George Brandis has claimed he was not aware the deputy chair of the committee investigating his ruling on legal advice had attacked the solicitor general for being involved in “political games”.
Labor continued to use Senate question time on Tuesday to target the attorney general before a showdown with the solicitor general, Justin Gleeson, at a committee hearing on Friday inquiring into the direction giving Brandis a veto over references to the second legal officer for legal advice.
On Monday Senator Ian Macdonald, the deputy chair of the committee, questioned the independence of the solicitor general and Australian Human Rights Commission, describing them as “so-called independent statutory offices” in a speech to the Senate.
Macdonald referred to high-profile disagreements Brandis has had with the commission president, Gillian Triggs, about refugees and her independence, and with Gleeson about whether or not Brandis consulted him before issuing a legally binding directive restricting his ability to give advice without consent.
“Deliberately or innocently, both the human rights commissioner and the solicitor general have allowed themselves to be involved in the political games, and by doing that they have diminished the positions they hold and themselves,” he said.
Macdonald counselled the pair: “If you want to be captured by the Labor party’s political approach, if you want to become a player in the political system, then do the right thing … resign … [and] stand for parliament.”
In his mind, he said, Gleeson’s position was “subject to question”.
“Regrettably, this inquiry, and the politicisation of the role of solicitor general, stems from the Labor party’s insatiable – almost manic – desire to try to get rid of Senator Brandis.”
Asked about the comments in question time on Tuesday, Brandis said he hadn’t seen or read that speech.
Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, asked the attorney general to guarantee he wouldn’t offer Gleeson an inducement to quit. Brandis gave the assurance but disagreed with the premise that he had done so to get rid of Triggs.
In answer to other Labor questions, Brandis stuck to his guns that he had consulted Gleeson about whether the government’s contentious policy to revoke citizenship for dual nationals was constitutional despite the solicitor general saying he had not seen the final version of the bill.
The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the justice minister had misled the parliament in the same manner as Brandis by claiming the solicitor general had been consulted about the direction relating to legal advice.
“We know this is not true, because the solicitor general himself has said it is not,” he said on Tuesday. “Since the solicitor general’s statements last week, Senator Brandis and other government members have simply doubled down on their lies.”
Dreyfus called on Malcolm Turnbull to express confidence in Brandis to remain as attorney general or to sack him. “Senator Brandis does not get to make up a definition of consultation that suits him and allows him to get around the truth,” he said.
Brandis maintained he had consulted Gleeson at a meeting on 30 November in which they discussed “the matter” of arrangements to provide advice but has conceded he did not suggest he would make a binding direction. He has denied misleading parliament.
