ASSAULT OF Mr MICHAEL STACK
The Hon. M. J. GALLACHER: I ask the Attorney General, and Minister for Industrial Relations, representing the Minister for Police, a question. I refer to disciplinary action being taken against police officers as a result of the violent bashing at the police Minister's hotel. How is it that the patrol commander of The Rocks police, Chief Inspector Burke, is merely being managerially counselled for failing to direct that a full investigation be carried out when, at the same time, a very junior officer, Constable Borland, is facing much more serious charges of neglect and omission of duty? Is the junior officer being made a scapegoat for the inaction of his senior colleagues. How well does the Minister for Police know Chief Inspector Burke, whose office is directly opposite the police Minister's hotel?
The Hon. J. W. SHAW: On the face of it I would not have thought that there was an incongruity about officers at different levels being dealt with differently in terms of disciplinary allegations. After all, one officer might have been more blameworthy than another. I would not have thought there was any magical formula to be drawn from the rank of the officer involved in relation to what charges might be preferred as a disciplinary matter, or how the officer might be dealt with. Nevertheless, despite what seems to be an illogicality in the question, I will refer it to the Minister for Police and obtain a response.