Remember Allan Kessing? He was the former Customs officer accused and convicted of leaking a report on airport security lapses to the Australian newspaper. The pursuit of Kessing was an unedifying episode from the days of the Howard Government.
In December last year he lost an appeal against his conviction. The latest news is that he has lodged an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court.
The leaking of the customs report spurred a review by a British aviation expert that confirmed that policing at our major airports was inadequate and dysfunctional. The Howard Government accepted and acted on the recommendations. Many would say that even if Kessing did leak the report (and he has always denied it) he should get a medal, not a conviction. Instead he’s going broke, having spent almost all his superannuation on his defence. Kessing has written to me saying:
I have been advised that the Barrister requires payment of $13,200 21 days in advance of conducting this matter. Please note that this is only to cover arguing the case for Special Leave to Appeal, not the cost of conducting the Appeal, should permission be granted to proceed. I intend to fund this cost but it is the end of my means. In total this case has cost me, apart from almost four years of retirement, nearly my entire Superannuation payment of $72K.”
Kessing has had the support of various commentators, including Janet Albrechtsen the ABC
and, of course, Crikey.
He was also the subject of a fundraising appeal by the journalists’ union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which raised $40,000 towards his legal costs. Almost half of that amount was contributed by News Limited CEO John Hartigan.
Yet still it goes on. Kessing says:
“After this i can no longer afford legal representation. I’m reminded of a Letters cartoon that appeared on the day the Fee Disclosure arrived – it showed a prisoner demanding his rights but the jailer is telling him that the lack of rights is saving him legal fees. Very apt. As an example of how the legal costs alone were a cruel & unusual punishment, consider the fact that the NSW Court took over ONE YEAR to supply the Court transcripts to allow me to lodge the appeal to the NSW High Court. This meant that every failed attempt by my solicitor to obtain them cost me money. It is of a piece with the initial behaviour in seeking 8 adjournments before even coming to committal.
The Government that pursued him is gone, but Allan Kessing, guilty or not, is still paying an inordinate penalty.
4 Comments
He should have been given an Australia day gong instead of this sort of persecution for doing nothing wrong.
It’s a disgrace really.
Every politician should be forced publicly to acknowledge the plight of whistle blowers and that legislation should be put in place forthwith to protect them.
Allan Kessing’s treatment is disgusting and makes me ashamed of this country.
No Oz flags for me on Australia Day as the Australia I once knew now no longer exists.
How many other situations in Australia are crying out for a Whistle Blower to come along and expose the guilty for what they are? I would dare say quite a few and mostly in government in its many facades.
Dick Smith please read. I would donate if I had any.
All too often, those who embarrassed the Howard Govt (and were persecuted sneakily and unjustly as a result) continue to languish under KRudd. The longer I observe the current govt. the more I experience feelings of disquiet and sometimes, disgust. KRudd seems increasingly to evoke deja vu of a nasty kind.