They had hoped he would go away quietly, fade into anonymity. Just another ex-cop with an axe to grind. In time they thought no one would listen. It has been 46 years almost to the day since Denis Ryan’s career as a Victoria Police detective came to an end after he tried to charge a priest, Monsignor John Day, with child sex offences. All hell broke loose in the Victoria Police Force; some of its most senior men tried to bring him down. But Ryan would not be silenced and people would, eventually, listen. In this week’s Australia Day honours, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, recognition finally for his role in child protection investigations.
Ryan’s story is no tormented parable searching for meaning. The lesson is simple: do the right thing, no matter the cost. “I was a pain in the arse to the police force and the government. There was no way I would have stopped. None. I wish others would have done the same,” he says now. But Ryan paid a high price. It cost him the job he loved and the financial security of a police pension. He has just turned 86 and lives in a rented flat in Mildura, northwest Victoria, eking out a life on the old age pension. He knew at the time his doomed investigation of Day would lead to more victims. It troubles him to this day.
Full story here.
He stuck to his guns & it’d be a crime of a different nature if the government doesn’t award Denis Ryan with every cent he lost when his career ended including the full police pension as is certainly his due.
“I know it was you and you know it too.”
Gives me chills to read that.
A police officer with all the courage & decency that Denis Ryan showed throughout the entire sordid business should, no, must be recognised & gratefully acknowledged.
If our inhumane politicians can line their own pockets & spend four billion bucks on a dodgy arms race then you can’t tell me that Mr Ryan, whose service to this country was priceless, does not deserve to be gifted a nice home of his own anywhere he likes instead of of a tiny rented flat.
Bet Dismayed is mighty chuffed that the AHW group from Australia’s Hillsong Megachurch got a gong at the Grammys.
Slap me Jesus, Mr Insider, as we read with disbelief Turnbull’s latest Barry Crocker: “The Turnbull government will establish a $3.8 billion fund that will offer loans to local arms manufacturers in a push to rapidly grow Australia’s defence export industry.
The prime minister said the government aimed for Australia to become one of the world’s top 10 exporters of weapons within a decade.”
https://tinyurl.com/ybzvk2en
cynically I think future fund HB….who runs that these days?
Be quiet Henry.
We at “Baptiste’s Rockets and Sprockets Pty Ltd” are preparing a prospectus as we speak.
The chaps at my private club are all abuzz. If you cant scam this windfall you have no business in industry at all.
There will be some gorgeous new yachts in the harbour soon.
Get with it Henry, “Blofelds Ballistics” has a certain winning cachet does it not?
Ah well, this has just popped up in the Oz – from local reporter Matthew Denholm. Probably sums up what I have been trying to say.
”Tasmanian Labor faces a growing and increasingly bitter campaign against its plan to remove poker machines from pubs and clubs, as the federal ALP distances itself from the state policy.
A coalition of almost 100 pubs and clubs told The Australian it believed it was in a fight to the death with Labor, as it launched a new poster, billboard and advertising campaign urging a vote for the Liberals.
“We will be running the campaign through all sources of media — this is a fight for our survival,” said Michael Best, Love Your Local spokesman and pub and club owner.
“This policy will not help the problem gambler — it will make it worse by forcing them online.
“Gaming is a really important source of revenue for our pubs and clubs. We’ve been surveying our members and we believe that there will be an immediate loss of 1000 jobs.”
You refer to an Opinion piece because you believe it confirms you position. Get a grip Yvonne. I suppose next you say you don’t support the Liberals again? When the wind changes later today I am sure you will have another opinion.
Not sure what your point is Gary. The article certainly does confirm my opinion that it is a risky move by Labor here! Matthew Denholm is reporting the obvious. Which is exactly what I was suggesting.
Well done – how astute of you!
Busy day for you yesterday over the wall on the energy article, hmmm? No pig ignorants over there it seems.
Why can’t you be as polite over here?
Yvonne I know you are obsessed with me but who is Gary? Not sure what you do over the wall. I stay away from that echo chamber to many pig ignorant people like you there plus my comments don’t get published when I have tried. Too many facts for people like you to understand. Labor have differentiated themselves from your lot of useless cons down in Tas. and now Federally. Change is something you cons just cant handle. A matter of 3 seats may see you cons in Tas. lose majority. we can only hope.
Did you hear about the one where a chap went to a fancy costume party dressed as a gall bladder?
Your posts were so recognisable. Nice try. 😂
What do I do over the wall you ask Gary.
Well, I should inagine that, like most who subscribe to it, I read the frigging newspaper!
Good point! Ban online gambling!
JTI you have form in this arena? I am sure I saw your name in the credits. I caught “the Salute” again last night. Every time I see the story and Peter Norman’s efforts it makes me angry, sad and exhilarates me. The man could run. Still the best male sprinter Australia ever produced. Not selected for Munich in 1972 even though he was still top 5 in the world because of old school conservative wankers. The more injustice is highlighted the more society can progress no matter how hard conservative try to stop it.
http://salutethemovie.com/
I’m going to leave this as it, it needs no captioning:
“Julia Gillard and Hillary Clinton plan to work together to challenge negative stereotypes of females who aspire to be political leaders and to encourage more women to nominate for public office.”
