There is no good time for such an expose, but the juxtaposition of the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s report release with the anniversary of the government’s apology to those abused in state and faith-based care was particularly jarring.
Parliament began its business yesterday with reference to the apology and the National Day of Reflection and a time of silence to acknowledge those affected by abuse.
Then Mr Mitchell launched into a ministerial statement about the IPCA report.
He described the behaviour outlined in the IPCA report as utterly disgraceful.
He reminded everyone they should not forget at the core of this was a woman who had been severely let down by the previous police executive and the system.
As a father of daughters and an uncle of nieces he said he could not express how frustrated and disappointed he was after being made aware of the situation.
There is not room here to itemise all that went on and which is detailed in the 135-page IPCA report, but at the heart of it is, as Mr Mitchell alluded to, a woman who was not believed when she raised serious allegations about now disgraced former deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
The allegations raised by the woman, a former unsworn officer who had been in a sexual relationship with McSkimming, included sexual interaction without consent, threats to use an intimate visual recording, and misuse of a police credit card and police property to further a sexual relationship.
The allegations involved both criminal conduct and potential breaches of the Police Code of Conduct.
But instead of taking this seriously and investigating the matter according to proper practice in such situations, the rules were not followed.
McSkimming was seen as a victim and the woman was portrayed as the aggressor and charged with causing harm for allegedly posting digital communications to his email address.
The IPCA found there was serious misconduct by a number of senior police including the then Commissioner Andrew Coster, two deputy commissioners and an assistant commissioner.
This was seen by some within the police as designed to bring the investigation to a rapid and premature conclusion so as not to jeopardise McSkimming’s prospects of getting the role as the new Commissioner of Police.
This was a breathtaking abuse of process by Mr Coster.
Questions must now be asked about how much scrutiny was applied to Mr Coster before he was appointed to the role of chief executive of the new Social Investment Agency.
Mr Coster is now on gardening leave from that job.
The government has moved quickly to announce it is moving to install what it calls the strongest statutory oversight mechanism available, an Independent Inspector-General of police.
Police have also accepted the 13 recommendations in the IPCA report and commissioner Richard Chambers has been scathing about the revelations in the report, adamant this sort of behaviour is not in any way typical of police behaviour.
It is difficult not to feel sorry for those police doing the job the way the public expects them to, impartially and with integrity.
It is a hard enough job without attracting unwarranted negativity likely to flow from events such as this.
As well as repairing the damage in the wake of the McSkimming saga, Mr Chambers also has the task of finding out what has gone on with the false recording of 30,000 breath tests.
We do not doubt his determination to weed out anyone behaving badly.
He must be upfront about anything negative he finds.
The public needs to be confident that women, or anyone else, making complaints against anyone, including senior police, will always be treated properly.
