Independent Commission Against Corruption claims Liberal NSW Premier O'Farrell's scalp

NSW Premier and Liberal Party MP Barry O’Farrell denied receiving a $3,000 bottle of Penfold's Grange Hermitage wine on or about 20 April 2011, from long-time Liberal Party member and then Australian Water Holdings CEO Nick Di Girolamo.

He did not declare this gift in either his ministerial or member’s declarations of pecuniary interests.

Further, in evidence before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on 15 April 2014 O’Farrell could not recall many details of his official or private contact with Di Giolamo.

Then this made its appearance reportedly courtesy of Mr. Di Girolamo:

 The Telegraph 15 April 2014

Subsequently Barry O’Farrell announced his intention to resign as premier.

UPDATE

Courier billing document listing Australian Water Holdings' Gift to Barry O'Farrell & Wife:

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell gets a well-deserved serve

http://www.moir.com.au/

1984 Newspeak lives in 21st Century Australia! There is no such thing as "coal seam gas" in the lexicon of the NSW O'Farrell Government

This move by the NSW Coalition Government would be laughable if not for the deceit behind it.

The Sydney Morning Herald 16 September 2013:

The phrase "coal seam gas" is set to be wiped from official documents in NSW and possibly across Australia as governments come under increasing pressure over the contentious energy policy area.

A leaked briefing note prepared for NSW energy and resources minister Chris Hartcher recommends the phrase and its acronym CSG be replaced with the standard term "natural gas from coal seams".

The document says the move is designed to "improve clarity and consistency of the terms used to describe coal seam gas in departmental correspondence, communication and content".

It says the change is a recommendation of the federal Standing Council on Energy and Resources, whose members include ministers from each state and territory and the commonwealth.

In May the council published a National Harmonised Regulatory Framework for Natural Gas from Coal Seams which is designed to ensure "regulatory regimes are robust, consistent and transparent across all Australian jurisdictions".

"This is part of a national harmonisation initiative adopted by all governments," the NSW briefing note says.

The note recommends that references to "coal seam gas" and "CSG" be removed "where possible" in sentences on websites and in marketing material and standard responses to letters.

In internal briefing notes "natural gas from coal seams" should be used in the first reference, it advises.

However, CSG and coal seam gas are condoned on social media to track the national debate.

"Social media relies on CSG or coal seam gas references and hashtags (ie: #CSG)," the note says.

"In order to participate and track conversations it is therefore acceptable to use CSG or coal seam gas on Twitter and Facebook. CSG is also a recognised online search term and is a relevant key work for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This will assist the public in finding government information on the issue".

A handwritten addition to the note says the government "will need to ensure same approach" is followed within two independent agencies, the Land and Water Commissioner and the Office of the Chief Scientist.

Premier O'Farrell sacks NSW Finance Minister

Under cover of the noise created by the corruption findings against former Labor minister Ian McDonald and Labor MP Eddie Obeid, Barry O'Farrell gets on with the business of sacking his own Finance Minister.

The Illawarra Mercury 1 August 2013:

NSW Finance Minister and Minister for the Illawarra Greg Pearce has been sacked for breaching the ministerial code of conduct just weeks after he returned to the job from stress leave.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell said he told Mr Pearce of his decision over the phone at 1.45pm today….

After previously standing by Mr Pearce, Premier Barry O’Farrell today said the finance minister had failed to declare a conflict of interest in appointing lawyer Richard Fisher to the board of Sydney Water…

Mr Pearce had been under fire in recent months following allegations that he was drunk in Parliament and that he had rorted the ministerial travel guidelines over a trip to Canberra.

A report by the Department of Premier and Cabinet in June found that Mr Pearce had breached the state government’s ministerial travel guidelines when he booked a private trip to Canberra through the government’s travel agency.

Mr Pearce paid for the bill upon his return, but saved himself $188 by using the contractor.

Mr Pearce apologised for his actions before announcing that he was taking a month off to recover from ‘‘stress and exhaustion’’…..

NSW Farmers up in arms over O'Farrell-Fraser-Hartcher legislative move to support coal seam gas industry land access rights

NSW Farmers Media Release 12 June 2013 - Stakeholder engagement lacking when it comes to CSG legislation

Text of the NSW Petroleum (Onshore) Amendment Bill 2013 as introduced

b2013-017-d15-House.pdf

Robert Borsak and his friends want to slaughter this little brown duck and Barry O'Farrell said, Sure, go ahead!

