Chapter 06

The Supreme Court Again

Madison is first on her feet when Judge Finnegan reconvenes the court. She’s quick to point out several matters have been settled and can now be listed as completed. The judge is happy while she goes through each item: handing up the statements of responsibility by the people when she agrees to end all further action, copies of the agreements are passed to him as well. All of the paperwork is placed in the relevant files. It takes a few minutes to go through the proper procedures for each of the finalised matters, so Kim takes opportunity to have a word with Kerry and the other political power brokers of his party.

Kim is very aware the judge is watching him when he moves to beside Kerry as the State Party Leader is sitting beside Kerry and the other two power brokers are sitting in front of him. When Kim starts to speak the two in front turn around to lean over the back of the seat they’re sitting on to join in the discussion. Kim quickly shakes hands with them all.

With a serious expression Kim says, “Kerry, I suspect we’re about to come down to the wire. I’m going to make you an offer for a settlement; it’ll be good until three thirty. After that everything goes up. There are a number of items in it so please keep all of your questions and comments until I ask for them, OK?” They all nod agreement to hold off. “Good. Money. I want eighty million paid over two years, thirty-five this year and forty-five next year, that’s to allow you to balance the budget better. You pay all the bills for my time in hospital. My legal representatives get one million each as payment of their fees by you. Patrick Mills gets two million as compensation. You increase the budget for the Education and Health departments by five per cent this year plus ten per cent next year. The money allocated for ministerial travel this year and next year is removed, so no ministerial junkets from now until the new government takes power after the next election. The Attorney General resigns his position and he agrees not to seek or accept any future employment with any government, local, state, or federal - paid or elected. Penalty of ten thousand dollars a day if he goes back on his word. The Premier, Deputy Premier, Minister for Education, and Treasurer all resign their current posts and move to the back benches.” He stops to take a sip of water from the bottle he was given with his lunch.

He continues, “They’ll all sit out their time to the next election but will announce they won’t be standing. Again, they promise not to seek or accept any form of employment with the government, federal, local, or state - either paid or elected. A penalty of ten thousand dollars a day per person for any breach of their word. All five are to pay me one thousand dollars each as compensation and they’re to make a statement to the court accepting responsibility for all of the incidents we’re here about today. Plus you all promise not to take any action against anyone involved in this at any time in the future. I’ll end all of the law suits to close it all off as of now. Do you understand what I want?” They all nod yes, “Good, now any questions?”

Kerry asks Kim, “You know what you ask will mean the end of their careers?”

“Of course I do! I worded it that way to do just that. They destroyed my career in the military so I’m destroying their careers. By doing it this way your party gets the chance to use them as the scapegoats and move on. The other option is to fight and bury the party with them as well as paying out a lot more money.”

Simon isn’t happy with the offering, not at all. He’s the current head of one faction within the party. It’s taken them over twenty years to get major control of the party. The party leadership used to be a group of five and about fifteen years ago it grew to seven: the three power brokers here, the State Party Leader, the head and deputy head of the party in the house (currently the Premier and Deputy Premier), and the Treasurer (or Shadow Treasure when in opposition). The Attorney General and the Minister of Education have only been in the latest meetings due to the involvement of their organisations being central to the problem. Of the current control committee the Premier, Deputy Premier, and Treasurer are all of the same faction as Simon and their being kicked out will mean his faction will be relegated to the political wilderness again. He doesn’t like that idea at all. They’ll go from being in control to being of no value at all. The next member of his faction stands about fifteenth in the party’s current political power line up.

Simon snarls, “Not ever going to happen.”

Kim smiles at him, “I don’t really care if you accept the offer or not, but I strongly suggest you discuss it and think hard about it. This way you get to serve out the current term as government. The next change to the offer will be an increase in payment with all for immediate payment. To date I’ve not involved the media. Fight too hard and I’ll call them in. The more trouble you give me the deeper the shit the party ends up in. I’ve got this case won as it’s a lay down win! I’m offering you a chance to get out of it with minimal damage to the party overall by stomping the arse holes and the faction that caused the problem. You lot fight it out.”

George asks, “Kim, I hope you don’t mind if I call you Kim.” He gets a nod yes in reply. “Why do you see this as a sure win for you?”

“In the short term the evidence available is all in my favour, you’ll hear that shortly. But, in the long term the more this drags out the more your party will suffer. Look at the events in order and think about how the media and general public will see them. The Premier makes major cuts to the education budget and issues orders it’s not to come from any service delivery areas, that leaves repairs and maintenance to be cut. I get severely injured due to the cut backs in repairs being done on the cheap and on the fly. The Department, on Ministerial orders, tries to cheat me out of compensation with fraudulent activity and a major crime figure is involved in that action. Next they try to have me set up as insane. After that they send doctors to create a disturbance while a hit man from the crime figure they’re involved with tries to kill me. The whole affair is rushed to the Supreme Court, the crime figure is there and is exposed as a wanted murderer. He leaves town. Oh, you may not be aware of that yet. My spies tell me he’s packed and is getting money from the bank while he heads out of town. Now, we all know how the media and the general voting public are going to connect those dots and for how many years they’ll remember the stink raised. The only way this matter will get finished today is for an out of court settlement. If that doesn’t happen tomorrow’s papers will have some very interesting headlines. As I said, think about the party as a whole and not the factions.”

He moves away from them and goes back to beside the table being used by Amanda and Madison while the four men start a very heated discussion. Kim smiles at the judge while he rolls into place.

