no-class

The Federal Opposition is calling for Attorney-General George Brandis to be sacked over a "secret" deal struck with the West Australian Government to claw back nearly $1 billion from the collapse of Alan Bond's Bell Group.

• WA attempted to pass legislation allowing it to decide how to divide settlement from collapse of Alan Bond's Bell Group
• The West Australian reports the Commonwealth ignored the related constitutional issues
• Deal was stopped by then solicitor-general Justin Gleeson who wrote a submission to the High Court

In May, the High Court struck down WA legislation that would have given the state the power to decide how to carve up the settlement following the collapse of the Bell Group in the 1990s.

According to The West Australian, the Commonwealth was aware of the constitutional issues regarding the legislation, but in a bid to end more than two decades of litigation, it assured WA it would not stand in the way of the move and directed its then solicitor-general, Justin Gleeson, not to "run a particular argument" in court.

However, the report claims the deal was scuttled by Mr Gleeson who wrote a submission to the High Court case on behalf of the Australian Tax Office — which was separately trying to claw back $300 million — and that this contributed to the breakdown in his relationship with Senator Brandis.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/calls-for-george-brandis-to-be-sacked-over-'secret'-wa-deal/8057832