Dyson Heydon: Labor motion delayed, struggling for support
Labor has delayed its motion calling on the Governor-General to intervene and dismiss royal commissioner Dyson Heydon for a second time, as it struggles to gain enough support from the Senate crossbench.
Opposition Senate leader Penny Wong announced last month Labor would invoke a parliamentary tactic not used since 1931, proposing a motion that would formally petition Peter Cosgrove to sack the commissioner for apparent political bias. The Australian has obtained a “notification of postponement” signed by Senator Wong, advising Labor’s motion would be postponed to the “next day of sitting”.
A spokeswoman for Senator Wong said: “We have postponed until tomorrow. We are still talking to the crossbench. Our concerns about Mr Heydon’s conduct are undiminished.”
Although the “address” to Sir Peter would carry no legal weight, the threatened condemnation by the Senate is designed to further discredit the royal commission and intensify pressure for Mr Heydon to be removed.
The Greens and independent senators Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus have backed the motion but Labor is still one vote short of success. A Newspoll taken at the weekend exclusively for The Australian found two-thirds of voters want the royal commission to continue its investigation into claims of union corruption.
Senator Wong, writing in the Labor Herald, defended Labor’s decision to use the Senate to ask the Governor-General to sack Mr Heydon.
She said the inquiry Mr Heydon headed was “manifestly political in nature’’. It was untenable for a royal commission conducting a politically charged inquiry to be politically compromised.
It would be the first time the Senate has addressed a governor-general on a substantive issue since 1931, when non-Labor senators urged Isaac Isaacs to block the Scullin government’s efforts to protect the wages of unionised stevedores.
Labor previously decided to postpone its motion on August 19, shortly before the ACTU on behalf of five unions asked Mr Heydon to disqualify himself on the grounds of apprehended bias. Mr Heydon has since rejected that application.
The political firestorm engulfing the royal commission into union corruption escalated after Mr Heydon, a former High Court judge, revealed he agreed to address a Liberal Party event after being told of its links to the party.
The ACTU’s submission claimed Mr Heydon’s decision to attend the Sir Garfield Barwick address created the perception of bias because the Commission was “red-hot” politically.
Labor’s motion reverses the party’s long-held position that the head-of-state obeys the elected government.
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm told The Australian last night he would abstain from voting on the motion but said it was a “stunt” and didn’t have much merit.
Labor and the Greens normally need the support of four crossbench senators to see government legislation rejected in the upper house but Senator Leyonhjelm’s abstention means the opposition will need just three independent votes for its motion to pass.
Senator Leyonhjelm said he was annoyed at the Liberals at an organisational level for pursuing legal action over his party’s name.
“I have in the past given the government the benefit of the doubt on a number of procedural matters and low significance matters, I don’t feel inclined to do that anymore,” Senator Leyonhjelm said.