Pink-eared Duck

Malacorhynchus membranaceus
Anatidae

approx. 38-40 cm in length

 carnivorous & mostly consumes aquatic invertebrates, primarily chironomid larvae

prefers to breed on receding floodwaters and forage on wetland margins

[Floodplain Wetland Biota in the Murray-Darling Basin, 2011]

 

Will the NSW Premier admit the Government got it wrong?  Will he remove the Pink-eared Duck from the Shooters and Fishers kill list?  asks the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition on 10 June 2013.

 

Female Pink-eared Duck with ducklings

 

Not content with the O'Farrell Government opening up National Parks in New South Wales to hunters and passing the Game and Feral Animal Control Further Amendment Act 2012 to allow the killing of 14 native birds species on private land, Robert Borsack MLC now appears to have green lighting the re-introduction into the Australian community of semi-automatic weapons on his wish list.

Coal & Coal Seam Gas 'Water Trigger' amendment passes both Australian Houses of Parliament despite Coalition attempts to cripple it

 

On 19 June 2013 the C’wealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill 2013, commonly called the Water Trigger Bill, was voted into legislation by the Australian Parliament.

 

This amendment strengthens the Commonwealth’s power to intervene in relation to water resources, but still leaves regions such as the Northern Rivers vulnerable to exploitation by the coal seam gas industry and an arrogant Coalition state government.

 

The bill as passed by both Houses.

 

Excerpt:

 

Subdivision FB — Protection of water resources from coal seam gas development and large coal mining development

24D   Requirement for approval of developments with a significant impact on water resources

             (1)  A constitutional corporation, the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency must not take an action if:

                     (a)  the action involves:

                              (i)  coal seam gas development; or

                              (ii)  large coal mining development; and

                     (b)  the action:

                              (i)  has or will have a significant impact on a water resource; or

                              (ii)  is likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.

Civil penalty:

                     (a)  for an individual—5,000 penalty units;

                     (b)  for a body corporate—50,000 penalty units.

             (2)  A person must not take an action if:

                     (a)  the action involves:

                              (i)  coal seam gas development; or

                              (ii)  large coal mining development; and

                     (b)  the action is taken for the purposes of trade or commerce:

                              (i)  between Australia and another country; or

                              (ii) between 2 States; or

                              (iii) between a State and Territory; or

                              (iv) between 2 Territories; and

                     (c)  the action:

                              (i)  has or will have a significant impact on a water resource; or

                              (ii) is likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.

Civil penalty:

                     (a)  for an individual—5,000 penalty units;

                     (b)  for a body corporate—50,000 penalty units.

             (3)  A person must not take an action if:

                     (a)  the action involves:

                              (i)  coal seam gas development; or

                              (ii)  large coal mining development; and

                     (b)  the action is taken in:

                              (i)  a Commonwealth area; or

                              (ii) a Territory; and

                     (c)  the action:

                              (i)  has or will have a significant impact on a water resource; or

                              (ii)  is likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.

Civil penalty:

                     (a)  for an individual—5,000 penalty units;

                     (b)  for a body corporate—50,000 penalty units.

             (4)  Subsections (1) to (3) do not apply to an action if:

                     (a)  an approval of the taking of the action by the constitutional corporation, Commonwealth, Commonwealth agency or person is in operation under Part 9 for the purposes of this section; or

                     (b)  Part 4 lets the constitutional corporation, Commonwealth, Commonwealth agency or person take the action without an approval under Part 9 for the purposes of this section; or

                     (c)  there is in force a decision of the Minister under Division 2 of Part 7 that this section is not a controlling provision for the action and, if the decision was made because the Minister believed the action would be taken in a manner specified in the notice of the decision under section 77, the action is taken in that manner; or

                     (d)  the action is an action described in subsection 160(2) (which describes actions whose authorisation is subject to a special environmental assessment process).

             (5)  A person who wishes to rely on subsection (4) in proceedings for a contravention of a civil penalty provision bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in that subsection.

 

Liberal-Nationals Federal Coalition failed amendment seeking to hand back powers to the states, as it was put to the Senate.

 

Excerpt:

 

Schedule 1, page 9 (after line 31), after item 18, insert:

 

18A  Section 528 (at the end of the definition of coal seam gas development )

Add “, but does not include exploration, assessment or appraisal pursuant to a petroleum title granted under a law of a State or Territory.”.

