Gwynne promised to get mate ‘in the door’ at Children’s Commission, court hears

Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne promised her friend she’d ‘get her in the door’ while encouraging her to apply for a role in her office in 2017, a court has heard.

UPDATE FRIDAY: CHILDREN’S Commissioner Colleen Gwynne promised her friend she’d “get her in the door” while encouraging her to apply for a role in her office in 2017, a court has heard.

Gwynne is contesting a charge in the Darwin Local Court of abusing her office by trying to install Laura Dewson as her 2IC, against the advice of a selection panel.

On Friday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Victoria Engel told the court Gwynne had emailed Ms Dewson in late 2017, urging her to apply for a job as a senior investigator.

“Laura put in an app for this, then I can get you in the door,” the email read.

Ms Engel said Ms Dewson did as she was asked but then later withdrew her application one day before Gwynne appointed her in an “AO7” role at the commission.

“That was an appointment without merit testing, without advertising, without referee checks and it was a direct appointment by the accused,” she said.

“She also appointed her to the highest increment within the AO7 range.”

At 9.05am on the day Ms Dewson started in that job, Ms Engel said Gwynne sent her another email, this time indicating she would “transition” into a higher paid “SAO1” role the following month.

Ms Engel said again Gwynne followed through and duly appointed Ms Dewson to the role “without advertising, without merit selection, without referee checks”.

About nine months later when the then current acting assistant commissioner went on maternity leave, Ms Engel said Gwynne summarily installed Ms Dewson in the role.

“The Crown case is, to use the colloquial, that by this point in time, Dewson had been given a ‘leg up’ by the accused,” she said.

“She had the benefit of nine months working in that office and seven weeks in the position as the acting (assistant) commissioner and that’s when the very first test happens as to whether she’s going to be the preferred candidate (for the permanent position).”

Later, after the selection panel recommended another candidate for the role, Ms Engel said Gwynne called one of the panel members in an “attempt to bully” her.

“What’s important about this telephone call is that it’s not an inquiry by the accused,” she said.

“It’s not an attempt by the accused to understand from one of the panel members why she’d done what she’d done — it’s an attack on her that she’d picked the wrong person.

“The tone of that call was a ‘how dare you’ call, ‘How dare the panel do what they’ve done?’.”

Earlier, in asking the court to dismiss the charge, Gwynne’s lawyer Phillip Boulten SC, said her conduct at most warranted disciplinary action, rather than criminal sanction.

“This doesn’t rise very far away from what people do in the public service every afternoon, every day,” he said.

“Where they struggle with hard decisions about who to promote, whether to give someone a pay rise or whether they should be given a job and where they express their opinions all the time and they make decisions in the real world.”

The hearing will resume at a later date.

UPDATE THURSDAY: THE case against Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne should be thrown out of court unless the evidence is capable of proving she intentionally acted arbitrarily or in an abuse of process, a court has heard.

Gwynne is contesting a charge in the Darwin Local Court of abusing her office by intervening to try to hire her friend, Laura Dewson, as her 2IC in 2018.

On Thursday, her lawyer, Phillip Boulten SC, urged judge Anthony Gett to dismiss the charge rather than sending the case to the Supreme Court for trial.

Mr Boulten said for the case to proceed, Mr Gett had to be satisfied the evidence was capable of proving Gwynne’s conduct was intentionally inappropriate.

“Essentially, the prosecution are contending that the evidence is capable of demonstrating that Ms Gwynne arbitrarily and deliberately acted in a way to favour Ms Dewson in the selection process to the disadvantage of the NT its citizens and other applicants, and she did so because she was a friend, or a good friend, or a very good friend, or part of a close knit group of friends,” he said.

“Alternatively, it was a deliberate abuse of process because the process required engagement with proper and exhaustive, merit based considerations, whereas the defendant deliberately and wilfully and intentionally overrode the merit process to favour a friend.”

Mr Boulten said Mr Gett should also throw out the case if the evidence could not establish that Gwynne’s conduct was such that it warranted criminal sanction.

“If it was the type of conduct that would not warrant criminal sanction and would be considered by a member of the public to be something that would warrant, at best, retraining or disciplinary action, then your honour might well form the view that this is a trivial offence, or an offence that was of a merely technical nature,” he said.

The hearing continues on Friday.

UPDATE TUES: AN overworked and understaffed Children’s Commission attempting to grapple with the national spotlight of the Don Dale inquiry led to a “captain’s call”, sparking a police investigation into alleged corruption.

On the second day of the hearing against NT Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne, the court heard the investigation was never handed over to the corruption watchdog, ICAC.

Gwynne was accused of having a potential conflict of interest when she appointed Laura Dewson as the Assistant Children’s Commission role in 2018.

Ms Dewson told the court she and Gwynne were friends, having worked together and had known each other for decades. Ms Dewson said they socialised and she had attended Gwynne’s wedding.

