Legal eagle Rowena Orr revs up at the royal commission

IT has been a big week for barrister Rowena Orr QC, the counsel assisting the landmark banking royal commission headed by former High Court judge Kenneth Hayne.

Illustration of Rowena Orr by Brett Lethbridge.

IT has been a big week for barrister Rowena Orr QC, the counsel assisting the landmark banking royal commission headed by former High Court judge Kenneth Hayne. As the Melbourne-based legal eagle battles it out with the big banks, her alumni from the University of Queensland are no doubt watching her progress with pride.

Orr graduated from UQ with degrees in law and economics, winning the university medal in 1996. She then went off to Cambridge where she studied criminology. While the royal commission has just started, Orr is already making her mark. This week she blasted Australia’s biggest bank, CBA, for swamping the inquiry with spreadsheets rather than coming clean about misconduct over the past decade.

TO BE SURE

IRISH eyes were smiling down at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) yesterday for the annual St Patrick’s lunch organised by the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce. Guests enjoyed a hearty spread of beef stew, roast lamb, something called Dublin Coddle (sausages and potatoes), purple cabbage salad and soda bread all served family-style.

Celtic Legal founder Brendan Long, who is president of the Queensland branch of the chamber, noted the good turn-up might have had something to do with the fact “there was twice as much Guinness as last year.”

Spotted among the crowd was BDO partner John Keating, Q Sport’s Peter Cummiskey and restaurateur Con Castrisos, a proud Greek who was claiming honorary Irish status for the day. When your diarist left mid-afternoon, the festivities were just getting started and headed for a 5pm finish. Those Irish certainly know how to long lunch.

BOB’S IRISH TOUR

YOUR diarist ran in BCEC boss Bob O’ Keeffe at the St Paddy lunch who noted he had toured Ireland with his wife recently to discover a bit more of their Irish ancestry. In the little Northern Irish town of Ballymena, where is wife’s family hails from, the couple were feted as heroes. The local newspaper photographer turned up to take a photo of O’Keeffe with the local mayor, who had arranged morning tea.

O’Keeffe says it was all going quite well until the mayor, a stern Protestant minister, wanted to know which church O’Keeffe attended. O’Keeffe, a Catholic, was a bit reluctant to let on, especially when the mayor boomed that “the great man be looking down on you now.” O’Keeffe turned around to see a photo of the late Rev Ian Paisley, the Protestant leader from Northern Ireland, displayed prominently on the wall.

SO FRUITY

SOME eyebrows are being raised down Rocklea way about the increased debt being taken on by the city’s fruit and vegetable market. Brisbane Markets Ltd (BML) now has borrowings of $139 million as it funds an extensive capital works program including a multi-storey car park and new warehouses.

The market also has flagged a possible $20 million capital raising from shareholders to pay for it all, but there is some concern that it continues to pay dividends.

It’s all a bit too much for long-time market operator Simon George, director of Simon George & Sons, who says the idea of BML paying dividends on one hand and then raising debt to record levels is not normal or advisable. George owns 20 per cent of BML so has a lot of skin in the game. BML last month announced its half-yearly profit dropped to $5.31 million from $10.28 million in the year earlier period.

LETTER OF THE LAW

A City Beat spy tells us that many stories could be told about the local legal scene but one of the best is the nicknames given to the city’s prominent law firms. Thynne & Macartney, which this week celebrated its 125th anniversary, were known as Thin & Maggoty and Feez Ruthning, now Allens, were Fees Ruthless. Meanwhile, the discussion over old law firms continues. A reader tell us that Rees R and Sydney Jones in Rockhampton has been operating since 1864, still under the original name.