[definition of coal seam gas development]

(4)           Schedule 1, page 9 (after line 31), after item 18, insert:

18B  Section 528 (at the end of the definition of large coal mining development )

Add “, but does not include exploration, assessment or appraisal pursuant to a minerals exploration licence or permit granted under a law of a State or Territory.”.

[definition of large coal mining development]

Liberal-Nationals Federal Coalition failed other amendment.

Perhaps the National Party’s federal election candidate in the Page electorate, Kevin Hogan, might like to explain how he (as a candidate who has never held political office) would stop these or similar Coalition amendments being put to the Parliament should he become a member of the House of Representatives in an Abbott-led federal government?

 

Federal Labor MP Janelle Saffin also has some concerns according to her media release on 19 June 2013:

 

Page MP Janelle Saffin said the passage of the Australian Government’s ‘water trigger’ legislation through the Senate today is an important step in the battle to protect our water from Coal Seam Gas mining in our local area. 

 

Janelle said, “The water trigger can help us stop any CSG mining going ahead in our area, but we need more action and it has to be at State level.”

 

“The power to stop CSG mining completely in our area, rests with the NSW Government, who have done nothing to protect us, and our way of life, despite promises.  We just cannot trust the Nationals to protect our communities from this harmful CSG mining.

 

“I lobbied hard on behalf of our community to get the Federal Government to use the full extent of its powers to protect our water.  The battle is however far from over with the Coalition vowing to undo the legislation, if they get an opportunity.”

 

“To add insult to injury the Federal Coalition put forward an amendment that we blocked, which was to hand back the water assessment process to the NSW Government.  This means Minister Hartcher would be in charge and he is the Minister who has been fast-tracking the expansion of CSG mining in NSW.”

 

“The Coalition made it clear in the Senate they plan to change everything should they win Government –a frightening prospect, which means we can’t trust the Nationals on CSG.

 

“One of their stated aims is to hand environmental assessment power back to the states. In New South Wales that means a Coalition State Government that has done nothing to protect our region, while declaring CSG exclusion zones around Hunter Valley horse studs and wineries.

 

“The people of Page do not want 1000 gas wells and more across the Northern Rivers.

 

“Communities across the region have given the message loud and clear- we want to keep the Northern Rivers CSG-free. We will not accept the risk to our water, farmland, environment, tourism, local economy and our way of life.

 

“It is clear the mining companies are hoping for a Coalition federal government in September, to give them the green light on CSG. I am not going to let that happen locally.

Brad Mullard's coal seam gas 'con job'

Arrow Energy gas well blowout 
in Tara region gas fields in Queensland identified in Google Earth snapshot

The well which exploded up to 100 metres in the air continued to shoot to 40 metres is on a farmer’s property on the Kogan-Condamine Road

A CSG well is created by drilling through layers of earth and rock up to 1000 metres below the surface. Multiple layers of steel casing and cement are pressure injected so the well adheres to the surrounding rock.

A strong seal prevents gas or fluid leakage into permeable layers, including aquifers.

The process of drilling and installing the well can take over a month. Before activation, the well is subjected to a high pressure test. A geophysical logging tool is lowered into the well hole to inspect the casing and ensure it meets Government standards.

These measures limit the potential for CSG drilling activities to interfere with water resources and the environment. [NSW Government website]

Letters to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 10 and 20 May 2013:

CSG info at hand
I refer to your article (Elliot at MardiGrass for CSG petition, DEX May 6).
NSW Trade & Investment's Division of Resources and Energy has launched a comprehensive resource to provide residents and landholders with factual information on coal seam gas.
CSG is already part of the state's energy mix but many people do not understand what the resource is, how it is explored and extracted, and the regulations that govern the industry.
Companies that drill for gas in this state operate in a tightly regulated environment that ensures our valuable land and water resources are not damaged.
Residential areas are also protected by a 2km exclusion zone that prevents CSG exploration and production near homes.
A new website provides residents and landholders with specific information on CSG, including maps, videos and fact sheets. The public can also join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter by following links on the site.
Learn more about coal seam gas and the protections in place by visiting www.csg.nsw.gov.au

