Government continues to ignore elephant in the room

Proposed legislation that will increase the powers of the OPI without addressing the wider public sector, highlights the government’s failure to tackle the elephant in the room.

Yet again, the government has failed to meet the needs of the community in this state and deal with corruption across the public sector, including politicians.

The Brumby Government is riding into the sunset, dragging a bush behind its horse to cover its tracks and stay ahead of the posse – we must again ask of Mr Brumby: what have you got to hide?

This legislation has been introduced with indecent haste. The Police Association, a crucial stakeholder in decisions that affect police members, was not consulted, nor was any evidence brought forward that demonstrated the need for OPI officers to carry firearms.

What’s more absurd, is that the OPI will continue to be unaccountable under a model that will see the man who effectively wrote this legislation, the Ombudsman, oversight the future actions of the OPI.

Is the Ombudsman George Brouwer likely to be critical of his own creation?

What this legislation does, is establish police as an underclass in Victoria. The OPI, an untouchable and armed body that investigates only police is an absolute affront to our members. The legislation degrades and discriminates against police officers and probably offends the government’s own Human Rights Legislation.

We will analyse the contents of the Bill and act on the wishes of our members, despite not being consulted by government.

Greg Davies

Discipline/Legal Manager