Author of the corruption best-sellers Smuggled and Smuggled-2 has been further vindicated by yet another senior officer of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
Mr John Kite a senior Manager with NPWS at Thredbo in 1997 has this week confirmed Hoser's assertions that corruption within the NPWS is endemic and out-of-control.
This week a spokesman for NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) confirmed that the former Supreme Court judge Mr John Slattery last month began investigating a complaint from Mr Kite, who was sacked by the NPWS. The Slattery inquiry has resulted from an ICAC probe into it's staff to discover if any of them have been improperly killing off complaints before they are investigated.
This scandal was first exposed by Raymond Hoser in Smuggled-2 that was published in 1996.
Hoser's information came directly from another former NPWS employee, Mr. Clive Bennett.
Bennett's complaint detailing corruption within NPWS management, including evidence of homicides and other serious matters was similarly whitewashed by ICAC investigators.
ICAC's public notice of the inquiry states that Mr Slattery is investigating a document, apparently written by a National Parks officer, that says if Mr Kite made a complaint to ICAC about the National Parks service then "we get our contact to deal with it". The allegations by Kite include details of a letter written by someone within the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service that spells out how they should go about discrediting and/or silencing a whistleblower. The internal letter, from what has been read to us from Channel Nine's Ross Colthart (running a segment on the scandal tomorrow on the Sunday program), is amazingly frank, saying all the things we know they get up to, but one would have thought would have too much sense ever to put in writing. Their line is that the letter is a forgery (a bit like the Victoria Police and Vicroads did to Hoser in 1994 and have since been exposed for), and our esteemed NSW ICAC is conducting an investigation into the letter's authenticity. The complaint alleges that ICAC was also allegedly implicated in it, because the letter refers to 'our contact' in ICAC dealing with something if necessary. For further details refer to the early chapters of Smuggled-2 and the early chapters of Smuggled (1) published in 1993. The latest exposures of corruption within the NPWS and ICAC have led both Hoser and Bennett to call for a high-level open inquiry into the NPWS and ICAC. One suggestion is for an open Royal Commission into both departments, preferably headed by a person with known impartiality and integrity - not necessarily a lawyer or judge, but rather from someone who is trained to find the truth - not obscure it - like many lawyers do.