Mark Kenny -A widespread public perception of bias
A welter of evidence clearly establishing a widespread public perception of bias on the part of the royal commissioner into trade union corruption has been brushed off as irrelevant by the highest legal authority charged with assessing it; the royal commissioner himself.
Heydon's verdict was to some extent inevitable. When a judge is asked to rule on his or her self - especially on questions of impartiality, disentangling the personal from the public, the subjective from the objective, is difficult. It is itself a conflict of interest.
Prima facie, the retention of the royal commissioner is a win for the Abbott government. Heydon's departure in ignominious circumstances would have de-spurred a process which is central to the political architecture of the Coalition's re-election.
Yet it has also served to deepen public suspicion that its aims were always partisan - and that the $60-plus million allocated is a vast sum of public funds directed to a political cause deemed advantageous to the incumbent government.
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/heydon-shows-why-judges-really-are-a-breed-apart/ar-AAdLExr?ocid=spartandhp
