When trade union royal commissioner Dyson Heydon presides over a submission calling for his own resignation, he will be able to make an unbiased ruling, according to Professor Nicholas Cowdery QC.

That application will be heard by Justice Heydon himself, who will then have to decide whether he should stand down.The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will lodge an application on Friday to disqualify Justice Heydon from the royal commission into union corruption because of alleged Liberal bias.

It has been revealed Justice Heydon initially agreed to appear at the Liberal-linked Sir Garfield Barwick lecture to be held in Sydney later this month.

He has since withdrawn from the engagement but conceded he overlooked the connection between the Liberal Party and the event.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/20/dyson-heydon-continue-lead-royal-commission-josh-frydenberg-says

 

 

Abbott's Captain's Picks like Bronwyn Bishop and Dyson Heydon have earned him the title of Captain Chaos. An 8-10 per cent swing at the Canning by-election will usher in the end of the Abbott experiment which historians will refer to as "Amateur Hour", writes Bob Ellis.

AFTER DYSON HEYDON, intervening, warned Shorten that he was at risk of being seen to be “lacking credibility as a witness”, I asked him thereafter day after day in my blog to say which of Shorten's statements were incredible, or withdraw his assertion.

He did not, of course. He was aware that Shorten had performed very well, succinctly answering 902 questions in perhaps 5000 words, with a clarity and wit that had helped his cause.

So an impression of long-winded validity had to be manufactured and Heydon manufactured it, in an interruption to proceedings one might expect in a trial of anUnderbelly figure. Shorten had to be seen to be mendacious, fudging, untruthful and to imply this without evidence, of course, was bias.

It was bias that could be seen to have been purchases at at a very high price, by Howard, who had made him a High Court Judge, and he had lived well on a high wage; and by Abbott, who gave him three million or so to be a Royal Commissioner. That sum is in the vicinity of $28,000 a week.

Failure to deal with Kathy Jackson undermines credibility of Royal Commission: analysis by me http://t.co/biCrQ5Q6gw via @theage #turc

— Ben Schneiders (@benschneiders) December 19, 2014

It is known he identified as a Liberal, and that the Garfield Barwick Lecture had a resonance to it — Barwick having directly advised John Kerr that he could, if he wanted, sack Gough Whitlam, and to have run the case that ended Chifley's bank nationalisation and brought down by this tactic his government.

It was not yet known what he might have said at the lecture in praise of Barwick that was not contemptuous of Labor, or of Labor's affiliate, the union movement, now that his Commission had so brazenly gone after Julia Gillard, and had megaphoned charges that yet might be brought against Shorten, that party's present leader.

Heydon attacked Julia Gillard for not reading documents carefully. Double & biased standards Gotta go #turc #auspol http://t.co/yRxV4k0OIQ

— Jim Pembroke (@Jim_Pembroke) August 17, 2015

​There was also his early connection with Tony Abbott, whom he was said to have assisted to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, though his qualifications for that honour were flimsy, and leaned heavily on his record as a sportsman and athlete. Abbott might have felt the need to reward him with $4,000 a day, or he may not.

It is likely Hayden will declare himself to be blameless and money will be spent by unions appealing to a higher court — a good deal of money. There is no way he will say about himself that he even gave the impression of bias by agreeing to speak at a function at which money was to have been solicited that would fund Liberal Party campaigns.

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/dysons-choice,8077

 

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The media and the Liberal (CONservative) Party are doing everything to sink Shorten.

Now Shorten should change his name to Assertivo, Smith or Jones, but that could lead to misinterpretation. Shorten may not be a genius like Einstein nor charismatic like Miranda Kerr, but he is basically a honest bloke trying to get a bunch as disparate as the Labor Party to commit to some difficult policies... including bad ones. He made a few mistakes. He should have supported Julia Gillard to the end. He did not and he is now paying the price for playing political games... Mind you, Turdy is the political gamer by excellence. No intellect capacity required, just machinations and the ability to push kill-switches and lie.

 

At present Turdy would have to know he is on the nose. So he tries to throw sandbags to keep his hot air balloon stay aloft. Apart from a lot of crap, he is playing the Aboriginal leaders for mugs at present: the hot and cold shower treatment. The cold shoulder and the Judas kiss.

Meanwhile, the merde-och press is pumping as much oxygen as possible a bad-ass media organisation can generate to keep the gas alight, but the balloon is ripped at the top... Bronwyn Bishop is trying to darn the rip like a sock.

The opinions of learned pollies out there is that Turdy will make his balloon crash at warp speed, dying like a shit-captain does when the shit goes down. Actually, I know he would jump beforehand and take a job in a mining company... or become a bishop on his way to the Vatican.

Beware, Turdy is pig headed as well as being vicious, deceitful and nasty. And he does not like women more able than he is...  He hates them. 

