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Police State (1989)

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The breakthrough education content clip 1

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Sergeant Dillon, movingly played by himself, tells the President of the Commission of Inquiry (Nick Tate) how he discovered a bottle of Chivas Regal whisky in his locker, to which he had the only key. He took the bottle home to avoid a fuss with his colleagues but never opened it. He tells a hushed hearing that whenever he looked at that unopened bottle, it represented for him the corruption of the Queensland Police Force.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

Joh Bjelke-Petersen had been Premier of Queensland for 29 years, and appeared unstoppable as he ran his 'Joh for PM’ campaign. Nothing was expected from this Special Inquiry, which followed in a long line of previous Inquiries that had found no evidence of police corruption. This time the combination of the president of the Inquiry, Tony Fitzgerald (here played by Nick Tate), and the Counsel assisting, Gary Crooke (Lewis Fitz-Gerald), was to prove a devastating combination while Chris Master’s Four Corners program Moonlight State and the nightly current affairs input of the ABC’s Queensland reporter Quentin Dempster, maintained public focus on the issue.

Having Sergeant Dillon represent himself in the telemovie is a moving and shocking indictment of those exposed by the Royal Commission.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows a re-creation of Sergeant Colin Dillon, played by himself, giving evidence to the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption in Queensland in 1987 about how a bottle of expensive Scotch whisky was put in his locker as a bribe and how, while he never opened it, it came to symbolise his tacit complicity in police corruption. The clip opens with Assistant Police Commissioner Graeme Parker (Bill Hunter) on the phone to Police Commissioner Terence Lewis. Parker says ‘We’re all going to go’, and Lewis’s voice is heard replying that they will be all right if they stick together.

Educational value points

  • Colin Dillon was the first police officer to give evidence of corruption in the Qld police force and his testimony was a breakthrough for the Fitzgerald Inquiry in that it helped break the code of silence that had allowed corruption to flourish. Dillon’s testimony implicated his superior, Detective Sergeant Harry Burgess, who then gave evidence implicating senior officers including Parker, whose evidence in turn incriminated Commissioner Lewis.
  • Endemic corruption such as that found in the Qld police force relies on people maintaining a code of silence, even those such as Dillon who was not actively taking bribes, and Tony Fitzgerald QC, chair of the Inquiry, was able to break the code by offering police officers who gave evidence indemnity from prosecution. Corrupt officers accepted the offer of immunity rather than face charges and so created a chain of incrimination.
  • Dillon’s testimony reveals how difficult some moral dilemmas can be, especially when the options are far from clear-cut and may have far-reaching consequences. Accepting the whisky meant turning a blind eye to corruption. Refusal meant ostracism and possible violence by colleagues. The dilemma was compounded by the fact that as Qld’s first Indigenous police officer Dillon had worked hard to overcome racism in the force and to be accepted.
  • Judicial inquiries such as the Fitzgerald Inquiry are set up by governments to investigate matters of public importance, in this case allegations of police corruption, that cannot be investigated through the usual police channels. Lawyers, such as the one seen in the clip, are appointed as counsel assisting the inquiry and are responsible for gathering and presenting evidence.
  • Dillon, who belonged to the Licensing Branch which policed gambling and prostitution and was at the centre of corruption allegations, remained in the Qld force after the Fitzgerald Inquiry. When he retired as an inspector in 2000 he was the highest ranked Indigenous police officer in Australia. He has continued to campaign against corruption and racism, in particular highlighting the treatment of Indigenous prisoners in Qld jails.
  • Docudramas such as Police State are fact-based representations that claim to provide fairly accurate dramatisations of real historical events. However, in using the conventions of drama, these films can take artistic licence that may blur the distinction between known facts and speculation. Police State combined re-enactments of the Fitzgerald Inquiry that were based on inquiry transcripts with television coverage and a voice-over narration.