Media locked out of mystery challenge to Andrews-era corruption report
A mystery party has launched High Court proceedings to stop IBAC from publishing a report into corruption allegations focusing on relations between former prime minister Daniel Andrews and union boss Peter Marshall.
The action is the latest legal maneuver in a long saga that has spanned 10 years, two state elections and three IBAC commissioners.
An emergency Supreme Court hearing on Friday morning was told the legal action was prompted by IBAC’s decision on Thursday to provide a party with an interest in the matter a copy of the unpublished final report of Operation Richmond, a corruption investigation into 2016 dealings between the Victorian government and the United Firefighters Association.
The party, which was not named at Friday’s hearing, is now trying to stop IBAC from reporting its findings to parliament and publishing the report.
IBAC had previously stated its intention to publish the report on Monday.
On Friday IBAC barrister Frances Gordon, QC, gave an undertaking to Judge Claire Harris that the anti-corruption body would not publish the report or make further advance copies of it available to other parties before the court considers the legal challenge.
A hearing is scheduled for the end of June. “I think there is a real public interest in this moving forward so quickly,” Judge Harris said.
On Friday the court took a series of extraordinary steps to protect the identity of the mystery claimant who sought to block the publication of the Operation Richmond report.
The case was filed as a “Limited and Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission,” the court filing was hidden from the public, and part of Friday’s hearing was held behind closed doors so that the plaintiff and other involved parties were given pseudonyms.
A lawyer representing Age and other media groups Justin Quill was not allowed to remain in court while the identity of the plaintiff was being discussed.
“It is difficult to imagine a matter of greater public interest in this court,” the judge told Harris. “This court is being asked to restrict the flow of information to our parliament. This is an extraordinary thing to be asked of your Honor.
“The public has a huge interest in understanding why this is happening and what’s going on.”
The tortured history of Operation Richmond, which was delayed by previous legal challenges by Marshall and the UFU and by changing IBAC commissioners, will revive the debate about IBAC’s limited power to hold public hearings even on matters of clear public interest.
Under the IBAC Act, the agency must demonstrate “exceptional circumstances” to cross-examine witnesses publicly. The opposition has promised to strengthen IBAC’s powers and remove the exceptional case requirement if it forms the next government.
This imprint previously reported in December 2021 that Andrews was under special scrutiny by IBAC in relation to Operation Richmond and three other IBAC investigations.
Four-and-a-half years later Victorians have been given no details of what their state’s most senior politician told IBAC about his dealings with a powerful union leader.
Final reports on other matters (Daintree, Sandon and Watts operations) have all been published. None contained findings of corrupt behavior against Andrews.
Andrews refused to confirm whether he had been examined by IBAC in 2022. “If you want to know what IBAC did or didn’t do, who they did it with, then you should go and talk to them,” he told reporters.
The opposition has promised to strengthen IBAC’s powers and remove the exceptional case requirement if it forms the next government.
Richmond focused on a contentious enterprise agreement between the UFU and the Andrews government in 2016.
Before the 2014 state elections, which returned Labor to power, firefighters, acting under the union’s instructions, campaigned on behalf of Labor in marginal-seat polls.
Emergency services minister Jane Garrett, who later died in 2022, was responsible for negotiating the EBA with Marshall, the long-serving UFU national secretary. He left his post in protest after Andrews intervened in negotiations and struck a deal with Marshall that gave the UFU unprecedented influence over the operations of the Country Fire Authority.
Operation Richmond began in 2019 under former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich and is largely complete by the time he leaves office in 2022. The investigation has continued under the direction of acting commissioner Stephen Farrow and is now being overseen by Commissioner Victoria Elliott, who takes over the agency in 2023.
The hearing was postponed to 15.30 on Friday.
Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He had previously served as the newspaper’s chief correspondent and was a journalist with 30 years of experience.Connect via email.
