Reignite Democracy Australia lawyer Gareth Rogers ordered to pay thousands to QLD Health
A lawyer at a notorious anti-vax organisation has been ordered to pay thousands to Queensland Health after being accused of dragging out a dismissal case against a Caboolture Hospital employee who refused to get the Covid vaccine.
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The principal lawyer with notorious anti-vax group Reignite Democracy Australia’s has been ordered to pay over $9000 in court costs to Queensland Health after a drawn-out legal battle.
Court documents from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission revealed that Gareth Rogers represented former Indigenous Liaison Officer Delma Dorman in a job dismissal case.
Ms Dorman filed an application for reinstatement last August after she lost her job at Caboolture Hospital due to her failure to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Commission’s court documents described Mr Rogers’ employer, Reignite Democracy Australia, as a “a quasi-political organisation of the type spawned from the various anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine groups that emerged during the pandemic”.
They said Ms Dorman’s representatives appeared throughout the proceedings to be “motivated by a desire to promote their own quasi-political agenda”.
“Throughout the proceedings the Commission had the impression that Mr Rogers’ personal views were at the forefront of his representation and his professional duties to the Commission and his client were secondary,” the Commission said.
“It was immediately apparent that the extensive (but incompetent) submissions Mr Rogers filed early in these proceedings had the familiar ‘anti-vax template’ appearance.”
The documents claimed Mr Rogers continued the proceedings without communicating with Ms Dorman.
Ms Dorman had told the Commission she had “almost total disengagement” with Mr Rogers throughout the proceedings from October 12, 2022 until January 15 as she was dealing with a personal family matter.
Mr Rogers had asked for the matter to be set down for hearing in that time, which the Commission noted he would have known would incur further costs.
Ms Dorman asked to discontinue proceedings after obtaining new work.
Mr Rogers submitted in his defence that he had advised Ms Dorman to discontinue the application on a number of occasions.
He accused Queensland Health of making “baseless accusations about (his) conduct without any evidence and before they have had an opportunity to review the evidence”.
But the Commission concluded Mr Rogers made no such recommendation “ever” to Ms Dorman to discontinue proceedings.
They had warned Mr Rogers last November that he could be personally liable to pay costs.
But he responded: “That’s never going to happen. I won’t be paying those costs and we’ll simply appeal the matter Commissioner.
“If you don’t want to do your job, we’ll get someone else to do it.”
Although the Commission has no powers to punish for contempt, it noted there was “at least one incident of explicitly contemptuous conduct by Mr Rogers in addition to his consistent display of disrespectful behaviour towards the Commission, both in his demeanour and his repeated noncompliance with directions orders”.
The Commission also noted that while it could not order Mr Rogers to pay costs for the actual costs proceedings, it “would have no hesitation” in doing so if they could.
“Mr Rogers failed on almost every occasion to comply with directions issued by the Commission,” the Commission stated.
“The dismissive and casual tones routinely adopted by Mr Rogers gave a clear impression of disdain for the Commission.
“It was plainly and exclusively the conduct of Mr Rogers that caused the respondent (Queensland Health) to incur costs unnecessarily in responding to Ms Dorman’s application.”
In a decision delivered on November 23, Mr Rogers was ordered to pay $9062 to Queensland Health within 14 days.
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