Not good enough, Premier O'Farrell and Police Commissioner Scipione

A Freedom of Information application by Richard McDonald dated 20 January 2014 has revealed that NSW Police officers had six hundred and fifteen individual criminal convictions ranging from assault causing actual bodily harm, malicious injury, drug possession, motor vehicle theft, fraud, culpable driving, high range PCA drink driving, speeding, domestic violence and much more recorded against their names - either before joining, during training or once they were deployed as serving officers.

A shocking statistic, which ABC News calculates as 1 in every 40 NSW police officers having criminal records.

20 January 2014 GIPA Document Listing Criminal Convictions Held by NSW Police Officers

In case your wondering how sexual assault breaks down by gender in Australia

Australian Bureau of Statistics definition of Sexual Assault:
 is an act of a sexual nature carried out against a person's will through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion, and includes any attempts to do this. This includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects, forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity. Incidents so defined would be an offence under State and Territory criminal law. Sexual assault excludes unwanted sexual touching - for the purposes of this survey, this is defined as Sexual Harassment. Sexual assault also excludes incidents of violence that occurred before the age of 15 - for the purposes of this survey, these are defined as Sexual Abuse. If a person experienced sexual assault and sexual threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a sexual assault. If an incident of sexual assault also involved physical assault or threats, this was counted once only as a sexual assault.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012 Personal Safety Survey revealed that 1,494,000 females and 336,000 males had experienced sexual assault since the age of fifteen.

The following infographics highlight some findings from this recently released survey.  See the full report for more information.

Pie charts found at http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/statistics.html

2012-2013 crime statistics covering the NSW North Coast

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Media Release:

NSW Recorded Crime Statistics: September 2013 Quarterly Report

Click here for the full report (pdf, 1.1Mb)

Click here for Graph (Ten years of shooting offences in NSW, Oct 2003 to Sep 2013 (pdf, 63Kb)

Release date: Thursday, 5 December 2013

Statewide trends

All major categories of crime in NSW except one either fell or remained stable over the 24 months to September 2013, according to the latest quarterly crime report released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

The exception involved fraud offences, which increased by 20.7 per cent. Compared with past years, failing to pay for petrol from service stations accounted for a small percentage (6%) of the total increase in fraud over the last 24 months. Most of the increase came from unauthorized use of credit cards and bank cards.

Eight of the major offences showed significant downward trends. These included non-domestic assault (down 3.8%), robbery without a weapon (down 8.0%), break and enter dwelling (down 6.7%), break and enter non-dwelling (down 7.7%), motor vehicle theft (down 11.2%), steal from motor vehicle (down 3.9%), steal from person (down 10.8%) and malicious damage to property (down 6.4%).

Shooting incidents have now returned to their long term average (see graph on reverse side of media release).

There were sizeable increases in a number of recorded drug possession offences, including possession of cocaine (up 45.3%), amphetamines (up 13.6%) and other drugs (up 23.2%). These increases may be due to more intensive law enforcement rather than increased drug use.

Regional trends

The Statistical Areas of Greater Sydney, Coffs Harbour-Grafton, Illawarra and Richmond-Tweed all experienced substantial increases in the number of fraud incidents over the last two years. Most other parts of regional NSW, however, experienced either stable or falling crime trends in most other categories of crime.

One notable exception to this was for the New England and North West Statistical Area, which experienced a 64 per cent increase in robbery with a weapon (other than a firearm).

The biggest problems within the Greater Sydney Area were fraud and stealing from a retail store. Double digit increases in fraud were recorded in nine out of the 15 Greater Sydney Statistical Areas and similar-sized increases in stealing from a retail store were recorded in five out of the 15 Greater Sydney Statistical Areas.

The only other noteworthy problems in the Greater Sydney Area were in Ryde (non-domestic assault up 28.8%), the Inner South West (sexual assault up 25.5%), the Inner West (indecent assault and related offences up 44.1%), the South West (indecent assault and related offences up 15.3%), Parramatta (robbery without a weapon up 23.8%) and Sutherland (break and enter dwelling up 15.8%).

