Special Branch - Australia

Australia

Most state police forces and the federal police had a Special Branch. They were tasked mainly with monitoring the Communist Party of Australia and related political groups regarded as extremist or subversive. They also focussing on German and Japanese activity during World War II.

• The Commonwealth Police Force was formed in 1917 as "a form of federal special branch" under the War Precautions Act 1914. It was disbanded in 1919.
• The Commonwealth Police Special Branch was established in 1957. It was absorbed into the Australian Federal Police in 1979.
• The Australian Federal Police Special Branch was renamed the Special Intelligence Branch in 1985 and merged into the Security Intelligence & Diplomatic Liaison Branch in 1995.
• The New South Wales Police Force Subversive Organisations Branch was formed in 1933. It was combined with the Commonwealth Police, Royal Australian Navy Police and Australian Army Police at the outbreack of World War II to form the Military/Police Intelligence Branch. The civilian component was formed back into the Police Subversive Organisations Branch in 1946, which was renamed Special Branch in 1948. The Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service found Special Branch was gathering information on people who posed no threat of politically motivated violence, and as a result it was disbanded in 1997.
• The Queensland Police Special Bureau was formed on 30 July 1940 and renamed Special Branch on 7 April 1948. It was criticised for being used for political purposes by the Bjelke-Petersen government in the 1970s and 1980s, such as enforcing laws against protests (sometimes outnumbering the protesters or using provocateurs to incite violence so the protesters could be arrested) and investigating and harassing political opponents. It was disbanded in 1989 following a recommendation by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption. Special Branch destroyed its records before Fitzgerald could subpoena them.
• South Australia Police formed an Intelligence Branch at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, which was disbanded in 1945. A Subversive Section was established in 1947 and renamed Special Branch in 1949. It amassed files on Australian Labor Party politicians, church leaders, trade unionists and so-called "pink files" on gay community activists at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. The South Australia Police was deliberately vague about the existence of Special Branch. In 1970, Commissioner Harold Salisbury told Premier Don Dunstan that Special Branch did not exist. A 1977 inquiry by Justice White of the Supreme Court of South Australia confirmed the existence and found the files were "scandalously inaccurate, irrelevant to security purposes and outrageously unfair to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of loyal and worthy citizens". Dunstan sacked Salisbury for misleading Parliament about the existence of the "pink files". Special Branch was disbanded in 1984.
• The Victoria Police Special Branch was formed in 1931 and disbanded in 1983. Similar work in monitoring terrorism is conducted by the Security Intelligence Group, established in 2000.