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Union push for Heydon to step down
Posted On Aug 19 2015
The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption on Wednesday released an operational update, including details of the money so far spent probing the unions.
Unions will ask the former High Court judge to stand himself aside when the royal commission resumes on Friday morning.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said the peak union body had told the royal commission into trade union corruption it would proceed with the application for the commissioner to disqualify himself on Friday.
“[Prime minister] Tony Abbott’s refusal to act on commissioner Dyson Heydon means Parliament has a responsibility to act”.
“The ACTU has always maintained that the royal commission is a political witch hunt by Tony Abbott designed to weaken his political opponents”, he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Eric Abetz, who leads the government in the upper house, had branded the motion as an attempt to set up a “kangaroo court in the Senate”.
Justice Heydon has faced scrutiny since it was revealed he accepted an invitation to speak at a Liberal Party event in Sydney later this month, which he withdrew from last week.
If Mr Heydon is disqualified, legal experts say it will be a simple process to appoint a new royal commissioner and complete the inquiry’s work.
“This matter has only come before the parliament because the prime minister has failed to demonstrate leadership and deal with his “captain’s pick”.
Abbott told parliament it was a criminal offence to attack a serving royal commissioner, although “I am sure that former justice Dyson Heydon is big enough to deal with the vicious slander to which he has been exposed from members opposite”.
“We respectfully request Your Excellency to revoke the Letters Patent issued to the Honourable John Dyson Heydon, AC, QC”, the motion says.
Mr Heydon is resisting continued calls to go which are predominantly being made by unions and their political arm – the federal Labor Party.
“But when it comes to this current crisis engulfing the royal commission, that is not a crisis of Labor’s making”. Labor needs four crossbench senators to support its motion but even if it is moved, the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, would be highly unlikely to act.
The Opposition Leader remains concerned about the conduct of the commission, and that it is biased against the trade union movement.
Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG! In my view, he must not resign from his role for the sake of this country. He has an obligation to continue the very important job that he is currently doing, if not the most important job for this country. The Government should give Commissioner Heydon as long as he needs to complete his job. Parliament should unconditionally support it. This is a vicious attack not only on the integrity of Commissioner Heydon, it’s an attack on the integrity of this country. The same people, who have given a life to these unsubstantiated accusations against Commissioner Heydon, are those who politically assassinated Kevin Rudd, and attempted to do the same thing with the current Prime Minister. Only those who are firmly against this Royal Commission know what Commissioner Heydon could discover if the Royal Commission continues. I am confident it will be beyond the imagination of most people in this country. The current Labor-union movement is capable of destroying the life and the reputation of any person that is in the way of their dissemination of lawlessness that supports their financial benefits. I was for a very long time a dedicated Labor voter. I had also a good life, reputation, and a family, which were all destroyed once I thought I was doing an honorable thing by reporting unlawful activities of some former Labor Government senior officials, including some former ministers, and my former union.