Further enquiries: Dr Don Weatherburn (02) 9231-9190

Copies of the report: www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au

Click on images to enlarge

Clarence Valley property theft/robbery crime rate across last decade - a matter of averages

On 21 August 2013 The Daily Examiner trumpeted; The Clarence Valley has returned some of the worst crime statistics in regional NSW following a 10-year review into offending trends across the state…..In nearly every category, crimes in Clarence were declining at a far slower rate than in the rest of the state.

Here is the actual Clarence Valley major property/theft crime profile between 2000-2012, published in August 2013 by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics:

Break And Enter Dwelling  -38.6% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling but above overall state 12 year rate)

Motor Vehicle Theft  5.8% (now over the state 12 year rate per 100,000 head of population)

Stealing From Dwelling  -45% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling but above overall average state 12 year rate)

Stealing From Person – less than 20 incidents per year over the last 3 years

Stealing From A Motor Vehicle  -3.13% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling but above overall average state 12 year rate)

Stealing From A Retail Store  -7.8% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling and less than 1% above overall average state 12 year rate)

Robbery - less than 20 incidents per year over the last 3 years

Comparing Clarence Valley property offense rates with the rest of regional New South Wales and the North Coast one finds that; falls in rates of this offence in the Murrumbidgee, Northern, Far West and Murray SD ranged between 11.5 and 32.8 per cent and the Northern SD experienced a 15.8 per cent increase in the rate of motor vehicle theft.

All recent NSW crime statistics releases here.

The sad statistics of murder on Australia

In 2012 the Australian crime rate for homicide and related offences was Murder 1.5 victims per 100,000 persons, Attempted murder 1.0 victims per 100,000 persons and Manslaughter, 0.3 victims per 100,000 persons, with the national victimisation rate being 2.0 per 100,000 persons.

The male victimisation rate was 2.8 and the female victimisation rate was 1.2 per 100,000 person for homicide and related offences.

Australian Bureau of Statistics: CRIME IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AUSTRALIA:

For the last decade of the century the Australian Institute of Criminology has monitored every homicide in Australia. The dataset shows that homicide in Australia was characterised by the following features.

There were 3,150 homicide incidents over the decade, averaging 315 per year, a figure that did not fluctuate much.

Just under two-thirds of all homicide incidents (60.2%) occurred in residential premises. Nearly half of all homicide incidents occurred on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and over two-thirds of homicide incidents occurred between 6pm and 6am.

Eight out of 10 homicide incidents can be characterised as 'one-on-one' interactions between the victim and the offender, though there have been, on average, 15 multiple fatality incidents per year, resulting in approximately 39 victims per year.

There were 3,386 victims of homicide. Across the 10-year period, rates of victimisation have remained relatively constant, fluctuating between 1.7 and 2.0 per 100,000 population. Some 63.2% of victims were male and 36.8% were female. Females were killed at an average annual rate of 1.4 per 100,000 population, whereas males were killed at an average annual rate of 2.4 per 100,000 population. There has been a stable pattern of gender differentiation, with a ratio of 3 males killed for every 2 females. Male victims were more likely to have been single at the time of the incident, whereas female victims were more likely to have been married or living in a de facto relationship. Females were more likely to be killed as a result of a domestic altercation, although this proportion has declined in recent years. Males were more likely to be killed following an alcohol-related argument.

Victims of homicide were more likely to be killed with a knife or other sharp instrument than any other weapon. There was a declining trend in the proportion of victims killed with a firearm, with an average of 81 victims killed per year with a firearm.

The highest age-specific victimisation rate for females was for children less than one year of age (average rate of 2.6), whereas the highest victimisation rate for males was for young men between the ages of 24 and 26 years (average rate of 4.3). Indigenous persons were on average 8.1 times more likely to be victims of homicide than non-Indigenous persons.

