Laid-back Michael Lawler’s leave to appear in court

A rumpled Michael Lawler accompanied his partner Kathy Jackson as the former HSU boss faced court yesterday.

Union corruption whistle blower Kathy Jackson and Michael Lawlor arrive back from lunch for the afternoon session at the Federal court in Sydney.

It was a far cry from the sombre, besuited environs of the Fair Work Commission when vice-president Michael Lawler — currently on months of sick leave for an unspecified illness — arrived in the Federal Court yesterday on the arm of his partner, former trade union boss Kathy Jackson.

Looking ready for a weekend rock concert or a country lunch, Lawler appeared in a corduroy jacket and rumpled blue and white print shirt worn untucked over skinny black jeans with ­elastic-sided boots. He carried a large green satchel of papers.

Jackson, who is facing allegations of misappropriation of $1.4 million, was less flamboyant, in black with a red bag.

Every so often Lawler left the court to smoke outside.

In a courtroom bombshell, it emerged that Lawler was in the process of acquiring the million-dollar beachside home he lived in with Jackson — as she moved to transfer her assets, steps ahead of a union bid to freeze what she owned.

The Sydney appearance by Jackson in courtroom 18C was carried by video-link to the Melbourne courtroom of judge Richard Tracey, who is presiding over a case in which Jackson is due to face trial on June 29 — fighting the Health Services Union, where she used to be national secretary.

The large Sydney courtroom with the video-link was eerily empty, with only Lawler, Jackson, her two lawyers, a court officer and one journalist in the room for the hearing, which ran over several hours.

Lawler’s role in Jackson’s legal fight has provoked unrest at the Fair Work Commission, amid concerns over the perceptions of a conflict of interest due to his very public role in the case, which last year extended to representing her in the Federal Court, on June 20.

At the same time, Lawler has been on sick leave for in excess of six months in the past year, all the while on full pay at the FWC, where his salary is $435,000.

The commission, however, has no power to require Lawler to curtail sick leave as the terms and conditions of his appointment are silent on this, enabling him theoretically to take unlimited sick leave unless blocked by a vote in both houses of parliament.

Eyes and ears at the FWC have been tuned into Lawler’s activities with Jackson, given he holds a prestigious position at the apex of an industrial tribunal that deals with union matters, and yet gives the appearance of being up to his ears in the HSU Federal Court case. At the same time, he appears unable to attend work at the FWC.

Yesterday — in one of the more surprising revelations in a long, breathtaking saga that commenced with Jackson as whistleblower bringing down a top HSU boss (now jailed) and a Labor MP (now disgraced and charged), and which ultimately threatens to rout Jackson herself — it emerged Jackson was transferring ownership of their home to Lawler. The court heard too that Lawler was paying some of Jackson’s legal fees.

The couple’s home, in a seaside enclave on the NSW south coast, was affected by a fire in January, which Jackson claimed was arson.

NSW police last week gave a quote to The Australian, saying the fire had been investigated by police and the case closed, as there were no suspicious circumstances.

Yesterday, Lawler looked well as he repeatedly slipped out of court for a cigarette.

Inside the court, he was intently focused on the questioning by video-link between Justice Tracey and Jackson’s barrister Mark Robinson.

Lawler approached the bar table 10 times to confer with Jackson’s lawyers; one of Jackson’s lawyers in turn approached Lawler several times. Lawler bounded back and forth from his seat in the orange chairs at the back of the room, sometimes passing up his scribbled notes to the lawyers.

By the time lunch break was over, it was not only Jackson who was represented in court. Jackson’s barrister, Robinson, suddenly declared he also now briefly represented Lawler on the matter of Jackson’s house.

They lived there until they rented a vast estate next door after the fire. The house next door, on 9000sq m of rolling gardens at the base of a rainforest, was bought by Lawler a year ago, acting on behalf of an ageing barrister, David Rofe, who had dementia.

Rofe and Lawler knew one ­another in younger days.

Jackson settled in this beachy village, 75 minutes’ drive south of Sydney, after moving from Melbourne. Seen shopping in the nearby Coles supermarket on the weekend of April 25, Jackson seemed part of the local scene of Sydneysiders with weekenders and locals drawn by the easygoing lifestyle.

Yesterday Justice Tracey left the ownership of the beachside house in limbo, requiring Lawler and Jackson to undertake not to proceed further with the change of ownership until the court ruled on Jackson’s application for a permanent stay of proceedings.