The attorney general, George Brandis, has backed down in a long-running dispute over a direction giving him control over access to the solicitor general’s advice and has rescinded the order.
The backdown was forced by Labor, the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team, who had planned to combine and disallow the direction in the Senate on Thursday.
The direction, made on 4 May, required requests for the solicitor general’s advice to be accompanied by the written consent of the attorney general, even where they came from the prime minister or governor general and were confidential.
It sparked a public spat between Brandis and the former solicitor general Justin Gleeson, who first contradicted Brandis’s claim he had consulted him before making the direction, ignored the direction claiming it was invalid, then resigned under a flurry of criticism from the Coalition for allegedly politicising his office.
On Thursday Brandis issued a new legal instrument that repeals the part of a legal services direction that gave him control over the process of seeking advice from the solicitor general.
The legal services amendment (repeal of solicitor-general opinions) direction 2016, made by Brandis on Thursday, repeals the part that was set to be disallowed, which the former solicitor general Gavin Griffith said recalled the image of a “dog on a lead”.
On Tuesday the opposition-controlled legal and constitutional affairs references committee said the attorney general should be censured for misleading the Senate about the consultation and recommended it tear up the direction. Brandis denies that he misled the Senate or failed to consult Gleeson.
Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon Team were set to disallow the direction at on Thursday, although it appears Labor and the Greens lack the numbers for a censure.
Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, adjourned the disallowance motion on Thursday. She signalled that Labor still intended to push for it, a move that would prevent Brandis remaking the direction in future.
It means his backdown may not save him from a vote on the disallowance, which may occur in the final two sitting weeks.
The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told Guardian Australia: “After all of the blustering, posturing and lying, it has come to this – George Brandis has reversed his own legal services direction, which limited the role of the solicitor general to such an extent that it forced Justin Gleeson to resign.”,
Dreyfus noted Brandis had defended the direction for months, by arguing it simply brought procedures in line with the law, caused no trouble to the solicitor general’s role and responded to Gleeson’s request that procedures for giving advice had to be clarified.
“Now, just hours before the direction was set to be disallowed by the Senate, George Brandis has backed down and done it himself to avoid embarrassment. This is extraordinary,” Dreyfus said.
He claimed the decision to rescind the direction amounted to an admission that Brandis had “changed the law of this country to get at a senior statutory office holder who he disliked”.
“It shows us that this direction was only ever about getting rid of Justin Gleeson.”
Dreyfus repeated his call for the prime minister to sack Brandis because he was “not fit to be attorney general”.
The government has dismissed the committee’s conclusion that Brandis was not competent to be attorney general as baseless and partisan.
Asked about the backdown in Senate question time, Brandis said that he had rescinded the direction because acting solicitor general Tom Howe believed the new solicitor general “should be greeted with a clean slate”.
Brandis maintained the direction was a mere matter of “housekeeping” that did not change the process reflected in the Legal Officers Act.
The attorney general said the process for how the solicitor general is briefed would be discussed when the position is filled.
Brandis denied the direction was made to target Gleeson and said that it was Labor’s actions that had caused him to appear before the Senate committee and ultimately resign.
In question time in the House of Representatives, Malcolm Turnbull supported the attorney general’s position.
