Comment: It is these series of articles by Ackerman just before the 2007 Federal Election that directly resulted in the Murdoch owned The Australian news paper embarking on a vicious and dishonest story claiming that Scott Balson, who has run this expose on the shredding since 1996, was anti-Semitic and a right wing extrenist - read "racist".

The role of the mainstream media in covering up this appalling involvement of a Prime-Minister-elect in serious potential outstanding criminal charges is one of the clearest pointers to political interference at the highest levels - ie Rupert Murdoch manipulting the political leaders Howard and Rudd for favours in exchange for his reporting orders to those down the pecking chain. 

Will Rudd's name end in shreds?
Piers Akerman (The Daily Telegraph) - 19th November 2007

A WRIT seeking judicial review is expected to soon be served against the state of Queensland that will rip apart the cover-up of the notorious Heiner Affair.

Whether it drops before or after the weekend's election, it will begin a process leading to the High Court - which will have to determine whether the nation is governed by the rule of law or whether the law in Queensland, at least, is subservient to the party in government.

The writ will pull together all threads emanating from this unresolved act of alleged criminality involving the shredding of documents by the Goss government when those documents were known to be wanted in court proceedings.

A Cabinet submission for the March 5, 1990, meeting reads: "URGENCY. Speedy resolution of the matter will benefit all concerned and avert possible industrial action. Representations have been received from solicitors representing certain staff members at the John Oxley Youth Centre. These representations have sought production of the material referred to in this submission." (Comment the Beattie government refused for years to release these documents knowing the implication of submissions like this. It was the content of this website used by One Nation MPs in 1998 which saw Beattie's hand forced. He released the covered-up documents after his balance of power was threatened by that of a single Independent).

That resolution saw the material sent to the shredder.

According to another memo, a solicitor for a trade union had earlier notified the Queensland Department of Families Services and Aboriginal and Islander Affairs "seeking assurances . . . that the documents relating to the Heiner Inquiry will not be destroyed" and "made it quite clear that there (is) still an intention to proceed to attempt to gain access to the Heiner documents and any departmental documents relating to the allegations against the (youth centre director) Mr Coyne and that they have every intention to pursue the matter through the courts".

The writ will finally place in the public domain serious allegations of obstruction of justice relating to the destruction of these documents, which were made in both the Tasmanian and NSW state Parliaments against Federal Opposition leader Kevin Rudd and others.

Rudd was chief of staff to Queensland premier Wayne Goss in March, 1990, when Cabinet ordered the shredding of documents generated by retired magistrate Noel Heiner's inquiry into the youth detention centre.

Further, it will expose the absolute humbug of the claims made by Rudd, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie and his successor Anna Bligh (both of whom have refused to release critical documents), that the Heiner Affair has been exhaustively investigated.

Contained in the shredded documents were records of interviews with Heiner in which youth centre workers discussed the rape of an Aboriginal girl, according to a report in The Courier-Mail of November 8, 2001.

The youth worker quoted by the newspaper said Heiner had asked him about the matter and that (Heiner) "knew about it already".

The rape of the girl, who was 14 at the time, is only now being investigated by the Queensland police Task Force Argos, even though several boys admitted to raping the victim at the time.

Any charges against them now would of course result in inquiries being made about why the youth workers who knew about the rape were not investigated at the time and why the relevant Heiner documents were shredded.

It must be noted Rudd now vows to defend the union movement from industrial relations reforms introduced by the Coalition but that those who sought to have the Heiner documents protected so they could be used in their court actions were all trade union members.

The shredding of the documents denied them their legal rights.

Whatever Rudd and his pusillanimous defenders may say, alleged criminality does not diminish with time.

The crime of rape has no half-life, nor does the crime of obstruction of justice.

Over the past 20 years there have been many attempts to reveal the truth of the Heiner Affair, but most of those who have strived to bring this matter to justice have been worn down by the obduracy of successive Queensland governments and the determination of their friends in Queensland's Lilliputian legal world to ensure the truth remains hidden.

Fortunately, some in the media are still guided by the view of newspaper legend Keith Murdoch delivered more than half a century ago that "the press must be more than merely free, it must be fact-finding, truth-telling, truth-seeking to the limit of human capacity and enterprise".

Rudd has breezed through this election with little scrutiny of his role in the Goss government.

On Sunday, he avoided hard questions from the ABC Insider host Barry Cassidy in favour of a soft appearance with talk show host Rove.

He may find it more difficult to be evasive when standing before an independent judge - not a malleable media circus.