By Harriet Alexander
Firebrand independent senator Jacqui Lambie has accused the RSL NSW president and one of his fellow directors of exploiting veterans by overcharging them for legal advice, in an extraordinary speech delivered under parliamentary privilege.
Lambie told the Senate that RSL president Mick Bainbridge and director Paul-Raymond James, partners in the Wollongong law firm Operational Legal Australia, were “unethical cowboys” who had charged huge fees for incompetently delivered services.
Senator Jacqui Lambie described the RSL NSW president and his fellow board director as “unethical cowboys” for their charging practices.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The firm markets itself as veteran-owned and veteran-friendly, and also provides lobbying services for businesses, individuals, charities and community groups through its “broad political networks”.
“These two men, who hold positions of influence and responsibility in RSL NSW are simultaneously profiting from a business that has been implicated in unethical practices targeting veterans,” Lambie said.
“The relationship between their roles at RSL NSW and their ownership of this legal firm calls into question the integrity of the RSL’s leadership and its ability to act in the best interests of veterans.”
Speaking generally, Lambie said legal service providers and veteran lawyers in particular had taken advantage of veterans’ confusion over claims processes and their rights and signed them up to expensive contracts that gave them no additional benefit when they had access to free advocates to go through a claims process.
RSL NSW president Mick Bainbridge was a founding partner of the law firm Operational Legal Australia.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“The pain, suffering and struggles faced by veterans who have sacrificed so much for our nation are being further compounded by those who claim to support them, but instead prey on their vulnerability for cash.”
She said Operational Legal Australia represented one of the worst examples.
“RSL NSW [has failed] to take meaningful action against these unethical cowboys exploiting veterans for their own ends … why? Because some of their own board members are involved.”
Lambie called for RSL Australia to investigate whether the legal services provided by Operational Legal Australia were actually delivered and the costs were appropriate, and for the Law Society of NSW to examine whether Bainbridge and James should have their practising certificates cancelled. She also called on RSL NSW to consider whether the pair were fit and proper person to be directors.
She also raised concerns that they had engaged in the bullying, harassment and intimidation of veteran staff, especially females. A former employee of OLA told her that Bainbridge and James had spoken of wanting to remove a female member of the RSL NSW board because she was “a feminist” and “a thorn in their side”.
James said on Thursday afternoon that Lambie had not contacted him for a response before she made the speech and he had never received a complaint from the NSW Law Society or the Legal Services Commissioner about overcharging.
Speaking in his capacity as principal of Operational Legal Australia, he said: “We’re actually cheaper than the fee-for-service people, cheaper than Slater and Gordon and cheaper than the lawyer who works for Jacqui Lambie.
“I’m never going to attack a veteran, so I respect Jacqui. We’ve had a lot of late-night phone calls. Most of the time she was inebriated, but that’s just the way it is.”
Lambie appeared on an Australian Story episode on the ABC about Bainbridge in 2018 that described how he had struggled with PTSD after serving as a commando on five deployments to Afghanistan, battled the Australian Defence Force to receive his entitlements, qualified for a law degree and become the youngest councillor ever elected to the board of RSL NSW.
In 2016, Lambie had raised in the Senate the difficulties Bainbridge encountered in obtaining his entitlements, and had received assurances by the then defence minister Marisa Payne that he would be supported. “I was sort of Mick’s last hope,” she told Australian Story.
Bainbridge later supported Lambie’s campaign for an inquiry into veteran suicide, which resulted in a royal commission that last month made 122 recommendations, including for the establishment of an executive agency to support veterans’ transition into civilian life.
But Lambie told the Senate on Thursday the royal commission had illustrated the failure by ex-service organisations such as the RSL to deliver support to veterans and their families.
“What I am hearing is those within our own ranks – these veteran-owned businesses and legal professionals – are exploiting the weakness in some RSL branches for their own gain,” she said.
RSL NSW said the organisation was registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and required with all its obligations and duties under the Act. “This includes requiring directors to declare interests, and the management of any conflicts – strong compliance and governance processes are in place,” a spokesman said.
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