Geoffrey Watson SC hung out to dry … Inside information about NSW bar’s disciplinary process leaked to the press … Counsel assisting chewed-up in ongoing News Corp war against ICAC
THE NSW bar council has sprung a leak. Two stories in The Australian newspaper, concerning the NSW bar’s handing of professional conduct complaints against barrister Geoffrey Watson SC, suggest information designed to embarrass the former ICAC counsel is flowing from of the bar’s inner sanctum.
Bar CEO Philip Selth told Justinian: “As a matter of law and usual association practice, we are unable to comment on this matter.”
They concerned complaints to the bar from hard-right former NSW Liberal minister Chris Hartcher, who said Watson’s opening remarks at the Spicer inquiry were “hostile” towards the Liberal Party.
There was a further complaint about a profile in The Australian Financial Review Magazine, where Watson was reported as telling journalists that the ICAC inquiry into Liberal Party fundraising was “fun”. The article also quoted him as saying:
“I have done all these cases involving the Labor party, the police associations … boy are they hard. But I have never known anybody to kick and scratch more than the bloody Liberal Party.”
Nick Di Girolamo, the former CEO of Australian Water Holdings and ex-managing partner of law shop Colin Biggers & Paisley, also lodged a complaint that in opening remarks to ICAC in Operation Credo, Watson had accused him of fraud.
Hartcher stood down from the government and later did not recentest his seat at the 2015 state election after being implicated in Operation Spicer’s investigation of illegal Liberal party fundraising.
Di Girolamo was investigated as part of Credo where evidence emerged that AWH engaged in excessively billing the state-owned Sydney Water and then sprinkled money into Liberal Party coffers.
AWH chairman Arthur Sinodinos claims to have no knowledge of the donations, although the NSW Electoral Commission has other ideas.
ICAC’s reports on operations Spicer and Credo have yet to be released.
Grubby fingerprints appeared all over Markson’s stories. This from April 14:
This from April 9:
These sorts of disciplinary matters are traditionally dealt with sub-rosa. In fact, members of the bar council say it is a “criminal offence” to discuss them publicly.
Some of the material conceivably could have been leaked by people close to Hartcher, but someone closer to the bar council had their prints over the key elements of the articles.
Professionals like McConnachie or Smith would not have leaked the information.
Actually, Watson had not been reprimanded by the council. He is another victim, with a double dose of the cane – cuts from the bar council and more from the National Rupert.
Here are the members of the NSW bar council who, no doubt, have the situation in hand.