Approximately 9% of all homicide victims were aged under 15, and this proportion has remained quite stable each year since 1989. Biological parents, usually the mother, were responsible for a majority of child killings in Australia. Very rarely are children killed by a stranger.

There were 3,481 offenders of homicide - 87.2% were male and 12.8% were female. Males consistently exhibited higher rates of offending than females, with a ratio of about 7:1. The median age of male offenders was 27 years and the median age for female offenders was 29 years. Male offenders were more likely to be single, whereas female offenders were more likely to be married or living in a de facto relationship at the time of the incident.

Between 1996-97 and 1998-99, just under 2 out of 5 male offenders and just over 1 out of 5 female offenders were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. Approximately 6% of homicide offenders in Australia committed suicide during or following the homicide incident.

Eight out of 10 homicides occurred between people who were known to one another. Females were more likely to be killed by an intimate partner, whereas males were more likely to be killed by a friend or acquaintance, but under 2 out of 10 homicides occurred between strangers. Approximately 13% of all homicide incidents occur in the course of other crime, such as robbery and sexual assault. One in 10 homicide incidents occurred in the course of robbery, and 3.7% occurred in the course of sexual assault. This relatively low rate of homicides committed in the course of another crime is a factor which differentiates Australia's homicide rates from those of many other countries.

While only 13% of homicides were committed by females, women who kill tend to kill men. Women are more likely to kill (in descending order of frequency) husbands, ex-husbands, de facto partners, and lovers, followed by children and other relatives. Very few women kill strangers.

In Australia, between 1 July 1989 and 30 June 1999 there were 13 mass-murder incidents (where the number of victims was 4 or more), resulting in the death of 94 persons, though in the two most recent years of the century Australia recorded no mass-murder incidents.

Understanding homicide involves some fundamental neurological and sociological risk factors. Looking across many nations, from a policy point of view things like expanding the number of police, giving them better technology, setting longer prison sentences, imposing or abolishing the death penalty have had no effect on the homicide rate, which has remained fairly constant in most countries (Mouzos 2000).

Who said what in the current Australian gun crime debate

 

Police Association of NSW 27 February 2013:

 

SYDNEY, Feb 27 AAP - NSW Attorney General Greg Smith says there’s a long way to go until drive-by shootings in western Sydney are brought under control.
Addressing a Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) conference in Sydney, Mr Smith said the problem of drive-by shootings was “smaller now than it was in 2001”.
However, he conceded the coalition government had not yet been able to fully combat it across western Sydney.
“It’s of great concern and we still have a long way to go in bringing it fully under control,” Mr Smith told the conference.
The comments come after a wave of shootings in the city’s west that have forced NSW police to establish Operation Apollo, a special strike force targeting gun crime.

 

The Sydney Morning Herald 7 March 2013:

 

On Sunday, Ms Gillard announced a $64 million ''national anti-gang taskforce''.
Ms Gillard said: ''When we look at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, we see that, over the past 15 years, shootings in public places have soared.''

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research  Media Release 6 March 2013:

 

The claim by the Prime Minister that shooting offences in public places in NSW have ‘soared’ over the last 15 years is incorrect, according to the head of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

The claim was reportedly made by the Prime Minister last Sunday when announcing various measures to tackle organised crime in NSW and other States.

According to the Director of the Bureau, the total number of non-fatal shooting offences in NSW peaked at a six-month average of over 40 incidents a month in November 2001 and then began to fall.

By December last year the six-monthly average number of non-fatal shooting incidents had dropped to around 25 a month.

‘Only one type of shooting incident has increased over the last two years. The offence of ‘unlawfully discharge firearm into premises’ rose from a six-monthly average of five in February 2010 to a six-monthly average peak of about 11 a month in August 2012.’

‘In the last three months of 2012, however, the incidence of this offence dropped sharply. The six-monthly average in December last year was back down to around 6 to 7 offences a month.’

More serious offences, such as ‘shoot with intent to kill’ have remained fairly low and stable since 1997. Homicide offences involving a firearm have actually fallen across Australia.’

