News night with Paul Griffin.
Good evening and welcome to News night. The Royal Commission into allegations against
New South Wales Premier Neville Rand opened in Sydney today and already there have been
some startling disclosures and that story heads our program tonight. We'll also be examining
criticism of the findings of the Stuart Drug Commission and later in the program I'll be
talking in our studio with Welfare Minister Terry White about criticisms of Queensland's
prisons. But first the Rand Royal Commission. The Royal Commission into allegations against
Premier Neville Rand began taking evidence today on charges telecast last month by the
ABC Four Corners program. The Commission is investigating whether former Chiefs to Panderley
Magistrate Murray Farquhar influenced a court hearing involving ex-league boss Kevin Humphreys
and if so whether Premier Rand asked him to do it. Today two senior magistrates gave evidence
about an alleged phone call from the Premier to Mr Farquhar. A third said a written report
was ignored by his superiors.
For the Premier Neville Rand, former Chief Magistrate Murray Farquhar and the once rugby
league boss Kevin Humphreys it was the start of a day they'd been preparing for since that
Four Corners program on April the 30th. The Royal Commissioner Sir Lawrence Street has
suspended his usual duties as Chief Justice of New South Wales to head the inquiry. Today
he called the first evidence. It came in the form of a letter written by Kevin Jones the
Magistrate who heard and eventually dismissed the charges against Kevin Humphreys. In it
Mr Jones says the former Chief Magistrate Murray Farquhar called him aside before the
start of the hearing on the 11th of August 1977. According to Mr Jones this is what Mr
Farquhar said. The Premier contacted me and he wants Humphreys discharged. Mr Jones said
he was stunned and decided to go ahead with the hearing and deal with it on its merits.
He'll give direct evidence to the Commission sometime next week. The first witness to give
evidence today was Kevin Waller one of the state's most senior magistrates. He said Mr
Farquhar's assistant came into the room on that day in 1977 and said in front of several
magistrates Mr Farquhar the Premier is on the phone. About 30 minutes later he saw Mr
Farquhar call Magistrate Jones into his office for a private talk. After that meeting Mr
Waller said Mr Jones told him you'll never guess what has happened. Rand has told Farquhar
the Government has no interest in seeing Humphreys go to trial. Mr Waller replied stuff Rand
just do the case if they want to pull it out let them do it up there. In other words he
explained to the Commission the Government could file a no bill and the charges would
be dropped. Mr Waller said he was very annoyed and told perhaps a dozen people about it
over several years but lately thought the issue had died. Mr Waller told the Commission
today that he had been approached in April by two members of the ABC's Four Corners
team. He had several meetings with them three in all and the information that he passed
on to them was eventually used in that Four Corners program which triggered the Royal
Commission. Alex Shan QC representing Mr Rand then cross examined Magistrate Waller and
suggested there may have been no phone call and that someone was just using the Premier's
name. Mr Waller said perhaps that was right but he was reporting only what he'd heard.
It was also revealed today that another former Senior Magistrate Mr Waller had reported the
alleged interference in the Humphreys case to the then head of the Public Service Board
back in 1979 but nothing was ever made public. Mr Waller will be called before the Royal
Commission to give evidence tomorrow. Police forces throughout Australia had a who, us
reaction today to accusations of corruption outlined in the Stuart Royal Commission.
In Brisbane Queensland Police Union President Senior Sergeant Cole Chant said the generalisations
left a taint on all police. Against Queensland policemen that they should have probably presented
some indictments and gone further with it than just making general submissions that
these things are rife in the community or in the police community. Politically the Commission
findings have had a varied reaction. Victoria and New South Wales have backed a joint nationally
sponsored effort to fight drug trafficking. Here Premier Joe Biocca Pederson continues
to oppose the establishment of a National Crimes Commission which seemingly puts him
at odds with his own Police Minister. Any Government that is informed of problem areas
should be prepared to look realistically and say we could change our mind. In Townfull
reaction to Commission suggestions that North Queensland is Australia's major drug link
to the outside world today brought mixed thoughts as Rick Anderson reports. Police and undercover
agents in North Queensland have been acutely aware of the drug problem for some time and
in 1981 a special squad of police swooped on the Cape Tribulation area following reports
of massive drug dealings in the area. The result a major seizure of drugs although the
ringleaders of the plantation had fled from the scene only hours earlier. But it was only
to be one of the major discoveries in the North in the next 18 months. West of Townsville
a major haul of marijuana was uncovered outside of Charters Towers. The major discoveries
were coupled with several unsolved murders in the North with the most puzzling the fatal
shooting of a couple of gelatin in the table lands. Over the past two years police in the
North have been pressing for what they term as urgent reinforcements to help bolster patrols
in what they describe as one of the largest and most inaccessible areas in Australia.
