite facing organised crime allegations.
Bates recalled that there had been a joint operation between the bureau and Queensland Police on the Sunshine Coast. Police evidence to the commission contradicted bureau evidence.
In the joint operation bureau officers had found drugs taped behind a picture. But the police report said the drugs had been found in the pocket of a man in the house and he had been charged.
Bates says he was stunned when the commissioner Sir Edward Williams, a supreme court judge, "said he was seriously considering having the bureau officers charged with perjury. He was satisfied that the Queensland state police evidence was correct."
Not to be intimidated, Bates sent a senior officer to discover exactly what had happened. The officer discovered a woman had been one of several people present during the raid and traced her to Darwin.where she was living with her mother. She had been "totally traumatised by the fact that...she'd been stripped naked by male police officers."
She said there "had been a fair amount of hard treatment handed out to several people" and that, indeed, it had been bureau officers who had found the drugs and that after they had gone, police alleged they had found the drugs in the man's pocket. She had told her mother this on arriving in Darwin."
Bates says: "What we did, we flew her and her mother from Darwin to Brisbane and through our barrister sought leave for them to appear before the commission.
"Again, this was not met with a great deal of pleasure. However, we insisted and they gave their evidence. At the conclusion of it our barrister asked (Williams) what action was proposed, not only in relation to the statement that he had made in terms of possible charges of perjury but what action would be taken in relation to opening up the inquiry as to whether or not there was a person in jail who ought not be in jail - bearing in mind at that stage Cedric Hampson was chairman of the Bar Council.
"...basically, the commissioner felt that the evidence given by the female did not conclusively support the statements of the Narcotics Bureau officers..."
This was typical of the Commission's attitude in siding with a Queensland police force riddled with corruption against the bureau and its witnesses.
There were further instances of the bureau and its representatives being attacked by Hampson and Williams.
Bates recalled that in mid-1979 former Queensland Police Commissioner Ray Whitrod had briefed the bureau that Queensland Police Commissioner Lewis, CIB chief Tony Murphy and former detective Glen Hallahan were involved in "organised criminal activity".
So, unknown by the public until now, for several months Queensland's police commissioner and the head of its criminal investigation branch were placed under surveillance by the narcotics bureau.
On September 5 1979 Bates sent a confidential briefing note to the minister responsible for the bureau, Wal Fife, saying: "Minister, I understand that the Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drugs is currently finalising an Interim Report in which it is proposed that the Narcotics Bureau form part of the Federal police force…I envisage that the Government will have little alternative but to accept the proposal."
The commission was labelling the bureau "inept" but on September 10, after a superbly led eight-month bureau investigation by senior agent John Shobbrook, John Milligan, a major heroin importer, was arrested.
The case was so strong that Milligan provided evidence he had been bankrolled by Hallahan, and alleged Lewis and Murphy were leaders of organised crime.
(Milligan went on to be sentenced to 18 years in jail after pleading guilty.)
It became a race against time. Could the bureau compile a case against Lewis and Murphy before Williams and Hampson recommended the bureau's disbandment and the Fraser Government acted on the recommendation?
Fife's ministerial papers note that on September 17, a week after Milligan's arrest, Bates sent a secret minute to him telling him the Queensland Police Force and Commonwealth Police had “figured significantly” in “direct attacks” on the bureau.
Bates wrote that Lewis and Murphy had "extensive contacts in most areas of law enforcement through which they can manipulate or control investigative activities."
The very next day Williams handed his report recommending the disbandment of the bureau to the Governor General who forwarded it to Prime Minister Fraser.
Department head Tim Besley told Minister Fife: "I have to say I am disturbed at the apparent connection between the Royal Commission and the Queensland Police."
On November 1 Fife told Prime Minister Fraser there would be an ongoing investigation of the allegations against Lewis and Murphy by the bureau.
It was believed in senior government circles that it could be close to Christmas before the bureau's future would be decided.
But three days after Fraser had been told Queensland's police chief could well be leading organised crime, Parliament was told the bureau was being disbanded with immediate effect. Even Fife had been in the dark.
Analysis of the transcript of commission hearings shows a clear agenda to downplay evidence against Lewis, Murphy and Hallahan and to denigrate bureau testimony..
The Commission reported in 1980 the allegations against Lewis, Murphy and Hallahan were "baseless and untrue".
It was the best part of another decade before Lewis's criminality was exposed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which also recorded there had been undisputed evidence of Murphy accepting bribes.
END
Footnote: The Bates interview was conducted by Terry Colhoun AM, former ABC station manager, in 1997. Terry, now aged 100, told me: "I'd known Harvey since childhood and he was as straight as you can get."
Former Narcotics Bureau chief Harvey Bates has died but his frank testimony about the bureau's battle with the corrupt Williams Royal Commission into Drugs in the late 1970s can be told for the first time.
Bates says he was attacked for three and a half days in 1978 by counsel assisting the commission, Cedric Hampson QC, "...in an attempt to undermine my credibility."
The attack took place in a secret session but Bates reveals what happened in a lengthy interview for the National Library on the proviso it was only released after his death.