 

National statistics

 

http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/pages/bocsar_mr_20130306

 

NSW Statistics

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-merchants-of-death/story-e6frg6z6-1226564559935

Click on graphs to enlarge

 

Crime statistics and the NSW North Coast, June 2012

From the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research June 2012 Quarterly Report on Recorded Crime Statistics:

• Richmond-Tweed: Steal from retail store (up 12.7%) and steal from person (up 35.7%)
• Mid-North Coast: Robbery with a weapon not a firearm (up 88.9%) [These regional percentage figures in point form cover the 24 months to June 2012 and are taken from a 6 September 2012 media release]

Violent offences include: murder, assault - domestic violence related, assault - non-domestic violence related, assault police, robbery without a weapon, robbery with a firearm, robbery with a weapon not a firearm, sexual assault and indecent assault / act of indecency / other sexual offences

Property offences include: break and enter dwelling ,break and enter non dwelling, motor vehicle theft, steal from motor vehicle, steal from retail store, steal from dwelling, steal from person, stock theft, other theft and fraud.

An explanation of the uses and abuses of crime statistics for those with an interest in the subject:

http://youtu.be/VkfLa_zOtak

From Teh Book Of Little Known Aussie FAQS

The NSW Inmate Census 2011 revealed that only 7% of the state’s 10,068 strong prison population is female – that’s only 703 inmates, with just one in maximum security, none under 18 years of age and 203 of these women in the system had yet to be sentenced by the courts when the census was taken.
Does this mean the average Aussie sheila is a lot more law-abiding than her bloke?

Grab a few tinnies and argue it out among yourselves fellas - but quietly and as far away from your better halves as you can get.

When it comes to the crime of murder, don't believe everything you read in NSW North Coast newspapers

On 2 June 2012  The Northern Star  and The Daily Examiner online trumpeted that:

WHEN they think of the North Coast, most people think of the relaxed lifestyle, idyllic beaches and lush hinterland - not Australia's regional murder capital.
But statistics obtained from the state homicide squad have revealed the strip between Newcastle and the Queensland border had the second highest number of murders in the state last year, even as NSW topped the nation for the number of people murdered.
The Northern Star spoke to police in every state and confirmed that the NSW northern region was the regional murder capital of Australia.
Of the 84 murders across NSW in 2011, 20 were in the Northern Region police command, which runs from north of Newcastle to the border....
The state had 15 more murders than in 2010....

The Northern Region takes in Police Local Areas Commands in Brisbane Water, Central Hunter, Coffs-Clarence, Hunter Valley, Lake Macquarie, Manning-Great Lakes, Mid North Coast, Newcastle City, Port Stephens, Richmond, Tuggerah Lakes, and Tweed-Byron.

A rather wide net to cast when trying to include the Northern Rivers into a tag of regional murder capital of Australia.

The Northern Rivers where these two APN daily newspapers circulate is traditionally thought to include Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Richmond Valley, Lismore, Ballina, Kyogle, Byron and Tweed local government areas only.

These are the actual murder victim numbers officially recorded by NSW BOSCAR for the Northern Rivers region in 2011:

Ballina 2

Byron 1

Lismore 2

Richmond Valley 2

Total: 7

Sounds a lot less alarming and probably sells less newspapers, but it was the truth about recorded murder statistics in Northern Rivers communities last year.

The discrepancies don’t end there however. These are BOSCAR official statistics for NSW murder victims: 75 in 2010 and 77 in 2011. Even if one added manslaughter victim numbers and missing persons unofficially presumed murdered to these totals, one doesn’t come up with fifteen more violent deaths in 2011 when compared with the previous year. In fact when combining all categories, the annual totals remain constant.

Later on in the article the NSW body count inexplicably rises to ninety-four for which, again, there is no logical explanation. One has to suspect that somewhere along the line these two newspapers have possibly confused the numbers of persons charged with the crime of murder* in New South Wales with the number of murder victims – which are not necessarily identical totals.

