LAWYERS for Glenorchy general manager Peter Brooks say if they can prove that the Board of Inquiry into the council is jurisdictionally flawed then they will ensure the inquiry is killed and the draft report never sees the light of day.
Mr Brooks has taken Supreme Court action against the Board and its members Barry Easther and Lynn Mason over the process of the investigation and the findings of the second draft report into the council.
At Wednesay’s hearing for an application to show cause, Mr Brooks’ representatives Justin Zeeman and Launceston-based barrister Shaun McElwaine SC both sought for Associate Justice Stephen Holt to either close the court or issue a suppression or non-publication order of Mr Brooks’ claims against the Board and its investigation.
After ruling against Mr Zeeman’s request for the affidavit not to be read out in open court in the morning session, Associate Justice Holt stood the hearing down until the afternoon where Mr McElwaine made his argument.
Mr McElwaine said the claims and findings against Mr Brooks in the report were “grossly defamatory” and “impugned his [Brooks’] professional reputation in a most damaging way”.
Mr McElwaine also said Mr Brooks had not been afforded natural justice in the investigation, which he said was an unlawful one.
“We say the entire procedure is unlawful,” he said. “If the inquiry has been unlawfully conducted, it must be shut down.”
Associate Justice Holt adjourned the matter to next week, but said he was surprised that Mr Brooks’ representatives found it difficult to “get over that very low hurdle” of an order to show cause.
Acting Attorney-General Matthew Groom joined the lawsuit on Monday on behalf of the State on the side of the Board of Inquiry in a bid to release the report to Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein as soon as possible.
Also on Wednesday, lawyers for suspended Glenorchy alderman Jenny Branch-Allen launched another action against the Board, Mr Easther and Ms Mason. Ms Branch-Allen took the inquiry to the Supreme Court last year, arguing that it was engaged in an unfair process.
Lawyers for her fellow suspended alderman Christine Lucas also sought to enter Mr Brooks’ action against the inquiry.
Suspended aldermen Jan Dunsby and Matthew Stevenson attended the hearing representing themselves to argue that Mr Brooks’ affidavit should not be subject to a closed court or any suppression or non-publication orders.
The dates for the two trials have been pencilled in for early next month with both expected to take two to three days to complete.
Mr Brooks did not attend the hearings.
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