Brad Mullard

Mineral Resources

NSW Trade & Investment

CSG letter a con job
Brad Mullard's letter (DE May 10) assuring us that coal seam gas miners in this state "operate in a tightly regulated environment" is nothing but a con job.
The industry is clearly more highly regulated in NSW than Queensland; that's partly the reason why Metgasco and others have moved out temporally.
However, the tight regulations do not alter the required infrastructure of a gas field.
On the day Mr Mullard's letter was published, I read another letter from a lady who had just returned from a trip to the south Queensland CSG fields to see for herself what is happening there. She was clearly distressed and very angry with our politicians at what she saw.
She spoke of broken communities, of meeting a farmer who has considered suicide because a nearby compressor station stops him from sleeping and his farm is no longer a farm due to gas wells.
She describes the dangers of driving on roads that are clogged with mining trucks; and visiting the township of Chinchilla and the difficulty she had spotting a child, a farmers wife, or any person that did not wear a yellow vest.
There are distressing reports of being stalked, harassed and filmed by male security guards, "in packs of three", when they stopped to photograph a compressor station 750 metres away.
The writer describes the endless land clearing for infrastructure, the seemingly hundreds of kilometre- long toxic waste-water holding ponds, and scores of compressor stations that look and sound like international airports.
She concludes that she saw no co-existence with farming, and in fact the mining was "forcing people away from the district, and that's the way the miners like it".
A few weeks ago I watched a Queensland farmer say that he never thought he'd see the day when Australian police would force their way past Australian farmers to allow foreign-owned mining companies to trash their land.
Dart Energy and Metgasco have gone from the Northern Rivers for the time being, but the potential danger of the region suffering the same impacts as Queensland has not.
Our State Government representatives still appear to believe their own rhetoric, trotting out media releases about how water and human health will be protected, and clearly still support CSG mining despite overwhelming opposition from the majority of people they claim to represent.
I wonder why?

John Edwards

South Grafton

Aerial shot of nascent NSW CSG gasfield

Pilot CSG gas wells NSW

* All images from Google Images & Goggle Earth 

O'Farrell's new coal seam gas policy is an invitation to corruption

In March 2013 the O’Farrell Government placed a draft State Environmental Planning Policy on public exhibition which purports to create exclusion zones wherein coal seam gas exploration and mining cannot take place in future.

However, this draft amendment to the Mining State Environmental Planning Policy allows local councils to grant exemptions to these exclusion zones.

Apparently Premier O’Farrell and his backers have decided to ignore the fact that local government is the most corruptible of all three tiers of government in Australia.

One has only to look at this short list of NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigations into councils over the last five years to realise this.

In 2012 ICAC found that twenty-one people employed or formerly employed by fourteen different local government councils had acted corruptly and, that fifteen employees of private sector companies and one employee of a government agency had assisted in these corrupt activities.

Also in 2012 ICAC found that a councillor and a property developer had acted corruptly in 2009 and 2010.

In 2011 ICAC found three employees at three separate councils had acted corruptly.

In 2010 the Commission found an employee and a contractor had acted corruptly at one council, while a job applicant had been found to have offered a bribe at a second council. In that same year another person was found to have acted corruptly when seeking a licensing agreement with a third council.

In 2009 ICAC made corruption findings involving two persons associated with a property development and one council employee and, also found that two person had attempted to bribe council employees at another council.

In 2008 the Commission found ten people had acted corruptly with regard to one particular council, including four sitting councillors and, that this corruption had allegedly involved 139 offences.

In 2007 ICAC made corruption findings involving three councils.

As for any thought that the revamped Division of Local Government (now under the wing of the Dept. of Premier and Cabinet) may curb any future enthusiasm for corrupt behaviour should local councillors and senior managers be given any right to extinguish the possibility of exclusions zones on land wanted by mining companies – on past performance aid from this quarter is highly unlikely. Especially as the Division appears to prefer sending problems brought to its notice back to councils for resolution and, as since April 2012 the pecuniary interest of councillors is no longer a bar to voting on the creation or amendment of a local environmental plan which is a land use planning instrument.

In 2011-12 alone at least 34 per cent of the complaints concerning 125 councils the Division received involved either natural resource management, public land management, land use planning/development or pecuniary interest.

That mining companies may offer bribes as a matter of course in doing business is not a new issue, often misleadingly referring to them as tax deductible facilitation payments or business expenses if they appear on company books at all.

The O’Farrell Government’s desire to shift responsibility for creating lasting exclusion zones back onto local government, with its highly suspect track record, is an act of betrayal of Northern Rivers communities. Nothing more, nothing less.

Metgasco's CEO bags the NSW Premier and again distorts the history of community concerns relating to the coal seam gas industry

 

Metgasco’s CEO Peter Henderson must be laughing up his sleeve at the mainstream media when it fails yet again to challenge his more outrageous distortions concerning community opposition to coal seam gas exploration and mining.

