Free Jacks and Jokers by Matthew Condon Page A

… Mr N. Turner M.L.A … numerous other callers’.
    As for Raymond Wells Whitrod, he immediately offered his resignation, defeated.
    The Man with a Light Touch
    Whitrod’s sudden departure shocked the state.
    The press reported the following day that Whitrod personally handed in his typed resignation to Minister Newbery, and it was taken straightaway to Cabinet and approved unanimously. Whitrod cited personal reasons for leaving.
    (Lewis says he got a call from Don ‘Shady’ Lane in Brisbane about the Cabinet vote: ‘I assume it was Don Lane – they said when it came up in Cabinet about Mr Whitrod putting in his resignation, [Russ] Hinze said, “Accept it before the bastard changes his mind.” ’)
    Speed seemed to have been of the essence. The Courier-Mail reported that following the unanimous vote ‘… a minute was sent immediately to the Governor [Sir Colin Hannah] for his signature, to make it an Executive Council decision.’
    The haste wasn’t the only insult to Whitrod. The government also announced an inquiry into criminal law enforcement, presentation of evidence and police investigation, interrogation, search and arrest techniques. (It would formally become the ‘Committee of Inquiry into the Enforcement of Criminal Law in Queensland’, or the Lucas Inquiry, presided over by Justice Geoffrey Lucas.) An investigation into any allegations of police corruption or malpractice was not included in the terms of reference.
    This gave a powerful if erroneous impression that the Bjelke-Petersen government wasn’t looking into any poor behaviour by the force itself, but was moving in to sort out the mess made by Whitrod’s shoddy tenure.
    Furthermore, on the day Whitrod resigned, Cabinet announced other police changes, one being that Brisbane Metropolitan Traffic superintendent, Inspector Michael Beattie – the officer charged with beating the female student on the head with his baton during a demonstration just over three months earlier – was given a promotion. It was another clear stab at Whitrod.
    When asked about Whitrod’s resignation, Bjelke-Petersen answered: ‘I did not expect it.’
    The former commissioner gave two weeks’ notice, and the press speculated that he was set to ‘blast’ the government before returning to civilian life. His final day would be Friday 26 November. On the following Monday, he planned to give a press conference. The government forthwith called for submissions for a new commissioner, though few doubted Lewis was the prime candidate.
    Throughout the rest of the week the press focused on the humble Inspector Lewis, seeking out public opinion in the Charleville police district. He was described as an ‘arch-diplomat when he was a judge at the recent local Booga Woongaroo Festival tiny tots competition’, and ‘a man who has the secret of getting on with people’. He had learned his ‘light touch’ as head of the JAB. In short, he had the respect of the people of Charleville and beyond.
    Days before the Cabinet meeting to formally appoint Lewis as Commissioner, the head of the CIU, Basil ‘The Hound’ Hicks, was contacted by then Transport Minister Keith Hooper, the Liberal member for Greenslopes.
    Hooper surreptitiously approached Hicks seeking information on Lewis. They then met secretly in Hooper’s car outside his house on the Sunday night before the Cabinet meeting. In short, Hooper wanted incriminating evidence on Lewis to stop his appointment to Commissioner.
    ‘He [Hooper] said some Liberals didn’t want the Premier to make Lewis Commissioner,’ Hicks later said. ‘They said he [Lewis] was corrupt.
    ‘He [Hooper] wanted something in writing – he wanted copies of files from the CIU. He said the Premier would not do anything until he got something in writing. I told him that if Lewis was made Commissioner, my head would be on the chopping block [if the files were supplied].
    ‘He [Hooper] said that if you can’t give me anything in writing, Lewis