Illicit trade in native wildlife - witnesses Ando, Plant, Dawson, Green

t11/kr
CCC
and as far as I'm concerned, that's - - that's not the case,
but we - - we worked on information and I've got a line that I
use quite consistently. It's all about the paperwork. And
that's what it's about. If you can actually legitimise birds,
then their value becomes, you know, far more. So yes, there -
- I mean, there has been information or suggestion over the
time of birds moving illegally. You hear snippets from the
eastern states as well as you do here about ways and means
that they try to legitimise birds.
MR HALL: Now, I want to ask you about some other persons of
interest. Mr Richard Polglase, is he a person of interest for
CALM?---Yeah. He's - - he has a large collection. He's moved
it east, he's moved it west, he's - - he's - - there's been
information that's come through on numerous occasions about
his potential activities. He - - his movements and the way
he's done it and the information has definitely made him a
point of interest - - sorry, I beg your pardon, a person of
interest. There's probably no one in our office that would
not disagree with that.
And has he been a person of interest for some years?---Yes.
Was he a person of interest at the time that Mr Ando was in
the special investigations unit?---Probably from about then,
but in the early days in fact, I had used Mr Polglase to
assist us in the housing of birds that we'd seized and had
considered him at the time to be someone we could probably
trust, but that changed as time went on.
You may have been present when Mr Ando gave evidence that on
an occasion he collected some yellow-tailed black cockatoos
from Mr Polglase that were for his father. Were you aware
that Mr Ando had ever had any dealings with Mr Polglase?---No.
No. I conducted an inspection of Mr Polglase's aviaries a
couple of weeks ago and he never mentioned it to me either.
Now, Mr Ando received an anonymous report in early September
of activity in the Moora area. Were you present when that
tape was played?---Yes.
And I think you may have also seen the video, did you?---Yes.
As an experienced wildlife officer, do you accept that that
tape and video-tape appears to indicate suspect behaviour?---
Oh, absolutely.
Would you investigate it?---Yeah. Absolutely.
Is there some procedure in place for how duty officers are to
treat anonymous reports of alleged illegal conduct?---Andrew
said before that we receive a lot, and some of them you need
23.11.04 R.D. DAWSON XN 147