Published: 23 Jun 2020
National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia division of the CFMMEU Paddy Crumlin today commented on the recent developments in the professional life of Justice Dyson Heydon:
The Maritime Union of Australia commends the bravery of the women who have come forward with details of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon.
The findings of the independent inquiry, undertaken by the High Court, describe abhorrent predatory behaviour that has no place in any Australian workplace.
Tragically, the alleged behaviour of this extremely powerful man led several bright and talented women to give up their dreams of a career in the law.
In his final Royal Commission report into trade union governance, Mr Heydon saw fit to make a gratuitous, completely undeserved and unsubstantiated criticism of maritime workers through the use of a poetry extract.
The excerpt from Rudyard Kipling sought to diminish and injure my union, despite the Royal Commission finding no issues with the MUA throughout any of the extremely brief proceedings involving us.
His poetic assertion, subtitled ‘On the waterfront: The high price of industrial peace’, was that we were no better than rampaging Vikings and blackmailers (see below).
On behalf of the hard working women and men of the Maritime Union of Australia, who have been at the forefront of the current national health crisis, I would like to again take this opportunity to reject his assertion that had no legal or evidentiary standing in the report, in sharp contrast to the findings of the High Court inquiry into his alleged sexual harassment behaviour in the workplaces.
With apologies to English poet John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, 1647-80.
His boasted honour, and his dear-bought fame.
The lust of power, to whom he's such a slave,
And for the which alone he dares be brave;
To which his various projects are designed,
Which makes him generous, affable, and kind.
For which he takes such pains to be thought wise,
And screws his actions, in a forced disguise;
Leads a most tedious life in misery,
Under laborious, mean hypocrisy.
Media contact: Tim Vollmer 0404 273 313
Excerpt from Justice Dyson Heydon’s Royal Commission Final Report:
ON THE WATERFRONT: THE HIGH PRICE OF INDUSTRIAL PEACE
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say:-
“We invaded you last night – we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ‘em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation
To puff and look important and to say:-
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