In 1979 the battle would intensify as the bureau sought to investigate corrupt Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis while the commission was intent on closing the bureau.
Bates recounts how Hampson accused him of changing his testimony from the previous day."I said I had not and he said I had...I said to our barrister 'I am not going to continue. I am being called here a liar and I want the previous day's transcript brought in and I want it read out'...
"...when it was brought in it was exactly as I'd said...It was clearly, in my mind, an attempt to turn around some of the evidence that I had given."
A concerted attempt to discredit a man with a blameless record was in stark contrast to the commission's deferential treatment of Lewis despite facing organised crime allegations.
Bates recalled that there had been a joint operation between the bureau and Queensland Police on the Sunshine Coast. Police evidence to the commission contradicted bureau evidence.
In the joint operation bureau officers had found drugs taped behind a picture. But the police report said the drugs had been found in the pocket of a man in the house and he had been charged.
Bates says he was stunned when the commissioner Sir Edward Williams, a supreme court judge, "said he was seriously considering having the bureau officers charged with perjury. He was satisfied that the Queensland state police evidence was correct."
Not to be intimidated, Bates sent a senior officer to discover exactly what had happened. The officer discovered a woman had been one of several people present during the raid and traced her to Darwin.where she was living with her mother. She had been "totally traumatised by the fact that...she'd been stripped naked by male police officers."
She said there "had been a fair amount of hard treatment handed out to several people" and that, indeed, it had been bureau officers who had found the drugs and that after they had gone, police alleged they had found the drugs in the man's pocket. She had told her mother this on arriving in Darwin."
Bates says: "What we did, we flew her and her mother from Darwin to Brisbane and through our barrister sought leave for them to appear before the commission.
"Again, this was not met with a great deal of pleasure. However, we insisted and they gave their evidence. At the conclusion of it our barrister asked (Williams) what action was proposed, not only in relation to the statement that he had made in terms of possible charges of perjury but what action would be taken in relation to opening up the inquiry as to whether or not there was a person in jail who ought not be in jail - bearing in mind at that stage Cedric Hampson was chairman of the Bar Council.
"...basically, the commissioner felt that the evidence given by the female did not conclusively support the statements of the Narcotics Bureau officers..."
This was typical of the Commission's attitude in siding with a Queensland police force riddled with corruption against the bureau and its witnesses.
There were further instances of the bureau and its representatives being attacked by Hampson and Williams.
Bates recalled that in mid-1979 former Queensland Police Commissioner Ray Whitrod had briefed the bureau that Queensland Police Commissioner Lewis, CIB chief Tony Murphy and former detective Glen Hallahan were involved in "organised criminal activity".
So, unknown by the public until now, for several months Queensland's police commissioner and the head of its criminal investigation branch were placed under surveillance by the narcotics bureau.
On September 5 1979 Bates sent a confidential briefing note to the minister responsible for the bureau, Wal Fife, saying: "Minister, I understand that the Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drugs is currently finalising an Interim Report in which it is proposed that the Narcotics Bureau form part of the Federal police force…I envisage that the Government will have little alternative but to accept the proposal."
The commission was labelling the bureau "inept" but on September 10, after a superbly led eight-month bureau investigation by senior agent John Shobbrook, John Milligan, a major heroin importer, was arrested.
The case was so strong that Milligan provided evidence he had been bankrolled by Hallahan, and alleged Lewis and Murphy were leaders of organised crime.
(Milligan went on to be sentenced to 18 years in jail after pleading guilty.)
It became a race against time. Could the bureau compile a case against Lewis and Murphy before Williams and Hampson recommended the bureau's disbandment and the Fraser Government acted on the recommendation?
Fife's ministerial papers note that on September 17, a week after Milligan's arrest, Bates sent a secret minute to him telling him the Queensland Police Force and Commonwealth Police had “figured significantly” in “direct attacks” on the bureau.
Bates wrote that Lewis and Murphy had "extensive contacts in most areas of law enforcement through which they can manipulate or control investigative activities."
The very next day Williams handed his report recommending the disbandment of the bureau to the Governor General who forwarded it to Prime Minister Fraser.
Department head Tim Besley told Minister Fife: "I have to say I am disturbed at the apparent connection between the Royal Commission and the Queensland Police."
On November 1 Fife told Prime Minister Fraser there would be an ongoing investigation of the allegations against Lewis and Murphy by the bureau.
It was believed in senior government circles that it could be close to Christmas before the bureau's future would be decided.
But three days after Fraser had been told Queensland's police chief could well be leading organised crime, Parliament was told the bureau was being disbanded with immediate effect. Even Fife had been in the dark.
Analysis of the transcript of commission hearings shows a clear agenda to downplay evidence against Lewis, Murphy and Hallahan and to denigrate bureau testimony..
The Commission reported in 1980 the allegations against Lewis, Murphy and Hallahan were "baseless and untrue".
It was the best part of another decade before Lewis's criminality was exposed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which also recorded there had been undisputed evidence of Murphy accepting bribes.
END
Footnote: The Bates interview was conducted by Terry Colhoun AM, former ABC station manager, in 1997. Terry, now aged 100, told me: "I'd known Harvey since childhood and he was as straight as you can get."
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