One interesting fact remains unreported entirely. Since 1990 the number of NSW murder victims has been steadily falling, so that in 2011 there were 42 fewer recorded victims compared with 1990.

* Murder is defined in s 18(1)(a) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) in the following terms:

“Murder shall be taken to have been committed where the act of the accused, or thing by him or her omitted to be done, causing the death charged, was done or omitted with reckless indifference to human life, or with intent to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm upon some person, or done in an attempt to commit, or during or immediately after the commission, by the accused, or some accomplice with him or her, of a crime punishable by imprisonment for life or for 25 years.”

For murder and manslaughter only, the counting units used are victims. Under the definition of a criminal incident (same parties, same time, same place, same offence and same incident type) one murder or manslaughter incident could involve two or more persons being killed. Because of the seriousness of these offences and their relatively small numbers, it is considered to be more appropriate to count the number of victims, rather than the number of criminal incidents. Hence, where one murder incident involves a person killing six people, six murder victims are counted.

Dodgy $20 notes doing the rounds in Lismore area

NSW Police Force media release 22^nd  April 2012

“Detectives on the state’s north coast are conducting inquiries after a number of fake $20 notes were found in circulation in the Lismore area.

A number of business owners contacted local police on Friday (20 April 2012) after the counterfeit notes were used to pay for good and services.

The phony cash was detected by staff at a Lismore kebab shop, pub, convenience store and fast food restaurant, and by two taxi drivers.

Detectives have launched an investigation in a bid to identify who’s responsible for producing them.

The counterfeit notes, totalling $240, have also been seized for forensic examination.

Richmond LAC Duty Officer, Inspector Robert Cairnduff, warned local residents and business owners to be on the lookout for the notes.

“I would encourage everyone to be extra vigilant when handling their money and if you do notice something odd or that doesn’t look quite right, please contact us immediately,” Insp Cairnduff said.

“The counterfeit notes that we have seized are not of great quality; however, in poor light or to the unsuspecting eye they could quite possibly be passed off as the real thing,” he said.

Inquiries by local detectives are ongoing.

Anyone with information that might assist investigators is urged to contact Lismore Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”

The NSW North Coast scores a pass mark when it comes to crimes involving firearms - but not so good with murder

New South Wales is a big place when you think about it – all 809,444 km²  or so of it. About 7.3 million people live within state borders, which is around 32% of the entire Australian population. Almost 8% of all Walers live on the Mid and Far North Coast.

The bad news………………

“The offence of ‘discharge firearm into premises’ rose by 41 per cent (from 71 incidents in 2010 to 100 incidents in 2011) in the two years to December 2011, according to the annual crime statistics report released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

Around half of NSW recorded incidents of ‘discharge firearm into premises’ in 2011 were recorded in the three Sydney statistical subdivisions (SSDs) of Canterbury-Bankstown, Central Western Sydney and Fairfield-Liverpool.”

There were 410 robberies involving a firearm in NSW in 2011.

{BOSCAR Media Release on 17^th April 2012 on NSW Recorded Crime Statistics 2011 and NSW Recorded Crime Statistics 2011}

The good news………………

None of those ‘drive by’ shootings happened on the NSW North Coast. Only 10 robberies (from Bellingen right up to the NSW-QLD border) involved someone carrying a firearm – or just 2% of all robberies with firearms.

Something to think about……….

NSW recorded 75 murders in 2011. Only 4 murders are listed for the NSW North Coast but these make up 5% of all the state’s murders last year.

Oopps! Another banana skin for the unwary Australian politician

All around the world pollies past and present are looking investor embarrassment in the face, including U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney who has  mountain of moolah earning interest over at Goldman Sachs in its many manifestations.

But none more so than Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, Australia’s Federal Opposition Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband.

He of course was Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Australia from 1997 to 2001 and a Partner in Goldman Sachs and Co from 1998 to 2001. In 2012 he still has money invested with Goldman Sachs private equity funds, probably including GS Capital Partners V1.

