Showing us their priorities

When almost-Police Commission Jevon McSkimming was convicted of possession of child sexual abuse material and the IPCA found a concerted cover-up among senior police, the government's response was full of thunder. Police Minister Mark Mitchell called it "utterly disgraceful", and promised they were "acting decisively to install the strongest statutory oversight mechanism available to it – an Inspector-General of Police."

You'd have expected that would result in quick action, but instead it resulted in... nothing. Six months later there was no timeline for when the change would be implemented. Legislation was only just introduced last month, right before parliament rose, but wasn't given a first reading or sent to select committee. And today the Herald reported why: because after promising decisive action, the regime simply hadn't bothered to fund it:

The introduction of a new police watchdog, aimed at building back trust after the Jevon McSkimming scandal, has been pushed back with the law-and-order portion of Budget 2026 “heavily over-subscribed”.

Officials had sought an “urgent invitation for priority funding” in this year’s Budget to help set up the Inspector-General of Police – which went unfunded.

That's right: when we are getting near-daily headlines about corruption and criminality within the police, when senior cops are being convicted of serious crimes, when police conspire to cover all this up and hide it behind a cloak of "employment matters", the regime doesn't think this is a priority. The police appear to be rotten to the core, a sewer of bullies and rapists and child abuse fans, and Mark Mitchell thinks it isn't worth spending any money to stop that.

"Show me your budget, and I'll show you your priorities" indeed.