Last week, this column took note of the Barnett government’s attempt to introduce legislation removing “reasonable cause” provisions from laws governing the police’s stop ‘n’ search powers. Watching a democratically elected government use democratic freedoms as bonfire fuel is bad enough … but watching the Opposition fumble the ball on opposing them is simply excruciating.
Shadow Attorney-General John Quigley has been slapped with a gag from Labor leader Eric Ripper, after calling the Bill “fascist” last week. Quigley is a man who knows a thing or two about WA coppers’ need to be held accountable. After a legal career often spent in court defending members of the Police Union, Quigley and investigative journalist Colleen Egan secured the high-profile release from jail of one Andrew Mallard after he had spent 12 years in prison for the murder of Perth jeweller Pamela Lawrence.
In the subsequent public furore, it was revealed (among other things) that the mentally ill Mallard had been plied with marijuana by an undercover officer, bullied and threatened under interrogation and had evidence withheld from his defence team. Charges are now pending against senior police and DPP personnel for their conduct in the case, and an exonerated Mallard received a $3.75 million ex gratia payment from the state government in May.
So with that background behind him, you’d think that anyone with half a brain could see Quigley’s unique suitability to comment on laws pertaining to police accountability. Yet when it comes to policy, political and media issues, Ripper has proved that assumption spectacularly wrong.
Quigley’s been told to cease and desist commenting on the laws, and instead hand responsibility for Labor’s defence of fundamental civil liberties to the Shadow Police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk. This the same Margaret Quirk who, as a minister, ignored three years’ worth of departmental and independent reports of the disgusting treatment of Aboriginal prisoners in remote WA by contractor GSL with fatal consequences. Aboriginal elder Mr Ward died when he was literally cooked to death in the prison van used to transport him from Laverton to Kalgoorlie.
Quirk’s response when queried on this point by the ABC’s Four Corners program was as pathetic as it was illuminating;
LIZ JACKSON: Why, why I mean you, you’ve told me that you’re aware that a prison administrator said he was waiting for a death to happen, you’ve told me you were aware that there was an urgent need to replace the fleet, and yet when it comes before cabinet in a boom time the request for money gets knocked back.
MARGARET QUIRK: Well I’ve thought about this in hindsight, ah um the, ah the fact that so much of this is recurring in remote regions of Western Australia means that maybe people weren’t aware of the um, issue as acutely as I was …
JACKSON: But it’s your job to make your cabinet colleagues aware of that.
QUIRK: Well yes but I’m one of 15 and no one personally ever said to me that there was likely to be a death in the van.
JACKSON: Well by 2007, you were aware of that, because Professor Harding had produced his report and he said that it was the situation with the air-conditioning breaking down was a potentially life-threatening situation, so you were (aware).
QUIRK: Well the report had a range of recommendations in it … and ah … the state’s north-west.
In simple terms, the WA ALP has to formulate and politically sell a public and policy position on excess police powers. So it’s gagged a Shadow A-G with experience and public credibility in judicial and police failure, and interchanged him for a minister of questionable value.
If the WA ALP was serious about governing again, Margaret Quirk wouldn’t even be in the Parliament, instead she’d be browsing the job ads. Questionable competence in government is one thing. But having a man die on your watch? What about ministerial accountability?
Yet Ripper and his brainstrust think she’s an appropriate MP, shadow police spokeperson and potential minister.
Now, more than ever, WA needs capable, effective and forceful Opposition. At the very least, it needs an Opposition that can challenge the Barnett government on its erosion of fundamental individual protections and civil liberties. And what are we getting? Spineless, clueless, and directionless dross, bereft of basic strategic insight and morally bankrupt.
WA Labor deserve nothing but contempt.
Good article. We’re due for a state election next year in SA and the law and order auction is well underway. The firm belief among party strategists on all sides is that there are a hell of a lot more votes in tough-on-crime rhetoric than civil liberties. Accordingly, politicians behave like politicians, so the outcome becomes inevitable. On the other hand, history suggests that public opinion on this is cyclical and generations of reform follow generations of overkill.
This article highlights the total incompetence of Ripper as a leader. As long as he is in charge of the Opposition they are doomed to be just that. It shows the pathetically weak state of the lineup, with a couple of exceptions, noone with the talent or the guts to standup and tap Ripper on the shoulder. Labor in WA should have sorted out their leadership problems long before now, however it appears they have given up winning at least the next election. Carpenter has done a Howard on them, with no prospective Moses to take them out of the wilderness
Totally agree. I wasn’t really aware that this was what Barnett was up to and I doubt that our pathetic excuse for a daily newspaper will create much of an outcry. I note that Barnett is also wanting to repeal provisions to do with the marijuana laws despite the fact that there is no evidence that the relaxation under the former govt. has led to any problems.
In both cases it is the worst kind of law making, no problem exists yet a class of people will be criminalised. Still it’s the West and it doesn’t take grass to make them all dopey …
Dave,
The ALP is particularly vulnerable to this sort of thinking, because traditionally it’s been painted as soft on crime. So while in government, the Carrs, Beatties and Ranns all decided that there was great wedge politics to be had by out-flanking the Liberals on the right when it came to whacking villains. And it worked, too – the Left stayed quiet while the conservatives looked bewildered.
The problems comes when you’re in opposition; what do you do then? You don’t have the authority of office with which to cloak draconian legislation in pomp and circumstance, so you either say the Emperor has no clothes or you play along. And either way, you get terrible laws as a result.
Raymond,
The core problem with Ripper is the same as the core problem was with Carpenter. Neither ever developed a coherent philosophy aroiund which you could build a strategy, so they lurch from issue to issue, annoying everyone in sight and looking rudderless.
Philosophy’s a dirty word in modern politics. But you do need a semblance of it to at least appear consistent. As Carps ‘doing a Moses’ on the ALP though, well, Carps couldn’t lead a flock of homing pigeons…and the WA ALP wouildn’t want his style of “leadership” again any more than they want a hot poker in the nether regions.
Patrick,
There are a whole raft of laws that the Barnett government has changed or is changing, aimed at eroding personal freedom and individual rights. And it’s getting away with it, because the ALP has no cogent answer…due the problems I pointed out above. No strategy and no philosophical basis.
Ripper’s a competent manager, but a poor strategist and a worse politician.
Is there any chance that the preamble to the Federation be revisited? NZ didn’t join and WA was only bribed by the rail link. Is it possible that they’ll just go away and stop embarassing the rest of us?