Death casts pall on party mood at Kathy Jackson abode

The death of a house guest of Kathy Jackson and Michael Lawler has shocked his friends.

Sean Fisher

Exuberant and sometimes wild dinner parties hosted by Michael Lawler and his partner, Kathy Jackson, have shown no sign of slowing in recent times, despite the daily dramas that have dominated their lives.

Lawler and Jackson have continued to welcome many friends, new and old, to their beachside home in leafy Wombarra, south of Sydney. It has been common for friends to stay over after late nights of food, drink and bonhomie. But, until now, the couple has never had a guest who arrived for dinner and never left.

On Tuesday night, Sean Fisher, a regular partygoer, ate and drank with Lawler and Jackson — and stayed the night as he had done many times before. The next morning the 45-year-old was found dead in his bed.

This death in paradise on the NSW south coast has shocked Fisher’s friends. It is a tragedy on top of scandal for Lawler, who quit yesterday as vice-president of the Fair Work Commission, and Jackson, under police investigation for allegedly stealing $1.4 million of union funds despite achieving fame for exposing two crooks.

Police are not treating Fisher’s death as suspicious, after initial reports indicated he died of natural causes. But final findings will depend on a coroner’s report that is expected to rely on toxicology tests, and piecing together how the man spent his final night.

Fisher, who told friends he was the great nephew of Australia’s fifth and Labor’s second prime minister, Andrew Fisher, met Jackson in 2014 when he was an in-patient at South Coast Private Hospital, a mental health facility in Wollongong.

Jackson became close to Fisher during her concurrent stay at the $870-a-night private hospital. She had admitted herself to recover from stress during Federal Court proceedings as the Health Services Union pursued her to recover huge sums of members’ money that its lawyers would later successfully argue she misused.

When she checked out, Jackson invited Fisher to visit her and Lawler at their home. He quickly became part of their tight-knit group. Lawler became friendly with Fisher — and had the common bond that he had spent a few stints at South Coast Private as well.

It was noticed when people dropped by the Wombarra house and saw Fisher with the couple that he almost always had a beer in his hand. Occasionally it was as early as 8am.

Fisher spent time with Jackson and Lawler last year when they moved out of their home for six months after a fire, and lived next door at a property owned by retired Sydney barrister and dementia suffer David Rofe, another friend of Jackson.

He lived for a while with another friend of Jackson and Lawler, Justin Kriz, at nearby Thirroul, but the two men’s different living habits did not gel and Fisher left, even if they remained on good terms.

A person with close knowledge of the Lawler-Jackson household told The Australian: “They bring a lot of patients from (the South Coast) Private home to stay with them. I imagine the friendships they develop in therapy at the hospital are quite strong and it's Kathy's natural inclination to help out in those circumstances.”

Recently Lawler had taken in a former mentally disturbed man, Kingsley Kraschnefski, as a Wombarra boarder, after giving ACT Magistrates Court an assurance he would shelter him. Lawler said he was following the teachings of Jesus.

Fisher was regarded by many as vulnerable. He had lived in Queanbeyan and worked in Canberra for many years before moving to the NSW south coast and meeting Jackson and Lawler. He became too ill to work, spending periods in the private psychiatric hospital where he met Jackson.

Lately Fisher was believed to be broke. But he had told Jackson and others he was the beneficiary of a generous inheritance. He had given most, possibly all of this inheritance to Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party to help with its fledgling election campaign in 2013, he claimed, and now had a financial claim for compensation.

After the 2013 election Fisher fell out with members of PUP, and was angry towards Palmer even if they had no discernible connection of consequence apart from a brief period when Fisher did some campaigning work.

Jennifer Stefanac, PUP’s unsuccessful candidate in 2013 for the seat of Hunter, north of Sydney, confirmed yesterday that Fisher did work very hard for her. Shocked at his death, Stefanac said she had told Fisher to submit receipts for his campaign work so that he could be compensated by PUP. But he never gave her, or the party, any receipts, she said.

She concluded that Fisher’s claims of having donated to the party were a “fantasy” and that his real goal was to get close to Palmer. Wayne Slattery, the chief executive of pet welfare group Good Samaritans and a failed PUP Senate candidate in the ACT, said he and many party members tried to help Fisher after the 2013 election when he made claims for financial compensation.

Slattery said he was asked by “someone in the party” to assist Fisher resolve his claims. He said Fisher was intelligent but the main difficulty was eliciting detail of what he wanted. “There was never anything substantiated,” Slattery said. “We all tried to help him.”

In one piece of correspondence to a friend, Fisher seemed to be saying he was owed $15,000 — or one dollar for every kilometre he had driven while on the campaign trail for Stefanac. Slattery did remember Fisher mentioning a figure of $60,000 at one point — but he had no idea if the campaign helper was claiming this sum as compensation for a donation, a loan or hours worked.

Slattery said he believed that — despite wild claims from Fisher that he was the victim of fraud — Fisher really wanted to get close to Palmer and be accepted as a backroom party adviser.

For his part, Fisher was bitter at Palmer, who he branded a “fat f…” in one email to a friend obtained by The Australian. But Fisher was also resentful towards Peter Burke, the former national director of PUP before Burke was replaced with Palmer’s nephew.

After Burke carried out an investigation and concluded that Fisher had no claim against the party, Fisher told a friend in writing: “Last week I was advised that Peter Burkes (sic) investigation concluded that I had no involvement and no claim against (sic) the party …”

As alleged proof of his involvement, Fisher produced a business card claiming that he had been the “campaign/project manager” for Stefanac. According to Stefanac, while Fisher was a great help, he could become agitated when he stopped taking his antipsychotic medication. In an email to a friend last month, Fisher said he had “just polished off” his second litre of Jim Beam since the day before, and was thinking of ending his life. The friend says he contacted police immediately and spent much time trying to find Fisher.

When the friend asked Fisher if he had been to Thirroul lately, Fisher replied: “No mate I have avoided contact with the Wombarra people.” But Fisher was back at Wombarra this week, and stayed overnight.

Jackson and Lawler did not respond to requests for comment on the loss of their friend yesterday.

If you are depressed or contemplating suicide, help is available at Lifeline on 131 114