The Queensland Police Service has formed its wagon train into a circle.

Rifles are fixed.

The defences are impenetrable.

At the circle's centre stand a handful of officers, all of whom were involved with the botched investigation into the death in custody of the man now known as Mulrunji, on Palm Island in 2004.

He died in mysterious circumstances, with massive internal injuries caused by "compressive force" about an hour after being arrested for allegedly swearing.

It's taken six years for the organisation (which some Indigenous Australians might prefer to call a "firm") to come to the conclusion that these men have no reason to be disciplined, thus, under the law, preventing them from being prosecuted by the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC).

The decision was finally made by Deputy Commissioner Kathy Rynders who gave bravery medals to two of the six officers she was investigating - for their actions during the ensuing riot.

It appears that the rule of law does not apply to the police in this matter.

For instance, if police fail to notify the Homicide Investigation Group after a death in custody, as is stipulated by the Coroner's Court, they have done no wrong.

If a senior officer appoints friends of the policeman involved in the death to conduct an investigation into their own mate, nothing is amiss.

If the policeman (Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley) has conversations with key witnesses before they are interviewed, views the footage taken from the watch house cell, and takes part in secret and private conversations with the mates who are investigating him, then that's fine.

Indeed, if they later boast about the fact they spoke to witnesses before interviews so as to get clearer, more consistent, stories, then why on Earth should we be concerned?

Who needs to secure a crime scene? Who needs to bother with forensic examinations?

When all the coaching and interviewing and quiet chat is over, what's the problem with the policeman retiring with his mates - and his boss - to a nice meal and a few beers to chew the fat, as it were?

And then, when the dead body is packed away and sent off to the pathologist for examination, what does it matter if the police officers fail to include in the enclosed report that there were claims the dead man had been punched?

Kathy Rynders, in rejecting what the QPS likes to call the "advice" of the CMC (presumably so as to demean its worth), that the six officers should be disciplined, has pulled a fast one.

By not taking disciplinary action against the officers, Deputy Commissioner Rynders has ensured, under Queensland's often peculiar laws, that it is now impossible for the CMC to bring them before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The CMC chairman, Martin Moynihan, is quoted as saying he's "astounded" that his recommendations for discipline had been ignored.

The Queensland Police Union wasn't astounded.

Back in November last year, it correctly predicted the Palm Island death in custody matter was "all over" and that no disciplinary action would ensue - an astounding prediction in itself.

With the Indigenous community, and much of Queensland's "civil society" in uproar over this decision, many are turning to Premier Anna Bligh for leadership.

And the Premier has responded with soothing, and potentially positive words.

She is quoted as saying this outcome would put new focus on the police disciplinary process, which is something Mr Moynihan says needs to be re-drawn.

"I want a better police disciplinary process; not one that takes six or nine years but one that responds to issues quickly and fairly and treats police officers fairly and is accountable to the public," the Premier is quoted in the media as saying.

"I think the family concerned, the public and the whole police service would have wanted this matter dealt with (more quickly)... that's why we are now reviewing the whole police disciplinary process."

But Anna Bligh, with all of her post-disaster popularity, sits in the same office as so many other premiers who failed to make change.

(Her most immediate predecessor, Peter Beattie, did, arguably, make changes by actually weakening the CMC's powers.)

Perhaps it's finally time to pick up on an idea being spruiked by the Civil Liberties Council's Terry O'Gorman, who has suggested to me that what this country needs is a national police oversight body.

Maybe it is, indeed, time for the Federal Government to step in and impose a new watchdog on all of the state's police forces which, over the years, have failed to prove they can police themselves.

Until something like that happens, there can be no guarantee that the rule of law will apply equally to all Australians.

Jeff Waters is Senior Correspondent for the ABC's Asia Pacific News Centre, and author of "Gone for a Song, A death in Custody on Palm Island," published by ABC Books.