A 34 year old Jindalee man today was told he was unfit for human society by a Supreme
Court judge who had just sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder. Gregory James
Clark of Trevery Street Jindalee had been found guilty to the murder last year of Inala taxi
driver Georgina Jensen. 36 year old Mrs Jensen a mother of two who drove cabs on a casual
basis to help supplement her family income picked up a fare at the Richlands Tavern late
at night on the 29th of May last year. Her body was found in long grass at Wakehol next
day. Police evidence was that Mrs Jensen had been stabbed 20 times including a close grouping
of 11 wounds in the centre of the back. Six days later Clark appeared in the Western District's
Magistrates Court at Inala charged with her murder. Passing sentence today Mr Justice
Connolly told Clark and the Supreme Court that he was unfit for human society and if
he ever came up for parole he as trial judge would recommend that the accused never be
released. Clark has now begun that life sentence. In Darwin Lindy Chamberlain convicted for
the murder of her 10 week old daughter Azaria has been refused an application to have her
baby daughter Kalia with her in jail. The baby now six months old is living with her
father Michael Chamberlain and brothers Aidan and Regan near Newcastle. On the decision
to turn down the application Northern Territory Minister for Community Development Ian Tuxworth
said inquiries revealed that Kalia was already living in a loving and caring environment.
Warren Clark for NewsNight. Three people were extradited from Townsville today in connection
with an armed robbery in Sydney. They'll appear in the Waverley Court of Petty Sessions in
Sydney tomorrow. Robert Dean reports. 27 year old Shane Spenlove appeared in Townsville
Magistrates Court charged with murder and armed robbery while 24 year old Gillian Ricketts
was charged with being an accessory after the fact and armed robbery. A third man Russell
Keith Green faced the same charges as Spenlove. Green was charged in Ingham Magistrates Court
and was extradited from Townsville on a later flight from the other two. Spenlove and Ricketts
were in the custody of Sydney detectives when they arrived at Townsville Airport this afternoon.
When they appeared in court earlier neither gave any evidence or asked questions while
in the dock. Spenlove and Green have both been charged with the murder of chemist Richard
Michael Clanchy on the 23rd of May at Double Bay in Sydney. Green was intercepted by detectives
who stopped a Greyhound bus near Cardwell while the other two were caught in Townsville.
Some prisoners in Queensland jails getting a rough deal. Welfare Services Minister Terry
White thinks just the opposite. In fact he thinks there is too much emphasis these days
on the plight of the criminal and not enough on the plight of the victim. Mr White will
be joining me in the studio right after this break.
Welcome back to Newsnight. The debate on the state of Queensland's prison system has continued
this week with further allegations by the Prisoners Action Group on the state of the
prisoners in our system. And to answer some of these allegations this evening the Minister
responsible for prisons in Queensland Mr Terry White. Good evening sir. Hello Paul. Is there
need for drastic reform of our prison system? Now I don't really think so. What has to happen
is a gradual period of change and that's what we've been doing in Queensland. If you introduce
a dramatic series of reforms in any prison system you'll run into a great deal of difficulty.
And this has been the problem for example that they had in New South Wales where they
came in with all these new trendy ideas, tried to turn the prison system upside down overnight.
The end consequence of it was that one jail was completely burnt down, four people were
murdered in Parramatta jail, recently a prison warden was almost hung and they're the sort
of great behaviour problems that you have. Queensland has had a long tradition of having
a well run prison system and what has happened over the years, progressive and enlightened
reforms have been introduced gradually in concert with the needs of all people involved
in the system. This hasn't stopped the criticism that's constantly come from say the Prisoners
Action Group, Mr Kev Hooper of course and others. Well of course Mr Hooper is a constant
critic and I think we all know what that's all about. The Prison Action Group have been
a very militant group of people, most of them have got a chip on their shoulder, most of
them don't seem to have any concern whatsoever for the victims of crimes. I'm getting a little
bit tired, in fact I've had a gut full of all this talk about prisoners' rights and
I think it's time the public started to hear a little bit about the victims of these crimes.
Now we've got people who have been raped, murdered, they've had their homes robbed,
they've been assaulted at times and things of this nature. Now those people have been
seriously offended against and if somebody's convicted of a major crime and sent to jail
well they have to pay their penalty. But that doesn't detract from the fact that prisoners
do in fact have rights and who is there at the moment to ensure that those rights are
observed? Well if a prisoner has a grievance, he has a number of avenues to which to approach.
Firstly he can approach the ombudsman, secondly he can approach the visiting magistrate who
are at the prisons regularly, thirdly he has avenue to legal advice and he can have either
his own solicitor or if he hasn't got the wherewithal to pay for a private solicitor
we can arrange legal aid and that's a regular occurrence. He indeed can write to me as the
minister responsible so he's got at least five avenues of which to approach if a prisoner
has a legitimate grievance. Now we've had grievances in the prisons in Queensland since
I've been the minister responsible. We always take them seriously, we look into them and
for example we had problems in the Rockhampton jail in the very first year I was in the ministry.
We had a magisterial inquiry and as a consequence of that action was taken against both prisoners
and prison officers so that if there is a genuine complaint.