Meanwhile the crappy dummies who are helping Turdy stay in the air don't like the alternative leader: Malcolm is on the nose in his own party. But Malcolm is popular with the masses (including some labor voters) and can woo the swinging suffering suffragists... So, with a simple switch, the Liberal (CONservative) party would manage to stay in the air for a bit longer and possibly win another election.

But, the merde-och press hates Malcolm... It's a bit like those European country feuds... No-one knows why the fight, but I believe Uncle Rupe hates Malcolm. So there, we cannot have him because his mob and uncle Rupe hate him...

Meanwhile Turdy's electoral chances are nose-diving like a Hindenburg in flames...

 

 

 

Senator CONROY (Victoria — Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (16:31): I rise to support the matter of public importance. I was pleased to hear that Senator Canavan believed that there was some behaviour that was absolutely unacceptable. Let me read to you the following quote:

"Probity may be affected by conscious bias for or against a particular litigant or class of litigants. The law compels judges who have such a bias or may reasonably be thought to have such a bias to disqualify themselves ..."

That is a quote from none other than Justice Dyson Heydon from a 2002 address to an assembled gaggle of his right-wing friends. Pithy and accurate, Justice Heydon was striking at the heart of the values that underpin our society's approach to justice. But Justice Heydon and the royal commission over which he presides have departed so far from these values that their respective roles are now untenable. Furthermore, Mr Abbott's $80 million dollar royal commission has been exposed as the cynical, political Star Chamber that it is.

In February 2014, Mr Abbott repaid the favour after he himself was sent to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship by none other than former Justice Heydon. But Mr Abbott did keep an election promise, one of the very rare examples of him doing so. He took the necessary steps to establish a royal commission that would be specifically tasked with pursuing his political opponents. There was no pretence about this at all. Its whole job was to denigrate former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and to attack, undermine and smear the current Leader of the Opposition. The terms of reference were fatalistic. They implicitly accused the trade union movement of engaging in unlawful conduct and explicitly directed the royal commission to pursue particular unions. It was immediately clear to all that this royal commission would act as the Liberal Party's publicly-funded political dirt unit. Not satisfied with just having a little dirt unit in their press secretaries gathered together under their Whip – not content with that – they wanted an $80 million plaything with coercive powers to smear their political opponents. This was a Star Chamber from the first day and it has been exposed again as a Star Chamber in the last few days.

Senator CONROY: While the taxpayers are wondering what value they are receiving from Justice Heydon and his lavishly paid buddies, Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party are getting what they paid for. The Heydon royal commission wantonly ignores the standards that have been established and upheld by royal commissions before it — accepting hearsay, refusing objections and cross-examinations, double standards for different witnesses and even providing detailed briefings for the media. Dyson Heydon has overseen a royal commission totally failing principles of natural justice. They stand there and, as they have witnesses walking into the box, they start distributing to the press gallery, before the witnesses have even sat down or are handed it themselves, the documents that they are going to be cross-examined on. So the first time the witnesses get to see documents is as they are handed to the media. This is a star chamber that is about nothing more than helping this pathetic government get re-elected. This royal commission has been put in place, this star chamber, this quasi-judicial theatre, to smear and slander the Liberal Party's political opponents.

But Dyson Heydon's bias and partisan ways were finally exposed by the revelation that he had agreed to address a Liberal Party fundraiser — an absolute slam-dunk case. His claims that he was unaware that the event was a political fundraiser simply do not stand up to scrutiny. By his own admission, he received multiple pieces of correspondence that outlined the event's ties to the Liberal Party. The chair of a Liberal Party lawyer branch invited Mr Heydon to the event on 10 April 2014 and the email explicitly explained the relationship between the Liberal Party and the lawyer branch and the event itself...

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/senator-stephen-conroy-exposes-heydons-full-links-to-the-liberal-party,8079

 

Labor has accused the trade union royal commission of “modern day McCarthyism” after the party’s Victorian branch was ordered to provide the personal details of thousands of its members at short notice.

The commission decided on Thursday to withdraw the notice to produce documents after the Labor party’s legal representatives suggested the request went beyond the inquiry’s terms of reference and would have yielded “many thousands of documents” including people’s credit card details.

Federal Labor party figures seized on the development to renew their attack on the “tainted” commission, which is currently examining the Australian Workers’ Union. The commission questioned the opposition leader and former AWU secretary, Bill Shorten, in July, and has previously called the former prime minister Julia Gillard to give evidence.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/22/labor-accuses-unions-royal-commission-of-modern-day-mccarthyism

 

Justice Heydon looking at himself in the mirror should not like what he sees... unless he is proud of his Liberal (CONservative) underpants...

