The Botany Boys

The Botany Council bribery case ... ICAC less fun in Ian Temby's day ... Earlier Labor scandals in NSW ... Rezoning of Murdoch land  ... Memories far from faded ... From Justinian's archive, February 1990

Temby at ICAC: not keen on chasing the Botany bribery case

IAN Temby’s reasons for not taking the Laurie Brereton bribery matters further are instructive, particularly because this case is one of the greatest unresolved public scandals of the NSW Labor Party. 

At the time Brereton was the local member, a party fixer, and later a Wran government minister. 

He is alleged to have offered election funding to four Labor aldermen on the Botany Council if they opposed a move to rezone land owned by News Ltd from industrial to residential. 

If they did not oppose the proposed rezoning of Roop's land, they would lose their preselections. 

The ICAC report gives two main reasons for not pushing on with finding out whether Brereton was a crook or not.

First, on the basis of decisions such as Herron v McGregor, Whitbread v Cook, Watson v Attorney General and Cook v Purcell, proceedings against Brereton could not be taken.

These cases say that a prosecution can be stayed as an abuse of process if brought after long and unexplained delay.

“It is too late to rectify the situation now. It would be quite wrong to proceed further against him,” says Temby’s report.

Secondly, ICAC itself was not keen to pursue the matter.

“The prospects of the commission now discovering the truth - whether as to the original alleged corrupt conduct, or subsequent events - are quite remote.

With the passage of time memories do fade; sometimes they are converted to a more convenient or less embarrassing position than accords with historical facts.

The purpose of investigation is to ascertain the truth. That cannot now be done, and it must be doubted whether any very useful purpose would be served by making the attempt.”

Well, a couple of points about that.

1. The "useful purpose" is that if an investigation were to discover that Brereton had attempted to bribe Botany Council aldermen then it would be inappropriate for him to be a member of any parliament. That in itself would be a useful purpose.

2. Some memories are far from faded and are still convinced of the truth. 

Temby did not discuss the extent of faded memories with former Labor alderman Jim Slattery and Owen Davis - both of whom are crystal clear on the matter.

They still clearly remember being summonsed to Brereton’s house where they say the bribe was offered to secure their vote to stop the the rezoning, which would adversely affect News Ltd's land in the municipality.

Jim Slattery was kind enough to call up to my office the other day. He told me that ICAC had not discussed the state of his memory with him and as far as he’s concerned his recollection of those events is good.

Owen Davis is in retirement up near Wyong and said he will “never forget” what happened.

He wrote to the Premier’s Department about the matter some time ago and his enquiry was passed on to ICAC.

He received a letter back for ICAC, which he described as “one of the most shithouse letters I have ever read”.

“I told them, ‘if you want information just look at Hansard’ ... The whole thing is one of the greatest injustices,” Mr Davis told your correspondent.

Henry Morris is President of South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club and he says he wasn’t approached by anyone from Temby’s team to test whether his memory had faded.

N.B. the alleged bribe to vote the “right way” was $5,000 for each alderman. This was followed by threats of loss of preselection, threats which in due course were carried out.

See also Can of Worms