The Courier-Mail

Level of des­per­a­tion in ALP pur­suit of Hey­don

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YOUR Ed­i­to­rial ( C-M, Sep 1) was right to de­fend trade union royal com­mis­sioner Dyson Hey­don (pic­tured).

The ve­he­mence and hypocrisy of the at­tacks on the im­par­tial­ity of one who was a distin­guished mem­ber of our high­est court and a lead­ing aca­demic lawyer speaks vol­umes about the des­per­a­tion of the ALP and its al­lies to shut down a com­mis­sion that is ef­fec­tively per­form­ing its al­lo­cated role of dis­clos­ing ev­i­dence of union cor­rup­tion.

Now, we are told, that des­per­a­tion ex­tends to rais­ing the mat­ter in the Se­nate which will be asked, in clear breach of our Con­sti­tu­tion, to ad­vise the Gover­nor-Gen­eral to with­draw Hey­don’s com­mis­sion.

Should it ac­cede to the Op­po­si­tion’s re­quest, it will do no more than again demon­strate the ac­cu­racy of Paul Keat­ing’s mem­o­rable “un­rep­re­sen­ta­tive swill” barb that he ap­plied to the Se­nate.

The com­mis­sion must now be al­lowed to com­plete its task in the care­ful and dis­pas­sion­ate man­ner it has al­ready demon­strated. John Kidd, Auchen­flower THE hys­te­ria sur­round­ing the royal com­mis­sion into trade unions by the La­bor Party con­tin­ues to fas­ci­nate.

The fail­ure to re­move the com­mis­sioner will now move to the Se­nate which may ask the Gover­nor-Gen­eral to do so. Logic would sug­gest that most or­gan­i­sa­tions would be happy to as­sist any in­quiry that would help get rid of those who rort their mem­bers’ funds and yet both the unions and the ALP are fight­ing des­per­ately to de­fend these very peo­ple. Why? Tony Miles, Cherm­side IT IS right and proper that royal com­mis­sioner Dyson Hey­don con­tinue with his in­ves­ti­ga­tion into cor­rupt con­duct in parts of the union move­ment.

Un­for­tu­nately, La­bor and the unions will con­tinue their ha­rass­ment with le­gal bat­tles and po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in their bid to avoid pub­li­ca­tion and pos­si­ble pun­ish­ment for their in­glo­ri­ous con­duct on many fronts. Frances Ben­sted, Rochedale South THE an­nounce­ment by Dyson Hay­don that he will not be quit­ting his post as trade union royal com­mis­sioner will only pro­long the po­lit­i­cal agony for the Ab­bott Gov­ern­ment.

This could prove to be an ex­tra­or­di­nary mis­cal­cu­la­tion that will fur­ther ex­ac­er­bate sus­pi­cions that the Ab­bott Gov­ern­ment-sanc­tioned royal com­mis­sion is a po­lit­i­cal witch-hunt. Eric Palm, Gympie I WOULD send an email to Dyson Hey­don to say I think he should not sit in judg­ment on his abil­ity to still head the union royal com­mis­sion.

But he wouldn’t get to read it un­til that pesky sec­re­tary of his prints it out for him. Terry Mars­den, Mans­field

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