One Nation staffer James Ashby is suing the commonwealth to recover $3.67m of legal costs he incurred in litigation with his former boss, Peter Slipper.
Ashby, who is now the chief of staff to the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, sued Slipper, the former speaker, for alleged sexual harassment in 2012.
The case was dismissed in December 2012 as an “abuse of process”, a finding overturned by the full federal court in February 2014 but Ashby nevertheless dropped the case that year.
The former Labor government agreed to pay Slipper’s legal costs but Ashby was left to foot his own bill of $3,667,840 and “remains indebted” to his lawyers according to court documents, first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
As recently as June, the commonwealth was still pursuing Ashby for $87,696 in legal costs.
In October 2018, Ashby applied to the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, to reimburse him through a discretionary power to make an “act of grace” payment, arguing he was a whistleblower and the commonwealth had unfairly tipped the scales by agreeing to pay Slipper’s costs.
Ashby sought a total of $4,537,000, for his own costs and $783,000 to cover legal costs incurred by his solicitor, Michael Harmer.
In May 2020, a delegate of the finance minister refused, explaining the commonwealth had already paid Ashby $50,000 in October 2012 as a settlement to release it from all claims relating to his employment with Slipper.
In reasons dated 19 June, finance assistance secretary Gareth Sebar said there were no “special circumstances” to make the payment to Ashby, who did not pursue “alternate avenues of redress” before litigation.
Ashby launched a fresh federal court case seeking judicial review, arguing the finance minister failed to consider he was a whistleblower and the “significant power imbalance” between Ashby and Slipper.
Ashby argued in the alternative the refusal could constitute “adverse action” under the Fair Work Act, in effect punishing him for eschewing a human rights or workers compensation complaint in favour of suing the speaker.
At a directions hearing on Friday, justice Robert Bromwich set the case for a hearing on 22 October, indicating the court will first hear the case to remake the decision and then move to consider the alternate adverse action claim, if necessary.
Ashby’s barrister, John Hyde Page, asked the court to send both the judicial review and adverse action aspects of the case to private mediation.
But counsel for the commonwealth, Joanna Davidson, said the finance minister intended to defend the legality of the decision so mediation was unlikely to be productive.
The judge agreed mediation in those circumstances “tends to be a waste of time and money”.
Guardian Australia contacted Ashby and Cormann for comment.
