Sean Nicholls and Lenore Taylor
August 27, 2011
Challenged over calls ... federal shadow attorney-general, George Brandis. Photo: Jacky Ghossein
THE federal shadow attorney-general, George Brandis, phoned his NSW counterpart, Greg Smith, to discuss the possible prosecution of the Labor MP Craig Thomson two weeks before his call to the NSW Police Minister, Mike Gallacher, which sparked claims of political interference.
The Herald revealed that Senator Brandis called Mr Gallacher on Friday last week to inform him he would send the NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, a dossier of information relating to Mr Thomson's alleged use of a union credit card to purchase escort services.
Mr Gallacher subsequently called Mr Scipione and then called Senator Brandis again the next day about the matter. Mr Gallacher and Senator Brandis have described their contact as ''courtesy'' calls, but the revelations caused the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to imply that Senator Brandis tried to apply political pressure to force an investigation.
The opposition has been pushing for a criminal conviction against the former union official as it could force him out of Parliament and cause a byelection in his seat of Dobell. Labor would most likely lose that byelection and, consequently, government.
Mr Smith confirmed yesterday he had also received a phone call from Senator Brandis to discuss a possible investigation of Mr Thomson. He said Senator Brandis called him on August 3 to alert him the Herald would be running a story revealing that Senator Brandis would ask the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions to pursue criminal charges.
''I told him the DPP would not be able to act until they were given a brief of evidence,'' Mr Smith said. ''There has been no contact - by myself or anyone in my office - with the DPP on this issue.''
Senator Brandis said last night he contacted Mr Smith to alert him to the Herald story.
The federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, said yesterday: ''I know Mr Smith to be a decent man and obviously I don't know the contents of the conversation.
''I can only repeat the warning I gave in Parliament this week - that politicians aren't prosecutors and Senator Brandis should be very wary of crossing the line.''
Mr McClelland told Parliament it was ''quite irresponsible for any politician to take a course of action that has the potential to tarnish the public's perception of that complete impartiality''.
Coalition allegations that Ms Gillard knew of the affair before it became public because of a telephone conversation between her chief of staff and the industrial registrar were undermined yesterday by publicly available information about the call.
Answers provided by the government in Parliament last year, and by Fair Work Australia to a Senate estimates committee, show the phone call between Ms Gillard's chief of staff, Ben Hubbard, and the then Industrial registrar Doug Williams occurred on April 8, 2009, the day allegations concerning Mr Thomson were first revealed in the Herald.
Mr Hubbard had been told an investigation into the allegations was under way and had asked whether Ms Gillard, then the workplace relations minister, could say that an inquiry was under way if she was asked about the report. According to the answers there was no other communication between Ms Gillard's staff and the office.
The Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, said yesterday that the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has ''maliciously and knowingly smeared the Prime Minister'' with the allegations.
