Phillip Arantz was a member of the New South Wales Police. In 1971, while working on a computerisation program, NSW police computer expert Phillip Arantz discovered that the NSW police service had been systematically under-reporting crime statistics for years. The obvious inference of this revelation was that police were trying to conceal corruption, which allegedly extended up to the Police Commissioner himself, and the widespread police involvement in organised crime. Badge of the NSW Police // Background The New South Wales Police Force (also NSW Police or NSWPOL) is the primary law enforcement agency in the State of New South Wales, Australia. ...

Arantz took his allegations to senior police but they were dismissed out of hand. Eventually Arantz, now recognised as one of Australia's pioneer "whistle-blowers", realised that Norman Allan (who had been Commissioner since 1962) was at least aware of the scheme, if not directly involved in it, and that he wanted to suppress Arantz's revelations. Norman Thomas William Allan (Lithgow, New South Wales, 3 June 1909 - Sydney, 28 January 1977) was the Commissioner of the New South Wales Police, from 1962 to 1972. ...

The frustrated Arantz eventually leaked his information to the press, so an enraged Commissioner Allan began a vicious campaign to destroy Arantz's credibility. As a result, Arantz was suspended, forced to undergo a psychiatric assessment, and, finally, dishonourably discharged from the force; it took him years to clear his name. Meanwhile both Commissioner Allan and New South Wales Premier Robert Askin had retired (respectively in 1972 and 1975), avoiding the taint from the scandal. By the time Arantz's claims were finally vindicated, Askin and Allan were long since dead. The Honourable Sir Robert William Askin, GCMG, (Born Sydney, April 4, 1907; Died September 9, 1981. ...