Which means he was well and truly in the frame when Goldman Sachs (through its private equity fund GS Capital Partners III) purchased a 16% share in Backpage.com in 2000.

Village Voice Media Holdings now owns Backpage and Goldman Sachs is selling its share because this website has just been outed as a forum abetting the sex-trafficking of underage girls.

Goldman Sachs has all but admitted that it knew in 2010 what the website was being used for – long before the New York Times report on 31^st March this year.

This letter lists a number of U.S. sex trafficking and child prostitution court cases in which Backpage features and mention of cases involving adults or children going back to 2009-10 can be found on the Internet – including this video.

For all those rabid rednecks baying to the moon about Laura Norder in NSW

A little reminder to the lock 'em up and throw away the key mob fronting the bar at the Bowlo most weeks:

The effect of arrest and imprisonment on crime
Release date: Tuesday, 13 March 2012 Embargo: 10.30am

Increasing the risk of arrest and the probability of imprisonment are much more effective in preventing property and violent crime than increasing the length of prison terms, according to a new study of the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in controlling crime, released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. The study is one of the most comprehensive ever carried out in Australia into the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in controlling crime. It examined the effect of changes in the probability of arrest, the probability of imprisonment and the length of the average prison term on trends in property and violent crime across every Local Government Area (LGA) in NSW between 1996 and 2008. Special measures were taken to control for other factors that influence crime, such as household income and drug use. The study also controlled for the effect of crime on the criminal justice system. The Bureau found that a 10 per cent increase in the risk of arrest in the long run produces a 1.35 per cent reduction in property crime, while a 10 per cent increase in the imprisonment risk produces a 1.15 per cent reduction in property crime. Similarly, in the long run, a 10 per cent increase in the risk of arrest for violent crime produces a 2.97 per cent reduction in violent crime, while a 10 per cent increase in the risk of imprisonment produces a 1.7 per cent reduction in violent crime. Although increasing the risk of arrest appears to exert a stronger effect on property and violent crime than increasing the risk of imprisonment, the differences were not found to be statistically significant. Arrest and imprisonment, however, were found to exert significantly stronger effects on violent crime than on property crime. A 10 per cent increase in the risk of arrest in the long run produces a 2.97 per cent reduction in violent crime, compared with a fall of only 1.35 per cent reduction in property crime. Similarly, a 10 per cent increase in the imprisonment risk reduces violent crime by 1.7 per cent compared with a 1.2 per cent reduction in property crime. The stronger effect for violent crime may be at least partly due to the higher risk of arrest for violent crime relative to property crime. The 30 day clear-up rate for non-domestic assault, for example, is 21.7 per cent, compared with 3.7 per cent for burglary. Interestingly, the study found that household income exerted a much stronger effect on crime than the criminal justice system. A 10 per cent increase in household income was estimated to produce an 18.9 per cent reduction in property crime over the long term and a 14.6 per cent reduction in violent crime. The effect of income on property crime is more than 14 times larger than the effect of arrest, while its effect on violent crime is nearly five times larger. Commenting on the findings, the Director of the Bureau, Dr Don Weatherburn, said that they were very reassuring given that Australia currently spends more than $11.5 billion annually on law and order. In per capita terms, this amounts to $511.00 per person per annum. “At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that the study did not examine the cost-effectiveness of current policy in controlling crime.” “Overseas research suggests that it is possible in some circumstances to cut crime and spend less doing it than we currently spend locking people up. The NSW Drug Court is a good example.” Further enquiries: Dr Don Weatherburn, 9231-9190

The study

New ICAC investigation begins this week with a focus on state and local councils - including Ballina and Byron shire councils

ICAC public notice Wednesday 28 September 2011:

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is conducting an investigation into allegations that employees of 110 state and local council authorities including Lithgow City, Ballina Shire, Orange City, Walgett Shire, City of Sydney, Waverley, Burwood, Botany Bay, Liverpool City, Bathurst Regional, Broken Hill City, Byron Shire and Narrandera Shire councils, and the Roads and Traffic Authority, accepted benefits including gift cards and other items from companies including Hilindi Pty Ltd trading as R&R Tape Supplies, Momar Australia Pty Ltd and NCH Australia Pty Ltd in return for placing orders and continuing business relationships with these companies.

