The ABC’s Mark Willacy and colleagues presented a Four Corners report (12.6.17) detailing the accounts of whistleblower police officers who thirty years ago helped reporter Chris Masters to uncover a network of corrupt Queensland police, giving rise to the Fitzgerald Inquiry in 1987.
‘It was an unusual assignment, and Australian Federal Police officer Dave Moore wasn’t happy about it.
‘”I had a call to go and visit the assistant commissioner,” he recounted. “He asked me to keep a lookout for a bloke by the name of Chris Masters from Four Corners.”
‘To Mr Moore, babysitting a journalist was not part of his remit. “I’ll be honest, I told [my assistant commissioner] I didn’t want to do the job,” he said. But an order was an order.
‘It was 1987, and the AFP hierarchy had information that Masters was in danger. He wasn’t at risk from the criminal underworld, but from the corrupt members of the Queensland police.
‘”It was made very clear that they were concerned for Chris’s safety,” said Mr Moore, speaking for the first time about the AFP’s secret role in protecting the Four Corners reporter.’