Senate debates
Thursday, 13 August 2015
Questions without Notice
Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption
2:10 pm
Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. Can the Attorney-General confirm that Commissioner Dyson Heydon, the head of the Abbott government's royal commission into trade unions, was scheduled to headline an $80-a-head, Liberal Party fundraiser at the Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney on 26 August 2015? Can the Attorney-General confirm that all funds raised by Commissioner Heydon at the Liberal Party fundraiser on 26 August were to be dedicated to election campaigning by the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party? When did the Attorney-General become aware Commissioner Heydon had accepted the invitation to raise funds for the Liberal Party?
Heydon had accepted the invitation to raise funds for the Liberal Party?
2:11 pm
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Senator Conroy, I am aware that the royal commissioner, Mr Heydon, was schedule to deliver the Garfield Barwick address at a function arranged by the New South Wales Legal Practitioners Branch of the Liberal Party. That function is a public function; it is not a political function. Senator Conroy, the fact that it is inconceivable to you that a function organised by people from the Liberal Party could be anything other than a purely political function shows the one-dimensional world in which you live. Let me give you an example.
Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Just a moment, Attorney-General. Pause the clock. Senator Conroy, you have asked the question. You have been interjecting, as has Senator Carr. The Attorney-General shall be heard in silence. I will not call him until you are silent.
Order! Senator Lines, that applies to you, too.
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Senator Conroy, do you know who gave the Sir Garfield Barwick address last year? The Hon. Murray Gleeson, a former Chief Justice of Australia and a former Chief Justice of New South Wales. The fact that this function was organised by members of the New South Wales bar, associated with the Liberal Party, is hardly the point. And frankly, Senator Conroy, for an $80-a-head dinner in Sydney, it would not have been much of a fundraiser. In any event—
Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He is running the royal commission.
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Senator Wong, I think it is a good thing that political parties on occasion invite eminent Australians to them. I think it is a good thing for a political party to provide a platform, particularly branches of political parties that operate within professions to provide a platform—
Opposition senators interjecting—
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I am not two metres from the minister and I cannot hear him over the screeching of Senator Carr, Senator Conroy, Senator Lines and the Leader of the Opposition. Could you ask either Senator Brandis to speak up or can you shut up those who continually screech?
Senator Cameron interjecting—
Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Senator Cameron, let us have a little bit of order.
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I think it is a good thing that political parties sometimes do provide platforms for eminent Australians to deliver addresses.
2:14 pm
Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Why did today's statement from the royal commission say that Commissioner Heydon would not raise funds for the Liberal Party, at least while he is in the position of a royal commissioner? Does commissioner Heydon plan to resume fundraising for the Liberal Party once he delivers his partisan report?
Opposition senators interjecting —
2:15 pm
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
) ( ): Senator Conroy, in your usual dishonest manner, you have misquoted what Mr Heydon said. Let me read you Mr Heydon's statement in its full:
As early as 9.23am this morning (and prior to any media enquiry being received) he advised the organisers that 'if there was any possibility that the event could be described as a Liberal Party event he will be unable to give the address, at least whilst he is in the position of royal commissioner'.
That is what Mr Heydon has done. That is a very proper thing to have done. It is not at all unusual, Senator Conroy, for eminent Australians, including eminent jurists, to address political events. I happen to have in my hand an invitation to the seventh national conference of the Society of Labor Lawyers for an address delivered by the Honourable Justice Michael Kirby, President of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales—a sitting judge. Do you say that was wrong, Senator Conroy? (Time expired)
Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
How embarrassing!
Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order on my right! Senator O'Sullivan!
2:16 pm
Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given that Commissioner Heydon can no longer pretend to act impartially, when will the Attorney-General ask him to resign his royal commission?
2:17 pm
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Senator Conroy, I would not expect you to know this, but Justice Dyson Heydon is one of the most eminent and respected lawyers in this country. You are, in your customary manner, smearing and besmirching the reputation of a man with a stainless reputation for impartiality and integrity—a man who has been a Justice of the High Court of Australia; a man who has been a member of the New South Wales Court of Appeal; a man who has been a leader of the New South Wales bar—
Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He is a Liberal Party stooge!
George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He is a man whom every person in the legal profession in this country knows is a person of absolute independence, fierce independence, and complete impartiality. I would not have expected you to know, but I would have expected better of the shadow Attorney-General, Mr Dreyfus, who should know that, who does know that, but nevertheless chose to take the low road in smearing this eminent Australian.
Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He is a political puppet! That is what he is.