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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 2160 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Peter had other qualities. At the personal level he was highly regarded by his colleagues of all ranks. They speak of his compassion, his humility and his enthusiasm. Peter McAulay made an enormous contribution to Australian policing and to the ACT. He will certainly be remembered by all who knew him and worked for him. Peter is survived by his wife, Avril, and their two sons, Peter and Angus. I am sure all members of the Assembly join with me in expressing our sympathy to Peter's family and friends.

MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition): The early death of Peter McAulay on 14 November had a special significance for the people of Canberra and for me personally. I first met Peter McAulay in the Northern Territory before ACT self-government, but it was during the very difficult time of the ACT's transition to self-government that I really came to appreciate his special abilities. He played a very constructive role in a transition which will not be complete until we have an ACT commissioner answerable to the ACT Government.

Peter McAulay had been a policeman for 43 years, 16 of them as a commissioner, when he retired in May this year. He joined the South Australia Police Force as a cadet and rose through the ranks to become the youngest ever person promoted to inspector. He was seconded to the Commonwealth Police in 1968 and went for the first time to Cyprus to serve with the United Nations force there as a member of the Australian police contingent. He carried out his job so successfully that the UN Secretary-General invited him to return to Cyprus two years later as a police adviser. There he commanded a multinational force and filled various important advisory positions. His international experience, I am told, was a very good grounding for his later close involvement with Interpol.

Back from Cyprus and again with the South Australia Police, Peter McAulay rose further through the ranks, performing important work in management and planning research and acting as a police consultant to the Papua New Guinea Government. In 1978 he was appointed Commissioner of Police in the Northern Territory, where he earned the reputation for being scrupulously fair and honest which he enjoyed throughout his career. He championed the fight against organised crime, and he tirelessly pressed for more resources and better coordination between police forces and other government agencies.

Mr Speaker, as the endemic of police corruption became increasingly exposed, Peter McAulay, who was a man of the most uncompromising integrity, introduced reforms to the structure of ranks and management measures to combat what he rightly saw as a cancer in the profession to which he had devoted his life. He had served as the Northern Territory Commissioner for 10 years when he was appointed Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police on 15 February 1988. He provided the ACT with invaluable advice and assistance during the transition period when the ACT took over its own policing responsibilities.

Mr Speaker, my colleague Terry Connolly, as Police Minister, also worked closely with Peter McAulay and remembers him with great respect and affection. I had cause to consult Mr McAulay on some very sensitive, very difficult issues during the early days of self-government. I can say that he was unfailingly professional in his approach.

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