Well done to those ladies for being prepared to empower more people. You have an issue with this?
A non captioning should underline the need for such endeavours!
But if we were captioning, how about ” Now This Will Get Up The Noses Of Quaint Chauvinist Authoritarians.”
Choked on my Weeties when I read that. Just finished HC’s book. I’m trying to think of two less competent political practitioners but I keep coming up blank.
I’d pass on the Weeties if that is the case. Clearly not doing your brain any good.
Ah! Nixon and McMahon….-I just needed more Weeties. Apt, timely, strong, intelligent leadership is a gender-free zone. There have been great female leaders; I rate Golda Meyer one of the premier leaders of all time, of either sex. Exalting female achievement in any field, and teaching it in schools is the way to foster female ambition. Nowhere is anything taught of great achievement by woman. The list of women who have helped shape the world is long and illustrious but largely ignored. To demonstrate what I mean, how many names and achievements do you recognise from this list; Hedley LeMarr, Grace Collins, Mae Jemmison, Rachel Carson, Lillian Gilbreth, Elizabeth Blackburn. Gillard is one of the triumvirate of stupidity that channelled $500m of Australian money to the Clinton Foundation or other entities controlled by the Clinton’s, and got a job in one. From memory it was the mathematically challenged Abott who gave the largest chunk, some $300m.
Meyer? Were you thinking of Metro Goldwyn Mayer?
Can you confirm those figures? It appears that Australia stopped the funding after the last US election. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, if you think altruism is a bad thing, it’s your life.
My spelling error. She was once known as Golda Myerson. The figures are from the Clinton Foundation website. Australia was listed as the largest Government donor. Abbott government gave $140m, Rudd was the $300m donor, and Rudd and Gllard donated the balance. Total Australian Government donations were $490m from 2008 to 2014 when all payments ceased. As this was not recurrent expenditure, there should have been an Appropriation Bill taken to Parliament to secure the funding, but this was never done. Rudd, Gillard and Abbott simply gave the money away, with no authority to do so. Altruism is good if it’s not done with dodgy money. The Clinton Foundation has been mired in controvery and has issues with the US tax dept, and admits 40% of revenue is used to pay staff.
My point was there are better role models for aspiring young women than Clinton and Gillard.
That’s a far cry from “Two worse competent political practitioners.
Interpersonal phenomena is beyond me.
Maybe, maybe not. Not consciously at least.
“Wouldn’t know if I was up ya” is the expression that came immediately to mind.
Good on both of them.
Well, the Victorians are experiencing their first policy-induced power outages of the summer. Up here I’m still able to sleep without it, but my home office has windows north and east!
yup and I don’t think they’ll be loading the Bass Strait interconnector the way they did previously
The Victorians experienced Distribution failures. There was 1300MW of Excess power available but local infrastructure failed. This has already been acknowledged by the AEMO and the Power companies. Domestic Solar worked to delay the problem by feeding huge amounts of power into the grid until about 19.30pm then when it’s effectiveness started to draw down the “Gold Plated” networks that account for 60% of all Power bills failed. It is only the coalition and other ignorant conservative that are trying to make a political point out of people having to endure extreme heat. Extreme heat that is happening more frequently and at higher temps. The AEMO and Power networks have stated there was NO Generation issue (apart from coal fired power stations breaking down) which has occurred over 15 times this year alone. There was still excess power due to Renewables. Poor effort by all those coalition members and supporters. No Surprises.
first thing on the block when you privatise without appropriate regulation is planned maintenance….then lights out…or bushfires
No public utilities should be privatised.
this comment explains a lot razor has missed the last 30 years. No surprises.
Not quite in the nick of time there Razor.
Just a long standing position JB.
What an awesome Tennis game last night, Mr Insider, between Roger Federer and Marin Cilic with Roger winning the Australian Open Final 3 sets to 2. Great play from both players to go to the 5th set . Roger has now won 20 Grand Slams in his star studded career and broke down with emotion at games end. He met and married his wife when they were teens and he hadnt won a thing and now they have 2 beautiful sets of Twins, boys and girls. A fairytale life. He founded a Charity to help the poor and underprivileged Worldwide and works tirelessly for that too and deserves all his success imho
https://ausopen.com/…/match…/federer-makes-it-20-majors
A great final Henry. If there were a trophy for Human of the Year, I reckon he’d be a shoo-in.
“The Victorian Liberal opposition will introduce a compulsory phonics check for all Year 1 students as part of its election package” I have just read. (Possibly the most stupid electoral statement I have EVER HEARD!!) In nearly 40 years of teaching I have never taught in a school that did not acknowledge phonics as one of the strategies used to teach children to read. This mob must never be let near our kids! Another Liberal scare campaign.
Aw, Federer is cute when he cries……the maestro does it again 😊