Another good reason to buy or subscribe to The Australian.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/awu-stalwart-calls-for-slush-fund-inquiry/story-fn9hm1pm-1226500276370

Bernard Murphy's interview with me on radio station 4BC in his last job before he became a judge!

How many judges could say they shared this sort of background?

How many judges used to do ads for www.financialredress.com.au

www.financialredress.com.au - that's w w w financial redress dot com dot au

http://web.archive.org/web/20101223101522/http://www.4bc.com.au/blogs/4bc-blog/fee-gouging-targeted/20100512-uxpa.html

This is what Pip Freebairn asked on that Monday, simple enough to me.

And then all the rigamarole you've seen. It ended with this curious note from Louise Anderson, Deputy Registrar of the Federal Court of Australia sending a note to Pat Christie, who as best as I can make out is a Registrar of the Court in SA/NT - please write in a blog comment and let me know if you can update Pat Christie's job.   Note the involvement of the Chief Justice in the wording of Bernard Murphy's statement that sort of answered the questions.

Are you like Pat Christie?   Do you like the fact that Judge Murphy decided to go a proactive approach?

UPDATE

Given that we've been focussing on the events of the week of 20 August I thought I'd repost this piece that sets out the things that were exercising Justice Bernard Murphy's mind at the time.

Peter Gordon's approved and publicly released statement of 21 August 2012 is included in this post.   It's interesting to compare it with the draft statement that Nick Styant Browne released.

There was so much going on in that week - the Gillard record of interview was released, the interview with Paul Kelly on Sky News with Peter van Onselen and the press conference to end all press conferences after the slush/trust dramas.   I'll leave this post here at the front of the site for the rest of the day.

UPDATE ENDS - ORIGINAL POST OF  21 OCTOBER, 2012

His Honour Mr Justice Bernard Murphy speaks, but not until he hears what Peter Gordon's going to say

If you've had a look at the email trail from The Federal Court you'll know there was a flurry of activity on Monday, 20 August, 2012.

A journalist from the Australian Financial Review wanted a couple of fairly simple questions answered.

In my experience, it takes about 2 minutes to deal with things like that.

You have the questions in front of you, you write an answer, you send it back.   I've done it dozens of times.   Simple, truthful answers flow simply and truthfully.  Judges generally have a knack for picking when witnesses are speaking the truth in court.

So on Monday, 20 August there's quite a flurry of emails trying to get His Honour Bernard Murphy to answer a few questions.

There's been quite a bit of conjecture and opinion on this blog about the ASX listed company Slater and Gordon LTD (ASX:SGH).

Dr John Lourens FCPA is a very generous contributor to this blog, he's prepared some information about the company here that might be useful.   I don't want this blog to become a whisper mill for matters that may be price-sensitive in relation to any security, so please keep that in mind when posting and I certainly will when moderating.

Download Slater & Gordon snapshot

On the face of it, it seems that these defamation proceedings  against Blewitt were not well known to the partners of Slater and Gordon.   

Miss Gillard's departure interview with Slater and Gordon managing partner Peter Gordon and GM Geoff Shaw (published by The Australian, with redactions) includes these references to Mr Blewitt.

PG: Right. There is another fellow called Ralph Blewitt. Has he at all material times been Western Australian-based?

JG: Yes, he has. Bruce was acting secretary of the Victorian branch of the AWU so his substantive position was as secretary of the Western Australian branch. At some point, and I must admit I don't recall when, but some point past the transition to Victoria, he became permanently appointed as Victorian secretary of the AWU. Under the AWU's rules it's not possible to hold two elected positions, so Ralph became the Western Australian secretary of the AWU so, at Bruce's behest if you like, he filled . . .

(Half a page redacted.)

and this

PG: In your discussions with Blewitt and Wilson, when you were going around the traps looking at properties, do you recall whether there was a particular range, price range that they were interested in, that Blewitt was interested in?

JG: My recollection is he was looking around the $200,000 mark, a bit above in that range.