“Darwin is a very small place, we both worked in the NT government for a long time, we both worked in NT police and emergency services,” she said.

Ms Dewson said she was the acting Assistant Commissioner, and used Gwynne as her reference for the permanent role.

The court heard Ms Dewson was one of two candidates deemed suitable by the selection committee, and she was hand picked by Gwynne despite being the second choice.

Former Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne, flanked by her legal team going into Darwin Magistrates Court. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Then acting Director Public Sector Appeals and Grievance Reviews Rachael Dunn said her office explicitly instructed that the “captains pick” investigation should be handled by the newly-formed ICAC, rather than the public interest disclosure commissioner.

“The day police turned up for an interview, I realised that the ICAC had never seen it, and within 24 hours the matter had been referred to police,” Ms Dunn said.

Both women had extensive careers with the NT Police, and had worked closely during crime command restructures in the force.

Gwynne’s senior counsel Phillip Boulten said she had been targeted for her advocacy.

“She called it as she saw it as the children’s commissioner,” Mr Boulten said.

“Whether it was critical of an agency or not. Police, Youth Justice workers, Territory Families, carers – the whole gamut.

“They were not popular in some areas of the government”

Judge Meredith Huntingford told the court a parallel independent investigation commissioned by the Attorneys-General office found no conflict of interest, but a breach of procedure.

Ms Huntingford said Gwynne was just interested in getting the position filled as soon as possible, and was happy to readvertise the role as a special measures position following the complaints.

Ms Dewson said she reapplied for the same position, but was not granted an interview.

Ms Dewson repeated claims of understaffing, saying at one point there were only three people at the Children’s Commission, a third of their full staff numbers.

Ms Dewson at the time they were handling urgent matters involving youth justice and allegations of carer abuse, major restructures following the Don Dale Royal Commission, staffing restructures and legislative changes.

When asked who was running investigations at the time, Ms Dewson replied “me” – to the chuckle of Gywnne who was watching the proceedings.

EARLIER MON: THE Territory’s public employment commissioner had “serious concerns” about Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne’s potential for a conflict of interest, despite having “no evidence” to suggest one, a court has heard.

Gwynne is contesting a charge of abuse of office in the Darwin Local Court where former Commissioner for Public Employment, Craig Allen, took the stand in a committal hearing on Monday.

The charge relates to her decision to allegedly overrule a selection panel’s appointment for Assistant Children’s Commissioner in favour of her former NT Police colleague Laura Dewson in 2018.

Under cross examination by Gwynne’s barrister, Phillip Boulten SC, Mr Allen said his concerns led him to refer Gwynn’s decision to the former corruption watchdog, the Public Interest Disclosures Commission (PIDC).

“The concerns I had were in relation to the appointment being made without any conflict of interest disclosure being made,” he said.

“The reason I was uncomfortable was because I couldn’t answer the question whether there was a conflict of interest.

Former Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne, flanked by her legal team going into Darwin Magistrates Court. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“I don’t know whether there was any friendship or anything like that so that was the main concern.”

Mr Allen said while he “didn’t have any evidence to suggest that there was a conflict of interest” he “believed it was a matter that needed to be looked at independently”.

“All I’d wanted the PIDC to do was to assess if there was a conflict of interest, I made it quite clear that I had no view either way, I just needed an independent assessment,” he said.

“I would have been more than happy for PIDC or the (police) to come back and tell me that they had discovered that there was no conflict of interest.”

In response to questioning from Mr Boulten, Mr Allen said while he had never referred anyone else to the PIDC or police over a potential conflict before, the fact that Gwynne was involved did not influence his decision.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if it was any other people in that situation, I would have still followed that same course of action,” he said.

Territory Families CEO, Ken Davies, also took the stand on Monday and told Mr Boulten he had no recollection of a telephone conversation with Gwynne about the appointment.

But Mr Davies said “if there was a discussion along those lines” he would have told her “the (selection) panel makes a recommendation, it does not approve”.

Mr Davies said he would have told Gwynne she had “the power and the right to decline or endorse that recommendation” but also “to seek advice about handling this matter”.

“I don’t recall saying that to Ms Gwynne but I do know I’ve been in these situations before and when I have, I’ve said ‘Go back and start again’ or, alternatively, (you) seek advice from your HR people about what you can and you can’t do, that’s the bottom line,” he said.

“Panels make a recommendation, the approving officer is the designated approving officer, but if you’re going to overturn a panel’s decision or change a panel’s decision you need to seek advice about that.”

But the court also heard that Gwynne did seek advice, via another public servant, from the Solicitor for the NT, which one investigating officer later described as meaning “the whole job is gone”.

Under cross examination, another officer said he did not recall the other man using the phrase.

The hearing continues.