Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Oh dear!

There are roughly 2,500 barristers in the state of New South Wales. Twenty five of these barristers operate from Eight Selborne Chambers in Sydney—just 25 out of 2,500. Eight Selborne had, surprisingly, been home to Justice Heydon and these 25 barristers and represented the most intimate of the legal fraternity. Despite the weight of chance stacked heavily against this small community of legal practitioners, three of these 25 who shared chambers with Justice Heydon have been awarded multimillion dollar contracts from the trade union royal commission, the most prominent of which, of course, is Jeremy Stoljar, who was appointed by Dyson Heydon as counsel assisting the royal commission. Mr Heydon knew that Stoljar would make a reliable deputy. They had long been friends. Heydon was such a keen supporter that he had gladly launched Stoljar's book in 2011.

As you would expect in such a murky world of patronage and jobs for mates, the government has been exceptionally keen to maintain the secrecy of payments to Heydon and his friends. While they have successfully hidden Heydon's fees behind the thin veil of commercial confidence, investigations by the Senate's committees have revealed that Jeremy Stoljar's pockets have been well lined by the royal commission to the tune of $3.4 million. While taxpayers are wondering what value they are receiving from this star chamber, Justice Heydon and his lavishly paid buddies, Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party are getting everything they have paid for.