Travelling in a Land Down Under…
Michael Maguire, Honorary Professor of Practice
Nothing prepares you for the weather in Melbourne. On a summer’s day you can leave in shorts and a tee shirt in the morning and by midafternoon it’s like a November day in Belfast, wet and cold. By evening you can sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine in 25 degrees. As you go home it’s raining and misty. The locals have it sussed. They dress in layers which come off and on depending on the temperature. For a newbie like me, it took a while to get to grips with the variations. Eventually you get used to it and dress like a native. The weather was only one of many surprises.
I was in Monash University, Melbourne, as a Visiting Professor (Practice) in the School of Social Sciences. I’d just retired as the Police Ombudsman and glad to get away from Belfast for a while. Monash is the largest University in Australia, and a member of the prestigious Group of Eight Australian Universities. Caulfield Campus, where I was to be based, is a modern composition of glass and steel, which in the Ozzy sun could hurt your eyes as you walked through. The light is different in Australia. Traversing the bureaucracy to get my staff card triggered uncomfortable memories of my first day of school.
Monash has a strong Department of Criminology and my sponsor, Professor Jude McCullough had written extensively on policing in Victoria and had a strong interest in Northern Ireland, particularly in relation to police oversight. A scandal had been brewing in Victoria about a Barrister who had been a police informer while representing her clients. The “informant X” scandal raised important questions about police accountability, noble cause corruption, running informants and the administration of justice. A Royal Commission was under way investigating the Barrister - Nicola Gobbo - who had been informing on her clients while ostensibly representing them. The inquiry subsequently led to some convictions being overturned as miscarriages of justice.
Monash soon put me to work. I gave evidence to the Royal Commission on the experience of running informants in Northern Ireland. They were particularly interested in the guard rails that needed to be in place to ensure accountability. The attitude of the police was the end justified the means. A not unfamiliar argument. I also gave a public lecture (surprisingly well attended) and did some workshops with human rights NGOs, particularly those representing First Peoples’ and their interactions with the police. I met with some of the Oversight Bodies and gave evidence to a Victorian Parliamentary Select Committee and with other politicians on the experience of police oversight in Northern Ireland. I also started some work with Jude on the informant X scandal and a comparison of police oversight in Northern Ireland and Victoria. From these small acorns a number of interesting avenues arose.
Back in Belfast I maintained contact with Jude as we worked on our publications (McCullough and Maguire 2021, 2022, 2023). I was asked by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in Melbourne to comment on the Terms of Reference for a, soon to be announced, Royal Commission on the relationship between the State of Victoria and First Peoples’. Royal Commissions have a particular place in Australia. They are independent of Government and are created to examine matters of significance. They have broad powers to hold hearings, call witnesses under oath and compel evidence. They are designed to make recommendations about what should change.
The Yoorrook Justice Commission was set up by agreement between the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government, although independent of both. Its objectives included the development of a shared understanding among all Victorians of the impact of colonization and to make recommendations on reform. I was asked to join an expert advisory panel and work on the criminal justice strand. This culminated in myself and Professor McCullough giving formal evidence (through the magic of Microsoft Teams) to the Commissioners on policing and police oversight as part of their hearings (Maguire and McCullough, 2022). It was a rather surreal experience siting in a London hotel where I had been working, being cross examined by the Inquiry Senior Counsel on policing matters.
We argued that independent oversight of the police is essential to police accountability and public confidence in policing. A low level of trust is particularly high among Victorian First Peoples’ and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations. Victorian First Peoples’ we argued were disproportionately policed, coerced and punished. Our submission called for the establishment of an independent adequately resourced, appropriately empowered stand-alone body to respond to police complaints.
Specifically, it called for the system of oversight in Victoria to move from civilian review to a civilian control model. The source of the problem was inadequacies of the current police oversight mechanisms. The oversight organisation, the awkwardly named, Independent Broad Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) dealt with only 2% of complaints against the police. The remainder were investigated by the police themselves, not particularly effectively. Our argument was one of many in Victoria calling for the creation of a new approach to police oversight (#police ombudsman). The Yoorrook Report into child protection and criminal justice systems (Yoorrook, 2023) included the recommendation to the Victorian Government to establish and adequately resource an independent police oversight authority to investigate and determine all complaints about the police.
The weakness of police oversight is not unique to Victoria. It was a surprise to me, however, how much interest there was on the Northern Ireland model of police oversight. It is recognized as one of the strongest models in the world as it deals with all complaints against the police, staff have the powers of a police officer (including arrest) and can initiate investigations on its own accord.
It was because of the strengths of the Northern Ireland model I was asked to give evidence to another Royal Commission in Queensland. It had been established as a result of a particularly horrific domestic violence incident in which a family had been killed. On this occasion I worked with Professor Tim Prenzler, University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, who is one of the leading experts on police oversight in the world. Our submission to the Independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service Responses to Domestic and Family Violence again highlighted the inadequacies of police oversight in Queensland (similar to those identified in Victoria) and called for a new independent oversight organisation (Prenzler and Maguire, 2022; 2023). This was accepted by the Inquiry and included in their Final Report (Richards, 2022).
The openness of Australians to consider experience from elsewhere was refreshing, notwithstanding the problems of transplanting what works in one place to another jurisdiction. Readers in Northern Ireland will identify with many of the problems in Australia, including historically the absence of community confidence in policing and how they deal with complaints, and sections of the population who were over policed and underserved. Factors which helped to create the models of police oversight in Northern Ireland. At the same time the pressures which are specific to Australia will influence and shape how the debate unfolds.
There is as they say may a slip between cup and lip. Despite the call for new police oversight, arising from two Royal Commissions, the mood music is not great. The Labour Government in Victoria are already back tracking on their commitment to implement all Yoorrook recommendations and a new conservative Government in Queensland is unlikely to introduce radical change in policing. In both States the police unions, are powerful forces of resistance to change. We shall watch this space with interest!
Thus, what started as an initial break from policing issues in Northern Ireland has led to an ongoing interest in matters Australian. Occasionally I get asked by the media to comment on particular issues (see for example Lipsom 2023) on policing and oversight. It’s always with the caveat that different circumstances might apply. At the same time there are always lessons to be learned from other jurisdictions. That works for us as well.
Resources
Biography
Michael Maguire is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.
Michael served as the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland from July 2012 to July 2019. He was previously Chief Inspector of the Criminal Justice Inspectorate in Northern Ireland.
He was appointed a CBE – Commander of the Order of the British Empire – in the 2019 Birthday Honours.
The featured image has been used courtesy of a Creative Commons license.
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