Collingwood was one of Victoria's busier police stations when I worked there 1986-88 odd.  And every single copper there knew John Hose JP.

Mr Hose (as everyone called him) was one of the most frequent visitors to the police station.  He owned a pub in Carlton which made him popular, but it was his community first volunteerism that marked him out as an extraordinary man.

Any hour of the day, any day of the year, Mr Hose was available to attend at the station, to hear what police had to say about a crook and then to remand the crook in custody.  All we had to do was go and pick him up in a police car.

There was a system that worked.  Justice was dispensed by people like Mr Hose who were close to ordinary people.  A better man than John Hose you would struggle to find.  Certainly heaps better than John Cain, Joan Kirner and the people who stuffed up the system that kept us safe.

Here's an extract from The Age 18 August, 1988.  John Cain was Premier.  His son is the former Maurice Blackburn lawyer who advised Gillard during The AWU Scandal and is now Victoria's Solicitor for Public Prosecutions.

Mr John Hose, JP, is something of a legend among the Victoria Police. This Is partly because he never seems to sleep. He will crawl out of bed three or four times a night to hear remand cases and care applications. While policemen and offenders droop with fatigue around him, he will go from one makeshift courtroom to the next, dispensing late-night justice. The City Watchhouse and other Inner-suburban police stations are part of his beat It Is here that many of Melbourne's nocturnal offenders are processed, and many come before Mr Hose in out-of-sessions or night courts. Mr Hose averages more than ltN remands a year. Sometimes, because crime has no respect for sleep, he doesnt get to bed at all. On other nights, he might get two hours' sleep. But what makes this 12-year-old Carlton publican most unusual Is that he works M to 40 hours a week free the heaviest workload for a JP in Melbourne, according to police. On a "quiet" Saturday recently, he was called out eight times by state and federal police, start- cases or where a magistrate is not available. In all states, JPs have ancillary powers such as the witnessing of documents, signing of search and arrest warrants and the processing of ball applications. To become a JP in Victoria requires nomination by a local member of Parliament About the only prerequisite for the post is citizenship. The Royal Victorian Association of Honorary Justices has secured minor concessions from the Government that have prevented the office from disappearing altogether. Although no new justices have been appointed for the past 12 months, the Magistrate's Court Bill provides for new JPs to be named. The president of the association, Wing Commander Colin Chailis, said the first bitter pill for JPs was their removal from the bench. "I believe justices served this state very well as honorary magistrates. There were relatively few challenges to justices' decisions. We dealt with matters that were day-to-day. We weren't lawyers, but we weren't nongs either." ernment recently announced that it would review the function of its estimated 100,000 JPs. Lay justices came to Australia with the introduction of the English legal system. Justices of the peace were first nominated in England by statute in 1327, although keepers of the peace had been nominated from the mid-13 th Century. Initially, justices were responsible for taking indictments and holding the accused for trial by royal judges. In the 14th Century they were granted the right to try prisoners. By the 18th Century, their powers were set out by statute and included several local government functions later transferred to local authorities.

Matthew Guy is apparently the alternate Premier in Victoria.  He has a slogan.  Stuff the slogans Matthew, bring back volunteerism, get rid of bureaucrats and treat bad guys like bad guys.