About-face over Sounds body hunt exposes wide rift

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

Police Minister George Hawkins' public about-face on a further search for the bodies in the Sounds murder case has again exposed friction with the Commissioner of Police.

And yesterday National police spokesman Tony Ryall jumped into the fray, releasing papers showing that a taskforce was set up this year to clarify police independence.

Mr Ryall said it was clear Mr Hawkins and commissioner Rob Robinson had not talked to each other about the search.

"Clearly the two are not getting on," he said. "Things are so tense that a special taskforce of public servants has been set up to sort it out."

His claims come after an embarrassing weekend of contradiction between Mr Hawkins and Mr Robinson.

Mr Hawkins was forced to withdraw his public promise of a further search for two mystery objects found in the Tory Channel last year in a Navy sonar search.

Mr Robinson said a private search had already been carried out in the area and had failed to find any remains of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope.

Mr Hawkins said his comments were made after he received incorrect information from the police. After talking to them a second time they told him of the private search.

The papers, obtained under the Official Information Act, showed a taskforce of the Treasury, State Services Commission, police and the Ministry of Justice had been set up to clarify "police independence from Government and police accountability to Government."

The taskforce was to report back to the Ministers of Justice, State Services, Finance and Police by April 30.

Mr Hawkins confirmed a taskforce had been set up but refused to discuss what recommendations it had made or when it would finish its work.

"That's an ongoing matter which is going through the cabinet process. I'm not prepared to talk about it."

He said he and the commissioner did not have any communication problems.

"Rob Robinson and myself aren't yes-men, we're vigorous debaters.

"We meet each week, we debate each week."

But Mr Ryall said the establishment of the taskforce indicated the relationship between the two was tense.

"It's well-known in the police headquarters that there's a breakdown and the minister is always wanting to tell the commissioner what to do.

"Sources within the police tell me the taskforce flows out of the bust-up between the two over the minister's drive for cost-cutting last year."

Papers requested by the Herald under the Official Information Act in November confirmed that last year's budgetary problems strained the relationship between the two.

In January Mr Hawkins criticised the commissioner for not taking responsibility over key decisions and providing poor cost-cutting options.

Mr Hawkins told the Herald last night that there would be no further search in Cook Strait for the bodies of Ben and Olivia unless new evidence turned up.

Feature: The Sounds murders