 

On 21 February 2013 ABC North Coast Radio broadcast this interview in which he baldly states that; “The coal seam gas industry has been operating in Australia now producing gas for more than sixteen years. Until Gasland [a documentary film] came along there was never squeak of concern.”

 

So no community in Australia was worried about coal seam gas until a film was shown at the US Sundance Film Festival in January 2010 and then released into Australian cinemas on 18 November that same year?

 

Unfortunately for Mr. Henderson’s attempts to create an alternative history, this was published in January 2005; COAL BED METHANE HAZARDS IN NEW SOUTH WALES by a NSW Central Coast action group established circa 2004 with this aim:

Our most precious resource is water. Our mission is to guarantee its integrity, and prevent loss of groundwater and contamination of surface water from methane gas mining.

And the Hunter-Bulga Gas Action Group Inc. was in active in March 2007 offering to organise free legal advice for landowners.

While the Caroona Coal Action Group was alive and well before the documentary film was first screened and, the group had this posted on its website on 4 July 2009:

 

Rosemary Nankivell highlights dangers of CSM in this Northern Daily Leader article July 09. Environmental Hazards.

Methane gas exploration and extraction has caused irreparable environmental, social and economic damage across the world. This report shows how gas exploration destroys fresh water supplies slowly but surely and how much of the geological understanding claimed by gas companies is actually guess work. The same will happen to us if we don’t stop it now. Here's what's already happened at Narrabri (p.11-13)

A project operated by Sydney Gas was stopped by ‘people power’ in the Yarramalong and Dooralong Valleys because of scientific concerns coal seam gas (CSG) extraction would ruin drinking water and agricultural supplies for the Central Coast. An executive summary of their concerns is here...

they are the same concerns we have on the Liverpool Plains. [Full report here]…..

Gas extraction will damage our own water supplies and those feeding into the Murray Darling Basin:-
• by contaminating town water supplies, aquifers and stock bores
• by extracting water with gas lowering the water tables
• by creating vast quantities of waste water
• by exploring along the stressed Hunter-Mooki fault systems……

 

By 22 October 2009 the ABC television program Catalyst canvassed concerns:

 

NARRATION
It’s not surprising that here, on the fertile soils at the top of the Murray-Darling basin, farmers are sensitive about salinity.

IAN HAYLLOR
Now we’re seeing these gas companies bringing up millions of tonnes of salts, storing it on the surface, and the government hasn’t got a plan for it. It’s just … oh we’ll put it in storage and we’ll bury it and forget about it. Well salt doesn’t go away. It’s there forever……

Our concern for the future is the impact of the coal seam gas extraction is taking water out below our aquifer and you know some hydrologists are saying there’s a link between our aquifer and the coal aquifer. Um, the mining companies and the government are saying there’s not. Um, you know, who do you believe?

 

Concerns about coal seam gas were so well-known that on 7 December 2009 The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

 

And now there is a new complication: regulatory costs related to environmental issues. Until recently, the CSG industry was seen as an environmentally friendly energy, but farmers and environmental campaigners are concerned about the potential damage to waterways and crop land and the impact of the disposal of salt produced during the CSG extraction process.

Until recently, the water extracted during the coal seam gas process was pumped into ponds, where it would evaporate. But this technique was recently frowned on by the Queensland Government because it was creating ponds of salt.

This has forced companies including Santos to search for alternative solutions.

A report released on Friday following a Senate inquiry into the impact of CSG in the country's most important agricultural area, the Murray-Darling Basin, links CSG with Australia's most sensitive environmental subject, water.

After receiving numerous submissions from environmental groups highlighting concerns, the report recommends as a matter of priority, and preferably before the release of future mineral exploration licences, that state governments establish regional water plans in areas potentially subject to mining or extractive industry operations.

 

Perhaps NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell should keep in mind this company's loose relationship with fact if and when Metgasco meets with him. He might also like to note that Mr. Henderson thinks he and his Cabinet have been making policy on the run made in half hour or an hour.

"I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church"

 
CALL

A similar letter to the article below was sent directly to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.

