Trad forced to reimburse state in fight to suppress CCC report

Former deputy premier Jackie Trad will be forced to reimburse the state following her lengthy legal battle to suppress a Crime and Corruption Commission report — but the total cost will remain secret.

Former deputy premier Jackie Trad

Former deputy premier Jackie Trad will be forced to reimburse the state following her lengthy legal battle to suppress a Crime and Corruption Commission report — but the total cost will remain secret.

Taxpayers are footing the bill for the action and defence of Ms Trad’s case against the CCC after the state government decided to indemnify her.

While any additional conditions put on the indemnity by the state is confidential, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath’s office confirmed one of the conditions was Ms Trad was required to reimburse the state for any costs recovered from the CCC.

The total impact to the taxpayer to fund the legal costs of Ms Trad and the CCC’s legal fees remains unknown, though it is expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The CCC has confirmed it spent nearly $92,000 defending itself.

Ms D’Ath has previously said the state government would release the cost of indemnifying Ms Trad once cost-sharing arrangements were finalised in court — a process which has not yet concluded.

“The Crime and Corruption Commission has been ordered to pay Ms Trad’s costs of the proceedings,” she said.

“Ms Trad is required to reimburse the state for any costs recovered in the proceedings.”

The High Court ruled last September the contents of a CCC report into former public trustee Peter Carne detailing allegations of misconduct should not be published. Mr Carne has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

Former public trustee Peter Carne

According to the CCC, the precedent-setting decision meant it did not have the power to make vital reports public — nullifying abilities the watchdog had believed and relied on to do its job for the past 25 years.

This led to Ms Trad, in early October, winning her battle to keep secret a CCC report into whether she improperly intervened in the appointment of a senior Treasury official, after the parties accepted that current state law did not allow for the report’s release.

Ms Trad has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

CCC boss Bruce Barbour has been calling for law changes, in the wake of a precedent-setting High Court decision, to ensure it can continue to do its job and publish findings or recommendations from corruption probes.

Ms D’Ath said in late November critical law changes needed to unshackle the state’s corruption watchdog and potentially line up its powers with other jurisdictions could be ready by early 2024.

At the time she said the government was supportive in principle to the CCC being able to publish its findings, and the issue was about working through the framework to make it happen.

“It’s important to understand there is actually no uniform rules across this country. There is commonality, but not uniformity,” she said.

“And so looking at what other jurisdictions do, because the reality is that our laws do not give us any guidance, because there was no power whatsoever to report in this way.”

The state Opposition in mid-October introduced a private member’s Bill designed to give the CCC the powers to release the findings of its investigation.