Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are various reasons to remember 7 April 2020—the drama of the High Court acquittal and later the dramatic film taken by helicopter of Pell's release from 12 months of solitary confinement in Victoria's Barwon high-security prison. But another reason is the response of the Victorian Premier, alias 'Chairman Dan'. Andrews could barely conceal his upset at the decision. Not prepared even to concede that the seven High Court judges might have released an innocent man, Andrews said:

I make no comment about today's High Court decision.

But I have a message for every single victim and survivor of child sex abuse:

I see you.

I hear you.

I believe you.

Vintage Andrews—a two-fingered salute to the High Court and an eloquent sign of his willingness to accept a complaint, however improbable, because it involved a member of the Catholic clergy. Is that to be Victorian government policy? As Chris Merritt wrote in The Australian:

Relevant evidence about the complainant—

whom I shall call 'J'—

was kept from the jury by virtue of legislation that was put in place with the clear intention of protecting those who claim to be victims of sexual assault.

Unquestionably, there are thousands of Australians whose lives have been damaged, often irreparably, by sexual abuse, as the McClelland royal commission found; but it does them no favours when a government overreaches by replacing the presumption of innocence with one of guilt.

But there are certain royal commissions that Andrews pays less attention to, like the Lawyer X royal commission that exposed corrupt police practices which resulted in tainted prosecutions, trials and the overturning of criminal convictions. Despite months now having passed and notwithstanding the recommendation of a special investigator, we haven't seen the appointment of that investigator. Perhaps the Victoria Police are hoping that the Victorian public might just forget about Lawyer X. Perhaps the praise lavished by the Premier on Deputy Commissioner Ashton in 2020, whom he described—after the evidence was in about him—as 'an outstanding Victorian, might make adverse action against him a bit too difficult.

And so I turn to Pell's prosecution in Victoria. In early 2013, a decision was made within Vic Pol to get Pell—so much was considered, in evidence given by Detective Superintendent Paul Sheridan at Pell's committal hearing. In November 2012, Vic Pol set up the SANO Task Force, led by Michael Dwyer. It was the same Dwyer who in March 2013 set up Operation Tethering on a hunch, according to Melbourne journalist Morris-Marr. The progress of Operation Tethering is intriguing. When Pell's barrister asked Sheridan at the committal whether Operation Tethering was a 'get Pell' operation, given that it was set up a year before any complaints about Pell had been made, Sheridan told the court, 'I wouldn't use those words but I guess you could term it the way you did.'

Confined to only Pell, a more accurate name would have been Operation Pell. That is why some have characterised the probe as having an accused in search of a crime. Nothing much happened until 2014, when VicPol Senior Constable Ray took a statement from a man, whom I shall call Smith, who made some bizarre allegations against Pell concerning Lake Boga. Smith, as it happened, had a history of admissions to psychiatric hospitals. VicPol put Smith's allegations to Pell, who told police they were false and absurd.

By the end of March 2014 high-profile radio hosts would tell Victorian listeners of a story that was to break, describing lawyer X as one of the biggest law and order scandals in Victorian state history. On 1 April 2014, Ashton knew well of the scandal. In an email exchange Morton, assistant director of media and corporate communications, advised Ashton not to make a media appearance in response to the lawyer X scandal because forthcoming announcements about Cardinal Pell could distract media and public attention. Morton wrote: 'The Pell stuff is coming tomorrow and will knock this way off the front page.' What was the Pell stuff? Perhaps it was a reference to the forthcoming ABC 7.30 report, which would make serious allegations against Pell and which went to air the following week. Were the police working hand in glove with the ABC?

In December 2014, Bernard Barrett once again becomes something of a middleman between J's mother and VicPol. The initial contact did not concern Pell but a former priest, Galea, who had died back in 2002. Somehow the complainant would come to allege vicious assaults against him and another choirboy, whom I shall name R. Barrett referred J to Ms Waller. Waller, Broken Rites, Barrett and the ABC Four Corners became topics on the Twittersphere throughout this period. Someone knows something is happening behind the scenes. By April 2014, Tethering's record logs showed the operation—that is, the Pell investigation—had essentially lain dormant from 2013 and the matter now had priority. Why did that happen all of a sudden? What had happened with VicPol? When Richter QC probed informant Reed as to why, after two years, the investigation had been given priority status, Reed untruthfully answered, 'Oh, I don't recall. Just simply that it had been sitting there, I would presume.' He repeated that he did not recall what made it a priority.

In May 2014, Barrett spoke with J regarding his allegations. Barrett, of course, was centrally involved in 2002 in encouraging a chap called Scott to make allegations against Pell going back to the 1960s. Perhaps Barrett had unfinished business. In June 2014, J made his first police statement. In July 2014, J made a second statement, correcting aspects of the first one. In the months that followed, complainants suddenly appeared in Ballarat, giving inconsistent and improbable accounts of abuse. VicPol appeared to accept them as gospel truth. In September 2015, Tethering had worked up three sets of allegations against Pell at three different locations and in three different time periods. They were looking promising in the campaign to get Pell.

Just before Christmas 2015, SANO task force made a public call for witnesses of sexual abuse of an unknown number of male victims who were 14 years of age at time that allegedly occurred at the cathedral. By June 2017, after a series of back-and-forth manoeuvres with the Office of Public Prosecutions, VicPol decided to lay charges against Pell. Did Andrews know what was happening behind the scenes—after all, Andrews's former chief of staff, Brett Curran, was now working with Ashton? Was there a belt-and-road Chinese wall to prevent whispers? The laying of criminal charges against the most senior Australian Catholic would eviscerate the reputation of the cardinal in the community. The police knew that, from that moment going forward, it would be not so much for the prosecution to prove guilt; rather it would be for Pell to prove his innocence. That was so even before the ABC and other media devoted thousands of dollars and hours to attempt to poison the mind of the community against the cardinal. Lots of smoke, so there must be fire. Experienced prosecutors publicly expressed their concerns as to whether Pell could ever receive a fair trial given the hostility of the media against him.

Senior police, armed with their potpourri of allegations, decided they would conduct a police interview of Pell. Three policemen went to Rome: Patton, Sheridan and Reed. Of course, the trip could not have happened without Ashton authorising it and sending his deputy. It was odd in its own way that, having flown all the way to Rome for the purpose of interviewing Pell, Patton stood outside the interview. Why did Patton go? What occupied him while he was there? What did Patton report to Ashton? Did Ashton report further along the chain? Those who walk the corridors in Victoria speak of Sheridan as an honest, hardworking detective. That is why Sheridan's own role in the investigation is worth looking into, for it's likely that he knows everything that was going on behind the scenes within VicPol. Sheridan was one of the two persons present throughout the entire interview in Rome, and Sheridan barely asked a question. He certainly did not challenge any of Pell's answers to the myriad of allegations put to him by Reed. Pell answered every question, forcefully denying the allegations and telling them whom they should speak to for corroboration. Despite all of that, VicPol decided to press on with charging Pell—why?

The time has come for a royal commission—not a tame and inconclusive inquiry into the relationship between the Victorian Labor government and VicPol. The ALP 'red shirts' matter—again Curran and Ashton were central—lawyer X, the Pell prosecution, the connections between Ashton and Spring Street over private security and hotel quarantining, and other matters all need examination. This is more than just about Cardinal Pell; it is about whether the people of Victoria can have confidence in VicPol to be properly independent of government and not an agency of the executive of the day.