Gary,
My impression is that the Victorian Police and the Victorian Labor Government do not want an independent wide-ranging judicial inquiry into police corruption, such as was had in Queensland and NSW.

Why so? They know that it would reveal what they don't want revealed--- Victoria's police force is riddled with deep-seated and continuing corruption that needs to be cleaned out. It's a big task.

Nan,
the political reality is that police corruption in Victoria has become the elephant in the room that everyone is trying their hardest to ignore. The powerful Victorian Police Association has been a strident critic of the watchdog.

An independent, broad-based, standing corruption commission is what is resisted by the Bracks, and now the Brumby state Government. However, the dramatic testimony and the playing of secret recordings of telephone conversations have cast serious doubt over the Victorian Government's repeated claims that police corruption is under control and there is no need for a royal commission.

Gary,

It would be entirely appropriate if that Mullett dude's first name was Blind. Similar stuff is going on again here in Qld, though not as blatantly as it used to. The police union close ranks whenever one of their own is caught out, bully idealistic newcomers until they either submit or leave, and hold the state government to ransom with strike threats.

Victoria does need a good flushing, but there will always be a floater somewhere, prepared to rise the minute you turn your back.

Don't you folk feel that the psychological boil burst with the bucket dropping on this high ranking bloke, Ashby?
I wonder if we are not just seeing the final residual core drawn out from stuff that was at its peak between the mid nineties and mid noughties.
These antics involving police cultures invariably fester for years, until enough
mistakes are made for those involved to have revealed their hands ( a bit like the Howard or any government, after a real long time stuff cumulatively "catches up" ).
Enough of the truth is now known and enough honest people alerted, for this to be the cleaning up phase rather than being at the beginning of this particular cycle; they are now regularly reaching up to the top of the food chain after the last couple of years.

Lyn,
Hugh Selby,who headed the Victorian Police Complaints Authority from 1986 to 1988, says in the Age that the police message to politicians has long been, "Do what we want and we'll give you the political points you want. Oppose us at your peril."

Lyn,
I see that Victoria Police media director Stephen Linnell has resigned and admitted giving information about a corruption inquiry to a colleague.

Another one down. Now for Paul Mullet,the police union boss.

Gary,

It doesn't make much sense to me. Surely the first politician to show the will to do something regardless of threats would earn big brownie points with people?

On the other hand, I imagine anyone who did would be endangering their own lives and probably the careers of some of their fellow politicians. What a mess.