Thanks, it’s been a real privilege
PRIVILEGE. This simultaneously meaningless and loaded word was uttered no fewer than 422 times during a teeth-pullingly painful hearing into franchising on Monday night.
Former Retail Food Group bigwigs Tony Alford and Alicia Atkinson fronted the parliamentary hearing “under compulsion” after trying unsuccessfully to get out of it via a High Court challenge last week.
Despite being repeatedly reminded that all parliamentary hearings are protected by privilege, ie, you can’t be sued for what you say in them, Alford and Atkinson persisted in saying “privilege” before every sentence, apparently on legal advice.
It seemed to us a game with the final score of Lawyers: 1, Everyone Else: 0.
It was difficult to listen as committee members attempted to extract informative replies from the privileged former RFG executives, under whose tenures the company gobbled up brands faster than a newsroom demolishes a box of donuts.
Under questioning, Mr Alford said the phrase “no insight” eight times, described previous witnesses’ testimonies as “fabricated”, told committee chair Michael Sukkar four of his questions were based on false premises and asked five times that questions be rephrased. Mr Alford revealed he’d been director or manager of up to 400 RFG subsidiaries during his tenure.
He was asked to take on notice a pointed question from Mr Sukkar about what proportion of RFG’s profits, at the height of its acquisition spree, were derived from the creation of new outlets in the form of startup fees, supplies and fitout costs paid by franchisees.
He was repeatedly asked, and repeatedly rebuffed, questions about which of those profits flowed to RFGrelated companies he directed or managed.
Here’s a taste of the exchange:
Chair: Can you confirm, Mr Alford, that you did not have any ownership or management, and you weren’t a director of any companies that had related party dealings or were in receipt of those funds?
Mr Alford: Privilege: I cannot confirm that.
Chair: Can you confirm there was?
Mr Alford: Privilege: I cannot do that either.
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: Chair, can I ask a point of clarification? Why can’t you confirm if you had any –
Mr Alford: Privilege: because I simply do not know.
Senator Deborah O’Neill: What did you do at RFG? It sounds like you showed up and you got the pay, but you don’t know anything about it. What did you actually do?
Senator John Williams: He was obviously privileged.
Senator O’Neill: He’s pretty privileged, yes. And on it went. Despite Mr Alford and Ms Atkinson’s privileged unhelpfulness for much of the evening, the committee was not without gratitude for their appearance, with Senator John Williams offering his personal thanks at the end of proceedings.
“Thank you very much for going to the High Court. I thank your legal team. It now clarifies that we have the power to summons anyone we wish,” he said, with an interjection of “Thank you, Senator Williams!” from the Chair failing to prevent a final barb. “And I hope the (High Court-ordered) costs are expensive.”