Exciting new brooms in the boardroom of NSW Legal Aid ... Commodore Collins hired to slay plans for green slip and motor accident reform
Smith: hunting for talent at his old workplace
ATTORNEY General Greg Smith has appointed Craig Kieron Smith as the part time chairman of NSW Legal Aid.
The AG's new rep on the commission's board is Annette Bain and he's also selected Mrs Ainslie van Onselen to represent community and welfare interests.
I don't think Craig Kieron Smith is related to the AG, but they did work together at the office of the NSW DPP.
Craig was a mid-level executive - deputy solicitor for public prosecutions. Later he became a judicial registrar at the Dizzo, doing civil work.
Craig Smith doesn't have a public profile. A Google search produces nothing.
Other recent chairs of Legal Aid include Mary Gaudron, Gerald Cripps, Michael Grove, and Peter Collins "QC".
Alongside that bunch of movers and shakers, Craig Smith would have to be one of the least recognised people ever to chair the commission.
His one big advantage is that the attorney general knows him.
Defence lawyers can be forgiven for not feeling entirely comfortable having an ex-prosecutor as AG, let alone as chairman of the LAC.
Annette Bain is from Herbert Smith Freehills, where she served as pro bono counsel and executive director of the Freehills Foundation.
She replaces Barbara Ramjam who, as a student, provoked the Mad Monk's punch after a fiery session of the Sydney Uni SRC.
Barbara is the wife of former AG John Hatzistergos' mate Greg James. She is also suing for defamation Liberal Party bloviator Michael Kroger, the former squeeze of (Planet) Janet Albrechtsen.
No wonder Ms Ramjam didn't survive on the LAC board.
Mrs van Onselen is an interesting appointment. She is the wife of the tireless conservative political scribbler for The Australian, Peter van Onselen, who is a former Tony Abbott staffer and author of the riveting memoir, John Winston Howard.
Ainslie van Onselen also produces articles for The Australian's ashen Legal Affairs wasteland.
Topics include, Nicola Roxon's closed mind on plain cigarette packaging and How the government can win against David Hicks.
Mrs van Onselen has revealed that she is guided by the "PISTON" approach to life - Perseverance and hard work, Intelligence, Stamina, Tolerance of others, Organisation and Networking.
A fascinating choice to represent consumer and community welfare interests.
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ANOTHER ex-prosecutor who has done well is Dan Howard who, last year, wound-up as chairman of the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
He replaced Barbara Ramjam's husband, who left mid-term.
The job was not advertised.
Howard used to work with Greg Smith at the ODPP.
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OLD chum, Jim Longley, a former minister in the Greiner government, has landed a nice gig as chief executive of the Ageing, Disability and Home Care division of the NSW Department of Family and Community Service.
I seem to remember he was some sort of Liberal numbers man.
Anyway he got the right numbers for this doozy of a soft landing.
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Commodore Collins "QC": lobbying for Obeids and law SocietyI MENTIONED Commodore Peter Collins "QC", former NSW Liberal leader, Treasurer and Attorney General, and now with the spin doctoring and lobbying outfit Barton Deakin (Australia's first and second prime ministers will be wincing in their graves).
Collins has been lobbying the NSW government to convert Cascade Coal's Mt Penny exploration licence into a mining lease and thereby deliver untold extra millions of pennies into the coffers of the ever-lovely Irish moguls, the O'Beids.
Of course, if ICAC makes a finding of corruption Cascade stands to lose its exploration licence and be rendered worthless.
Sniff … sniff.
Now I hear on the vine that the NSW Law 'n' Order Society is shelling out a small fortune on Commodore Collins' lobbying skills over the government's plans to reform the compulsory third party green slips scheme.
The Premier and Minister for Casinos, Barry O'Packer, announced last month that the government wants to introduce a no fault scheme to reduce "long and costly disputes".
"These proposed changes will drive down costs by ensuring the system is focused on those who are injured, not ambulance chasing lawyers," O'Packer announced.
Law Soc Prez John Dobson has been grief-struck that the Minister for Accidents, Greg Pearce, himself a former member of the Law Soc council, won't answer his phone calls.
Now he's got Collins to get into the sepulchral Pearce's office to blow in the ministerial ear.
Dobson, a bachelor, appears to have few friends. His Linked-in page says he has "four connections".
We know how he feels.