Will there ever be real justice in Queensland?

by ray jackson, president, indigenous social justice association

is there a criminal charge within the statutes of qld. law that now-a/inspector hurley cannot be charged with and found to have no case to answer?

having killed mulrunji doomadgee back in 2004 and then found by an all-white townsville jury to have no case to answer we are now asked to accept that hurley, now seen to be overpaid on his insurance claims, can just comfortably pocket the dollars and, literally, laugh all the way to the bank. this is just outrageous! and criminally so, i would argue.

as an aside, i recently read that a canadian coroner has set aside a coronial inquest into the death of a first nations youth until such time as the coronial jury has first nations jurypersons on it. and rightfully so, we would say. had the townsville jury had some aboriginal representation then we are left to wonder what the jury decision may have been. some years ago i raised this racial anomaly re juries at a federal law forum only to find myself ostracised for the remainder of that forum. it seems that federal and state dpp's, judges, law professors, etc. have no wish to trouble their existence with this matter.

but to the fraud perpetrated by hurley.

hurley reportedly received near $35 000 from his own insurer for losses on palm island. he was also reported to have received near $103 000 from the qld. police service for reasons not explained anywhere. perhaps for trauma for killing mulrunji? $137 000 plus. not a bad day's work. other reports i have seen have stated that hurley is considered to be a millionaire, even perhaps, multiple, so such a pay-out is not all that a life-saving event to him.

the qld. cmc,after investigation, found that the qps payment should have deducted the private insurance payment from their payment prior to giving it to hurley. and rightly so. no one would agree to a double-dip payment except for the payee. things must be seen to be legitimate and fair. but those rules only apply to joe public.

being a copper makes you different but being a qld copper gives you just so many more perks. to be exonerated for a death in custody is, of course, normal fare, but a qld. cop actually also appears to get paid for it!

hurley's boss, police commissioner bob atkinson has asked (?) hurley to pay the $35 000 back but the big fella has told his boss no and has refused to do so.

i've got the answer, bob. sack the bastard and take the dollars owing out of any monies owed to him. simple and easy. you employ him, bob, so you can sack him for breaches of your commissioner's instructions.

but of course this is pure fantasy. bob would not dare do such an act. if he did the toxic backlash from the police union would float him out of office in disgrace. but wait, i hear you say, what about the qld police minister? alas the police minister, neil roberts, has shown even less enthusiasm for propriety than bob.

the fact that this money is supplied to the police service from state-wide taxpayers does not appear to raise a ripple with neither bob, neil,or anybody else in the qld. government. what ever happened to premier bligh's call for a corrupt-free qld? what indeed. the silence from that quarter is positively deafening.

the union says that hurley can pocket the money so we must all move on.

if there is any justice left in qld then i suppose the matter will finish up in court, all paid by the tax-payers, of course.

some years ago, as an official visitor visiting the mrrc, i was overpaid by some $4 000. right on xmas time too. there was no thought, well, a small one maybe, of me pocketing this money and declaring it to be mine. on contacting the accounts office they argued that such an overpayment was just not possible until they found it was. within a matter of several weeks the money was repaid and all the gaol cameras stopped following me.

another matter i would urge the cmc to investigate, as no one else in qld seems to be interested in doing so, is the two arguably suspicious deaths on palm island during the mulrunji cover-ups. i refer, of course, to the alleged suicide of mulrunji's son and his friend who was the witness in the police station on the night that mulrunji was killed. during such an investigation it would be mandatory for 'hurley's friend,' darren robinson, to be closely questioned on any involvement he may have had in either or both of these deaths.

it is now 2011 and we are still waiting.

will there ever be real justice in qld? i don't know but i do know that if we do not fight for it then it will never come to pass and we will continue on as we do now.

and to me that is totally unacceptable!

fkj