The Heydon royal commission wantonly ignores the standards that have been established and upheld by royal commissions before it — accepting hearsay, refusing objections and cross-examinations, double standards for different witnesses and even providing detailed briefings for the media. Dyson Heydon has overseen a royal commission totally failing principles of natural justice. They stand there and, as they have witnesses walking into the box, they start distributing to the press gallery, before the witnesses have even sat down or are handed it themselves, the documents that they are going to be cross-examined on. So the first time the witnesses get to see documents is as they are handed to the media. This is a star chamber that is about nothing more than helping this pathetic government get re-elected. This royal commission has been put in place, this star chamber, this quasi-judicial theatre, to smear and slander the Liberal Party's political opponents.

 

 

From Bob Ellis

 

 

Those of us puzzled by the Heydon Gang’s decision to clear Bill Shorten of all criminal hypotheses months ahead of schedule need only look at the timing.

He had given, that day, his most momentous speech, declaring Labor’s unchanged revulsion at the GST (shared by most voters) and its coming war on rich tax dodgers like Turnbull. The headlines had to be averted somehow. And so, on a Friday evening, months before the official finding came down, Bill was generously pardoned and his nation-changing speech that same day went unreported, and was not the headline.

And the Heydon Gang (cost, thus far, $60 million) then accused Bill’s successor, Cesar Melhem, of criminality – of course they did – but made no mention of Kathy Jackson, a Liberal voter, stealing $1.4 million from her union and spending part of it on her several stays in a plush psychiatric institutution, nor of her lover, Michael Lawler, spending $300,000 of the taxpayers’ money on "sick leave" looking after her and her various court appeals and buying real estate with a sea view.

What the 'Shorten Bounds Free' headline did was abolish from human memory Bill’s policies and remind the public of the false charges of which he was guiltless, which no other headline would have done, in a familiar, slimy, Murdoch way.

And there is a reason for this.

It is clear now Turnbull has erred mightily. His economic salesman Morrison is a goose and he himself is in the crosshairs of history as a tax avoider, in the Caymans, like many others, of tens of millions owed Australia while prating of "tax fairness" for other, lesser, poorer punters.

And the subject had to be changed to Shorten’s past iniquities – not that he was guilty of them – and his policies airbrushed from public discussion lest it be seen how good they were.

Or perhaps you disagree.

Bill Shorten's office rejects royal commission apology for 'unacceptable' late-night clearing https://t.co/vCDp1DMhF9 via @abcnews

— BigAl (@banas51) November 9, 2015

 

The "Turnbullshit" government has refused access to any of the documentation on which Heydon based his 'judgement", to Labor. It claims it would not be "in the public interest". RUBBISH. 

 

The documents are likely to show that "business" was more crook in their dealings with the unions. And that some "witnesses" such as Kathy Jackson of Jacksonville were treated with kid's gloves.

 

Most of the witness statements can be read here: http://wixxyleaks.com/hsujacksonville-resource-page/

 

See toon and article at top.

Change is needed after allegations of sexual harassment against a former High Court judge, the president of the Law Council of Australia has said.

 

Key points:

• Former judge Dyson Heydon has denied allegations made against him of sexual harassment 
• High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel says the allegations made "have been believed"
• The president of the Law Council of Australia says lessons need to be learned

 

An independent investigation commissioned by the High Court found six former court staff members were harassed by Dyson Heydon, claims which have been categorically denied by the former justice.

Law Council of Australia president Pauline Wright said the findings were indicative of broader cultural problems within the profession.

"Perhaps this is an us-too moment for the legal profession," she told AM.

The Law Council of Australia conducted a survey into the progression and attrition of male and female lawyers in 2013, and Ms Wright said the findings were disturbing.

"Sexual harassment is one of the key reasons that women cite for leaving the legal profession early," she said.

"We know that about one in six female respondents to our survey indicated they had experienced some kind of inappropriate behaviour in the workplace."

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-23/allegations-against-dyson-heydon-must-lead-to-change-law-council/12382308

 

 

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Read also: senior legal figure predatory behaviour...in who is shagging who?...

Labor is calling for Dyson Heydon to be stripped of his Order of Australia honour after an independent inquiry found the former High Court justice sexually harrassed six women.

Opposition frontbencher Bill Shorten also wants Mr Heydon to pay back the salary he earned from the royal commission into trade unions.

“Why does he get to keep his AC, and if the matter goes to court or there is further investigation, why does he get to keep all his taxpayer earnings from the royal commission?” Mr Shorten said on Tuesday.

“This is a time to strip him of all his recognition and get him sorted out.”

Mr Shorten was grilled at the 2014 royal commission and Mr Heydon later described him as an evasive witness.

Nor is there any love lost between Mr Heydon and the Labor Party.

He was appointed to the High Court by John Howard and hand-picked to head the royal commission by Tony Abbott.

Six women have come forward with allegations of sexual harrassment against Mr Heydon.

He emphatically denies the allegations.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/people/2020/06/23/labor-dyson-heydon-har...

 

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