The 'Moonlight State' Expose and the Fitzgerald Inquiry's Genesis

Back in 1987, an Australian Federal Police officer named Dave Moore was told to look out for a journalist called Chris Masters from Four Corners. Moore wasn't happy about it; he thought babysitting a journalist wasn't his job, but it was an order. The AFP hierarchy had information that Masters was in danger, not from criminals, but from corrupt members of the Queensland police. They were concerned for his safety and put the resources of the AFP behind keeping a lookout for him.

Masters was investigating a network of graft and corruption known as "the Joke," which had been going on for decades. This system involved protection payments from brothel owners, SP bookies, and illegal gaming operators, flowing into the hands of corrupt police, and it was worth millions. Its influence reached the top of the Queensland force.

Masters had been in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, the red light district, for weeks in late 1986 and early 1987, talking to pimps, prostitutes, and disgruntled police. His inquiries were making the corrupt police nervous. Masters recalled that he was being watched and shadowed, and he didn't realize it until Dave Moore started pointing out the people surveilling him. Moore said he first met Masters at the Tower Mill Hotel, and it became clear to him that someone was paying a lot of attention to Masters from across the road. They later found out it was a hired vehicle used by officers of the Queensland Police Force.

As Masters got closer to exposing "the Joke," the police brotherhood planned to set him up. The plan was to plant an underage boy in Masters' hotel room to discredit him. Masters only learned about this plan months later, after his report, *The Moonlight State*, had already aired. He heard about it from former rugby league player Tommy Raudonikis, who had heard it from a police mate. However, when the setup was supposed to happen, Masters wasn't in Brisbane; he was in Sydney.

"The Joke" had flourished for years under a man known as "the Bagman," Jack Herbert, a former police Licensing Branch detective who was the link between the crooks and the corrupt cops, doling out hundreds of thousands in bribes.

On May 11, 1987, *The Moonlight State* aired on Four Corners. It caused an earthquake because it was the first time a link was made between criminal figures, the underworld, and police corruption. The day after, a new battle began, which became the Fitzgerald Inquiry. This inquiry ran for two years, heard from 339 witnesses, and resulted in the police commissioner, Sir Terence Lewis, being jailed and stripped of his knighthood. Senior police and Valley kingpin Gerry Bellino were also convicted, with Bellino sentenced to seven years for paying bribes. Jack "the Bagman" Herbert escaped jail by telling all to the inquiry.