The Commission is also investigating allegations that Geoffrey Hadley, former Senior Council Storeman at Bathurst Regional Council and Kerry Smith, former Storeman at Yass Valley Council, facilitated payment of fraudulent invoices generated by Robin Newman and others totalling up to $1.5 million.

As part of its investigation, the ICAC will hold a public inquiry starting at 10:00 am on Tuesday, 4 October 2011, at L21, 133 Castlereagh St., Sydney.
Persons claiming to be substantially and directly interested in this matter may seek leave to be represented at the inquiry, and are invited to contact Cassie Lee on (02) 8281-5999 to advise of their interest.

Members of the public with information relevant to the investigation are encouraged to provide it in writing at GPO Box 500, Sydney, NSW 2001, or by facsimile (02) 9264-5364. The ICAC will treat all information confidentially and has legislative powers to protect people who provide information to the Commission.

Roy Waldon
Solicitor to the Commission

Catholic Church accused of still hiding child abuse - why am I not surprised?

The accusations and excuses then..
"Claims by Salesian old boys that they were sexually brutalised by a few priests and brothers have rocked the order and sent the Australian leadership into a bunker.
Apart from a brief statement by the order's head, Father Ian Murdoch - who negotiated a number of financial settlements with alleged sex abuse victims
- there has been no comment from the Salesians.
Roy was paid $45,000 in 2000 from the Salesians for alleged sexual abuse by Ayers. The Salesians denied liability.
Ayers is now seriously ill and reportedly dying in Samoa, where the Salesians sent him allegedly after
he was accused of abusing children."
{The Age 3rd July 2004}
"Mr Jones became the face of disgruntled victims this week when it was revealed that Cardinal Pell had falsely told him a church investigator dismissed his sexual assault claim against Father Terence Goodall, and that there had been no other victims...
Cardinal Pell called it an "innocent error" and formed
a panel to review the case"
{The Sydney Morning Herald 12th July 2008}

The accusations and excuses now..
"A LEADING child protection expert has urged the Victorian government to hold a public inquiry into the handling of child-sex cases by a religious order after the Catholic Church suppressed a report it asked him
to write.
Sydney University law professor Patrick Parkinson yesterday wrote to Victorian Attorney-General
Robert Clark and Police Minister Peter Ryan seeking
an inquiry into the behaviour of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
In his letter, Professor Parkinson says the Catholic Church's actions have cast doubt on its commitment
to protect children before it protects itself."
{The Age 30th August 2011
"POLICE ditched an investigation into a Catholic
priest {Fr Jack Ayers}accused of abusing Victorian schoolchildren because they considered him too old
to bring to justice.
Victorian detectives have also not interviewed a second Salesian priest who is working at the order's headquarters near the Vatican, despite a fresh abuse complaint being made against him more than a year ago.
An eight-month Herald Sun investigation has discovered alarming claims that authorities failed to properly act on complaints of sexual abuse within the Salesian order.
Click here to see priests in the Salesian shame file
{The Herald-Sun 5th September 2011}

Some good news for NSW Police after Yamba debacle

On 20 April 2011 The Daily Examiner ran with Yamba riot police inquiry launched which confirmed that the NSW Police Commissioner had instigated an investigation into how the police brief was prepared for use by the public prosecution team.

So it was perhaps fortunate that the day before the NSW Police media unit had released the latest Bureau of Crime Statistics (BOCSAR) figures indicating major categories of crime are at their lowest rate for 20 years.

Comparing 10 main crime categories from 1990 to 2010, BOCSAR has found the murder rate has halved while robbery with a firearm has fallen 66 per cent.

