Friday, October 13, 2017

Age Tapes that Never Age in the World Where Power Corrupts

Back in 1980s I was indexing magazine articles and newspaper clippings at the NSW Parliamentary Library. 

One of the biggest stories which was deep dived by clippings librarians was "The Age tapes" affair, a landmark in Australian judicial-political history. In February 1984, The Age obtained a series of recordings made by the New South Wales Police Force and the Australian Federal Police, which were published as a three-part series entitled 'Network of Influence'.(Wiki references) The transcripts revealed conversations between High CourtJudge Lionel Murphy and a magistrate, which led to a Royal Commission and the conviction of Justice Murphy on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The publication of the tapes also prompted the New South Wales government to pass the Listening Devices Act 1984, which tightened up the provisions of the 1969 Act under which the illegal police buggings and tapings had taken place.[more wiki references]

The Transcript stories were usually covered by Wendy Bacon and Bob Bottom as well as other investigative journalists... the Tapes

The Age Tapes Collection of 3000 telephone conversations illegally taped (and allegedly later dumped at sea) and some were published in the Age newspaper.

More than 30 years after his death, sensational new allegations have been aired about former High Court judge Lionel Murphy including bribery, corruption, secret commissions via a Swiss bank account and perverting the course of justice.

The allegations, contained in documents released by Federal Parliament following the expiry of a 30-year secrecy provision, also include claims Murphy used the then NSW Premier Neville Wran to advance the business interests of crime boss Abe Saffron.


1985-86: Bottom / Stewart-possible corruption in Australian judiciary, NSW police, NSW politics re Age tapes.



1 Aug 2009 · The Age tapes (February 1984) were transcripts from telephone ... But two years later Independent MP John Hatton, holding the ...


Mr John Hatton, the Independent member of the Legislative Assembly for the South ... I referred to this issue earlier, but the Age tapes shed further light on it.


MoAD Oral Histories John Campbell - Oral History Transcript Interview with John ... our Hansard staff was asked by the Senate to transcribe those Age tapes


11 Jun 2011 · ... him in this newspaper in what became known as The Age Tapes. ... to light but some say a set of transcripts survived and have

Out of Court by W Bacon · 1987

Last week’s release of the Class A files of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into allegations against Justice Lionel Murphy reopened a longstanding controversy about the behaviour of the former Labor attorney-general. (The Class B files, concerned simply with the legal definition of the word “misbehaviour” in section 72 of the Constitution, were published in December last year.)

Writing about the Class A files is difficult. It is difficult because the seventy-four files — more than 1700 kilobytes of data in PDF format — are a chaotic jumble of typed memoranda, handwritten notes, correspondence, photocopies, extracts or transcripts from records of interview (often not clearly identified), and excerpts from Hansard, the National Times and Age newspapers, and Penthousemagazine. Significant information is often tucked away in strange places, and I doubt if anyone has yet unearthed it all

Lionel Murphy and the presumption of guilt





Parliamentary_Commission of Inquiry - Parliament Australia - Age Tape Enquiry



Ryan, who would later emerge as the key figure in the 'Age tapes material', was ... of pages of transcripts were not identified, and the material itself— whether



30 Oct 1987 · ... Brian Toohey, Marian Wilkinson and Wendy Bacon as the leading ... with The Age tapes, the Wran Royal Commission and the wonderful ...

Royal Commission Transcript ( Commissioner Urquhart). SA PCA. South Australian Police Complaints Authority. SCAT.

Colleen Ryan · 2014 · Social Science
The telephone transcripts became known as 'The Age Tapes' and they led to a ... and exposés on corrupt NSW police were delivered by Wendy Bacon


1 Apr 2017 · The Age tapes, as they became known, contained salacious ... 1999, journalists David Marr and Wendy Bacon revealed that before he died ...

20 Jun 1984 · and Ms. Wendy Bacon wish to place before the Committee the