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Scully Spanked
March 23rd 2005

Dr. Arthur Chesterfield-Evans will attempt to remove one of the Minister for Police, Carl Scully, key terms of reference for the Inquiry into Macquarie Fields "the extent to which the action of any members of parliament who, behaving like "armchair generals", compromised police operations in the Macquarie fields area."

"The terms of reference should be aimed at getting to the bottom of what happened at Macquarie Fields, not scoring political points!" he said.

"The NSW Government is proposing to investigate the NSW Opposition Leader's alleged 'compromising' of an ongoing police operations by mentioning that a suspects house was bugged by the police on the 10th March 2005. 2GB presenter, Mr Alan Jones on his radio programme earlier that day, initially exposed this! If the government wants to find the source of the leak then the Committee should talk to Mr Jones," he said.

"The main reason I wish to remove this irrelevant paragraph is because I have received expert advice that there is NO authority for a Minister to request a committee to investigate the actions of a Member of Parliament," he said.

"I am not doing this out of support for the Opposition, but the government's attempt to score cheap political points offends the separation of powers and the supposedly bi-partisan nature of Legislative Council Committees," he said.

"The proposed Inquiry into Macquarie Fields will investigate the events leading up to the four days of rioting and will look for long term solutions. Last year there was a riot in Redfern and this year Macquarie Fields. Both are areas with poor services and high youth unemployment and a reputation characterized by crime and a bad relationship between the community and the police. There are patterns here that should be investigated and resolved to make Sydney a safer place for all!" he said.

"To have allowed the government to deflect attention from these basic issues, in order to score points against the Opposition, a waste of taxpayer's money and my time as a member of the Committee," he concluded.