In other trends,

· Motor vehicle theft is down 70 per cent
· Break and enters (non-dwelling) is down 62 per cent
· Break and enters (dwelling) is down 43 per cent
· Robbery with a weapon (not firearm) is down 23 per cent
· Robbery without a weapon is down by five per cent…..

a 14 per cent reduction in assaults in New South Wales in the past two years…..

a 27 per cent reduction in ‘glassings’ in licensed premises during the same period.....

in the 24 months to December 2010, all major categories of crime in New South Wales are either stable or falling.

They include:

· Robbery with a weapon not a firearm: down 11 per cent
· Robbery without a weapon: down 6.9 per cent
· Break and enter (non-dwelling): down 11.4 per cent
· Steal from person: down 10.6 per cent
· Malicious damage to property: down 10.1 per cent
· Motor vehicle theft: down 9.3 per cent
· Steal from motor vehicle: down 4.8 per cent…..

The BOCSAR website is now interactive and you can compile your own statistical sets here for the area in which you live.

A matter of emphasis or ignoring all but the dog whistle?

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has released the Fraud against the Commonwealth 2008–09 Annual report to Government and the mainstream media is busy reporting on its contents.

The Daily Telegraph by virtue of its claim on 4 April 2011 that it had gained exclusive access to the institute's landmark report (despite the fact that the AIC had published the same on its official website) stands out in reporting this matter.

This newspaper makes much of fraud by welfare recipients and really only briefly addresses fraud by crooked public servants. News Limited journalists appearing more interested in theft of office products such as printer toner and photocopying paper, rather than other forms of public service fraud which are more dangerous to Australian citizens. Indeed this newspaper goes so far as to lump the $600 million total in fraud against the Commonwealth into the welfare and other government payments category, almost inviting readers to erroneously suppose social security fraud actually reached this amount in the reporting period. When it comes to financial fraud, the fact that in excess of $2,970,000 was recovered from public service employees perpetrating entitlement and financial fraud is virtually ignored, along with the fact that losses totalled over and above recovered amounts totalled $2.8 million and that many of those employees found defrauding the Commonwealth were not sacked.

What is made apparent in this AIC report (and not rated as worth a mention by journalists) is that internal fraud by public service employees:

a) is under-reported because the department/agency involved frequently decides to redefine fraudulent activity as procedural incidents which are not included in information supplied to the Commonwealth and there is little in the way of internal incident compilations which would assist in identifying fraud over time or the financial cost of this fraud;
b) much of the identified fraud involves improperly accessing personal information about others;
c) at least 3,171 public service employees were suspected of fraud in 2008-09; and
d) of these suspects 1,842 were classified as improperly accessing information and 203 were involved in corruption (including abuse of power, accepting bribes/kickbacks and collusion/conspiracy).

Given these facts, one might have hoped for a more comprehensive media analysis on the subject of fraud against the Commonwealth.

Excerpts from the AIC report:

# Overall in 2008–09, internal fraud was found to be a more significant risk to Australian Government agencies, with 48 agencies (32%) experiencing internal fraud and 45 agencies (30%) experiencing external fraud. In terms of the number of fraud incidents, however, considerably more incidents related to external fraud (n=797,327) than internal fraud (n=3,371). Yet while external fraud affected more agencies generally, the fraud types that resulted in the most incidents tended to be specific to only a small number of agencies. Of the two external fraud types that produced the largest number of incidents—‘fraud relating to social security’ and ‘fraud relating to visas and citizenship’—these were reported by only two agencies each. While total incident numbers were substantially lower, this pattern was also true for internal fraud, where the most frequent incident type—‘obtaining or using personal information without authorisation’—affected just seven agencies.

# fraud involving obtaining or using personal information without authorisation accounted for 44 percent of all internal fraud reports (n=1,481 out of 3,371 reported incidents).

# Internal fraud involving ‘accessing information via a computer without authorisation’ was reported by 17 agencies.

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# In the 2008–09 financial year, Centrelink conducted nearly 3.9 million entitlement reviews that resulted in 641,504 payments being cancelled or reduced and generating customer debts totalling $536.2m (Centrelink 2009).