PG: Mmm Hmm. Did you ever make enquiries as to the source of those funds from his point of view?

JG: No, I just, from the discussions I had an understanding that he was going to put a deposit on and that he was interested in then having a negative-gearing arrangement for the rest so that he would get a tax break, so he was, I mean like one ordinarily does, he was going to have a deposit and a mortgage.

PG: You assumed he had the money.

JG: Oh, I assumed he had the money for the deposit, and

PG: and

JG: and to meet the mortgage repayments when they fell due.

PG: and, um

JG: I didn't have any specific knowledge of how much deposit he was intending to put on but just that he had the money to complete the transaction

PG: Or how much funds he had?

JG: Or how much funds he had but just that he had the money to complete the transaction.

PG: It's fair to say that your view was that if anything like all this fellow said is to be believed he's got a hairdressing business, he's got flats and he's a man of means who can fund a $200,000 purchase if he wants to

JG: Yes.

PG: Is that?

JG: Yeah, I hadn't . . .

PG: If you thought about it . . .

JG: To the extent that I thought about it, I hadn't made careful enquiry about his financial circumstances, he's a middle-aged man, he's on his second marriage. From what he says it's apparent his first marriage ended in circumstances where he didn't have much by way of ongoing relationship with the children and I understood that to be in the maintenance sense as well as the access sense.

He had worked here for the Timber Workers Union. He'd sort of chugged that in, cashed that up and usually union officials are worth a fair bit when they leave one union and go to another. He'd gone to Western Australia. His wife worked. So, you know, they weren't Mr and Mrs Onassis but they were relatively well positioned.

(Two pages redacted.)

I will make further enquiries about the extent to which Slater and Gordon's leadership knew about the defamation proceedings brought ostensibly by BLEWITT in which the firm Slater and Gordon acted.

It's important to put this matter into its proper place in time.

You will recall the purchase of 1/85 Kerr Street Fitzroy.   The contract of sale was signed on 13 February, 1993.   According to Blewitt the Power of Attorney was produced by Wilson in Perth during the week 15-19 February, 1993.   Wilson was in Perth to supervise the handing over of the state secretary position to Blewitt during that week.

It didn't take long for the natives to get restless.   This defamation proceeding was brought before the court in October of the same year, 1993.   Did Gillard and Murphy investigate to see if the union's finances were safe?   Was there any merit to the complaints?   Did they call in the auditors?

Or did they squash the dissent that would displace Blewitt and bring the whole show crashing down?

Bernard Murphy's initials are in the solicitor code and you will see his signature block and signature on letters in the file.   He was the senior partner in the Slater and Gordon industrial unit in which Miss Gillard worked.   You have to ask yourself who was Slater and Gordon's client, the AWU?   Really?   It might have been paying the bills.

And it will be fascinating to compare and contrast Miss Gillard's departure interview and her claims about Mr Blewitt and his sophisticated property investor status with the evidence set out in these documents.

You will also note there's reference to the "Tour of Dignity".   I would be very grateful to hear from anyone who remembers the bus tour.   I won't say anything more about it here now so as not to affect your potential memory.

I will have a lot more to say about these files - but for now I'd appreciate your observations and your memories if you were there.

Download Blewitt defamation file 1st batch

Download Blewitt defamation 2nd batch

Download Blewitt defamation 3rd batch

These are the emails that disclose the reaction of the staff of the Federal Court of Australia to media reports linking Bernard Murphy to The AWU Scandal.

This file includes an email from the Chief Justice congratulating the court's staff on their cool management of the "issue".

The court's media manager issued a statement drafted personally by Justice Murphy and advised internal staff with an email that said, "fingers crossed!"

I think you will be surprised at how pervasive was the media management of the "issue", including the Federal Court of Australia receiving draft statements from Maurice Blackburn, and from Arnold Bloch Leibler who drafted a statement on behalf of Peter Gordon.

Download Bernard Murphy Emails