The Newcastle Herald 8 November 2012:

I have investigated so many sexual assaults in my 35 years of policing I’ve lost count.
Having spent most of those years at the coal face I have seen the worst society can dredge up, particularly the evil of paedophilia within the Catholic Church.
I am not in an executive position or relying on statistics or reports being shielded from reality, I speak from first-hand experience with victims and their abusers.
It is not an easy story to hear and the reason so many cover their ears and turn away. I’ve visited victims in mental hospitals and listened to families tell of suicides. I have looked into their faces, seen their tears of pain, anguish and despair, listened to the hurt of betrayal and felt their isolation from not being believed.
We all hear the words ‘‘paedophile’’ or ‘‘child molester’’ but what do they really mean? The term ‘‘child abuse’’ sweeps over the acts sanitising images of this appalling crime. It’s our inbuilt defence to protect us from those horrific images.
Listening to their stories, typing their statements, I relived their pain. I haven’t blocked those images and they still haunt me. I visited them in psychiatric wards and saw the damage to their families. A solicitor from the DPP broke down reading one of my statements. The abuse was so abhorrent she asked to be relieved of the case. Is it any wonder people don’t want to hear and turn away?
Victims are coming forward in ever-increasing numbers but they need our support. They need your support, Mr Premier. Police are making arrests but still the abuse goes on. It is not enough to say, ‘‘I welcome the police decision to arrest another person [priest] accused of paedophilia’’, when on average it takes 21 years to report these crimes and the priest continues to prey on more little children.
Often the church knows but does nothing other than protect the paedophile and its own reputation. It certainly doesn’t report abuse as revealed by the current Victorian inquiry.
I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church. None of that stops at the Victorian border.
Convicted priest Vincent Ryan was sent to Victoria when the church learned of his abuse, returning the following year after things cooled down to pick up where he left off.
Many police are frustrated by this sinister behaviour, which will continue until someone stops it. You have the power to do that, Mr Premier. The whole system needs to be exposed; the clergy covering up these crimes must to be brought to justice and the network protecting paedophile priests dismantled. There should be no place for evil or its guardians to hide. Then and only then will the arrests begin to slow, signalling fewer children are being raped.
It is no longer enough to just arrest the wrongdoer 21 years after the crime.
Removing the support that harbours these criminals is like cutting the head from the beast. It tears down the veil of secrecy behind which these vile animals operate with the self-assurance of immunity.
A priest once gave evidence that the church’s handling of child sex allegations was under control.
That priest was named by victims as having allegedly helped to cover up the rape of children.
His name continues to appear in other matters. Clearly everything is not under control. Alarm bells are ringing.
I have many family and friends who are Catholic. My children attend Catholic schools so I am not anti-Catholic. I voted for you, Mr O’Farrell, at the last election so my call for a royal commission is not politically motivated. My reason is from the suffering I have witnessed and a desire to make it stop.
There are more than just the victims and their families who want to see a royal commission. I have spoken to teachers who no longer want to be intimidated and silenced. I have sat with a priest and nun who were so distraught they felt forced to leave the church when they couldn’t remain silent. I have taken reports of ostracism and reprisals against victims’ families for giving evidence against priests at trial. If this doesn’t warrant a royal commission something is very wrong.
Apologising is not enough. Compensating victims for treatment is not enough. Mr O’Farrell, please don’t block your ears. Many priests don’t want a royal commission nor does the hierarchy of the church, but God knows we need one.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is a Hunter police officer with more than 35 years’ experience in the force.

RESPONSE

Courier Mail  9 November 2012:

A SPECIAL commission of inquiry will probe allegations made by a senior police investigator into child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy in the NSW Hunter region.

The commission, announced by Premier Barry O'Farrell on Friday, will be headed by senior counsel Margaret Cunneen to look into claims made by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, alleging cover-ups by police and the Catholic Church in the Hunter.

Mr Fox had publicly challenged Mr O'Farrell to launch a royal commission, writing an open letter to the premier and criticising the state government's continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

Mr O'Farrell said while he had "full confidence" in police commissioner Andrew Scipione and the police force, the matters raised were serious.

"They go to the question about whether there has been interface, either within the police force, or by the Catholic Church, in relation to specific allegations of pedophile activity in the Hunter," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

 

CODA

 

In a somewhat weak response the nominally Catholic NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell is forming a special commission of inquiry with very limited terms of reference confining investigation to the Hunter district and the specific allegations made by Peter Fox.

Apparently he agrees with Cardinal George Pell that a state-wide royal commission into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is not warranted despite the overwhelming evidence now in the public domain.

Peter Fox's response to the formation of a special commission.

 

One cannot help speculate that if O’Farrell was not worried about the Catholic vote, he would have established a full Royal Commission.

UPDATE:

Prime Minister Gillard announces Royal Commission