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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 2159 ..
MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister): Mr Speaker, I move:
That the Assembly expresses its deep regret at the death of former Police Commissioner Ronald Peter McAulay, AO, QPM, MAICD, FAIM, and tenders its profound sympathy to his wife and sons in their bereavement.
Mr Speaker, I and, I am sure, everybody here were saddened to learn of the death of the former Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Peter McAulay, from a respiratory illness on Tuesday, 14 November 1995. Peter had a distinguished career in policing both at the grassroots level and as an administrator. He began his career in 1951 as a junior constable in the South Australia Police and by 1966 had achieved the rank of inspector - the youngest member of the force to achieve such rank at that time. After serving in the Australian police contingent in the United Nations force in Cyprus in 1968, he was invited to command the multinational force in 1970. As a result of his outstanding contribution he was awarded the Cyprus Medal.
When he returned to Australia, Peter continued to make his mark in policing and by 1978 had risen to the position of Commissioner of the Northern Territory Police. Ten years later we welcomed him to the ACT as Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. Some will remember Peter for his influential role in high-profile investigations such as the deaths of Azaria Chamberlain and Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester and the search for the former head of the National Safety Council of Australia, John Friedrich. Others will remember him for his vision and energy in his contribution to the development of a more effective policing system throughout Australia.
Within the AFP he established mechanisms for a more efficient organisation that included the reform of the structure of ranks and management measures to combat corruption. However, he had a broader commitment to the fields of justice and criminal law. His energies were directed towards issues that included the problems of crime across State and Territory borders, the need for an effective national criminal code, the fight against organised crime, and the adversarial nature of criminal prosecutions that sought admissible proof rather than the truth.
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