Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asks Dyson Heydon to clarify if he was tipped off

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said on Thursday former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon and senior counsel Jeremy Stoljar SC should give details about trade union royal commissioner Dyson Heydon’s decision to withdraw from a Liberal Party event.

The NSW Bar Association official Chris Winslow reportedly forewarned Stoljar that Marcus Priest, a Labor-aligned lawyer, had asked about Heydon’s decision to attend the Sir Garfield Barwick lecture. Winslow apparently had informed Stoljar about the inquiry the night before the media widely covered the controversy.

“Today’s reports in The Australian newspaper are most concerning,” Shorten said, “They do reveal the possibility that evidence by the royal commission and the royal commissioner and counsel assisting has not been disclosed or not been disclosed until today’s report.”

The Opposition Leader said Coalition voters might start considering the royal commission to be in a “shambolic and politicised state.” “I think it is now time, on top of all the other issues, for counsel assisting and the commissioner to explain and answer these very serious questions about whether or not further evidence which has now been revealed in The Australian should have been disclosed earlier,” The Australian quoted him.

Shorten wondered if Stoljar tipped off Heydon. He said the commissioner must answer questions like that. He said the new report about Heydon having been tipped off was “quite a new and dramatic development.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday the royal commission would continue if Heydon had taken the decision to recuse himself, Fairfax Media reported. Abbott said the commission would go on no matter what Heydon decided. He added it was “an absolutely vital royal commission,” which, according to veteran Labor politician Martin Ferguson, was an important part of cleaning up the union movement.

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