Saturday April 9, 1994
Quote: Mr Peter Cleeland, chairman of the parliamentary committee overseeing the National Crime Authority, said he was frustrated that witness protection in Australia remained fragmented and disorganized - six years after a national investigation recommended a thoroughgoing review.
``There has been no overall national approach to the problem, and all governments should be criticised over it," he said.
Mr Cleeland said there was bureaucratic duplication, with states running their own programs.
``Most successful prosecutions of organised crime involve informers and we must look after them," he said.
He said the National Crime Authority parliamentary committee reviewed witness protection around Australia in 1988 and felt the problems identified six years ago still remained. ``It has been put to the bottom of the list," he complained.
Mr Cleeland said he knew the secret witness known as ``Miss Jones", the woman who gave evidence against corrupt New South Wales policeman Roger Rogerson, and felt her case had been handled poorly. ``She put her life on the line and without her we wouldn't have got a number of important convictions," he said.
Report by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the
National Crime Authority
Australian Government Publishing Service
Canberra 1989