Evidence Presentation

Kim is back in place just as the opening statements of both sides are finished. All of the procedures for the settled matters were finished a while back. Now it’s time for Amanda to start her case. She sorts out some papers, stands up, and addresses the court.

Amanda says, “Your Honour, I’m well aware this matter has been rushed to court due to a number of reasons and we haven’t yet gone through the evidence disclosure phase that was originally scheduled for the week after next. It is my hope the defence will realise how hopeless their position is once they see the evidence, and will seek to quickly resolve this matter out of court and thus minimise the court’s time on this. To that aim, with your permission, I’ll first list the items of evidence we have while I place them here ready to be presented to the court as evidence. I hope this will be acceptable to Your Honour and my learned colleagues.” The judge waves for her to continue while the legal staff at the other table hold a hurried discussion. She takes a sip of water, “I strongly doubt the defence will contest any of the evidence about how the actual injuries to my client occurred. I have here copies of the reports of the incident made by the police and the local work safety inspector. As you know, the incident happened in a town just outside of the city and the investigators were sent from the city. Included with these reports are statements by the witnesses and the workmen on site at the time.”

The head barrister for the defence stands. Amanda stops talking and the judge waves to him. He says, “Your Honour, we’re quite ready and willing to agree with the contents of those reports and accept they accurately detail the actual events they refer to. Our contest is with the way the defence lays the burden of responsibility on anyone but the workers involved, as they were not operating in a safe manner. We feel all claims for compensation should be levelled at the repair company.”

When he sits down Judge Finnegan turns to Amanda, she stands again and says, “Yes, Your Honour, the crux of the matter is who is to be held responsible for the circumstances leading up to the incident. I intend to prove the workmen did the best they could within the environment and restrictions the Department and the government provided to them.”

A grinning Amanda sorts the papers, lifts a couple up, “I’ll provide evidence of the atmosphere of pushing safety to the side in favour of cutting the costs by providing copies of memos and emails from the permanent head of the Department of Education to the schools giving instructions to not allow any repair work to interfere in class activities and not to allow any work to occur when it can’t be done as part of the normal work day. I also have memos and emails between the head of the Department and the Minister discussing safety and the Minister issuing those orders to the Department head.” The people at the other table are very pale. Amanda holds up more papers, “Cabinet Meeting minutes where the cuts and their effects are discussed at length and the setting out of how to handle the budget. These clearly show the people pushing the new rule changes to cut safety are the Premier, Deputy Premier, and Treasurer.” The people named are white as sheets and are concerned when they remember the meetings and wonder how Amanda got copies of them. Even Kim wonders about that since they didn’t come through his sources. Kim turns to look at the power brokers, they all have very shocked looks and Simon looks like he’s about to have a heart attack.

Amanda places those papers on the edge of the table and holds up some more, “I also have copies of confidential memos sent by the Treasurer to all Department heads on how to reduce maintenance and repairs costs by deferring services to beyond their due date.” She places those on top of the rest and picks up another pile. She has a predatory grin when she says, “This current government, controlled by these people, is so into cutting other costs to the bone so they can fund their pork barrels they refused to provide legal representation to the other respondents who were simply doing their jobs for the government. The people had little choice but to strike the best deal they could after they saw they were in big trouble.” She shakes the pages, “These statements of responsibility from the principal and the Department head admit they created the environment that caused the incident and state they did so under duress from their political bosses. We accept their statements they did not fully understand the risks or dangers they were creating then. These documents are already on file with the court as part of the settlement of their individual cases. Although we accept these employees had no idea of the dangers the other papers make it clear the bosses did understand all of the dangers involved and they knew they were putting people’s health and lives at risk.”

She glares at the respondents and says, “Your Honour, I suggest we take a short recess so my learned colleagues have an opportunity to discuss this information with their clients before I present these papers as evidence to make them part of the permanent court record.”

Judge Finnegan turns to look at the defendant’s table. Their lead barrister stands and says, “If it pleases, Your Honour, we would like an opportunity to seek further instructions from our clients. Much of what our learned colleague has said is new to us and we need to clarify many things with our clients.” The judge agrees and the court rises, it will reconvene at three o’clock.

He’s hardly out the door when the legal staff are getting stuck into their clients about not being fully open about the case. A smiling Kim asks Amanda, “OK, Mandy, what’s the real reason you don’t want to present those papers as evidence?”

She grins, “I promised the sources of the papers I’d do all I can to not present them because the notes etcetera on them makes it clear who I got them from. Naturally, they’d rather that information didn’t get out, but they want to see justice done in this case and this lot kicked out, even it if costs them their jobs. I am trying to avoid costing them their jobs.” Kim smiles as he nods his agreement. He’s got this group in a lot tighter hold than he thought he had.

While they chat and the other group have a heated discussion Kim watches the power brokers have a heated discussion as well. Simon is under a lot of pressure. Kim decides to stir the pot so he calls out, “Hey, Simon, keep up the fight, when I finish with this lot here as a civil case I’ll get the criminal negligence charges started by the police. That’ll end with four by-elections which I’m sure you’ll lose. Will losing four seats to the opposition be enough to change who’s in government?” Simon goes a deathly white at the comment because it cuts the margin to one seat.

One of George’s gophers walks in with hot drinks while he’s resets the lid on one of them. The drinks are handed out with the one George’s gopher had been fixing the cap on being handed to Simon, and Kim wonders if it has an after sale additive in it. Maybe a sedative to calm him.

The heated discussions are still going on when Simon grabs his chest and slumps down in his seat. The bailiff hits a button, and runs over with a medical kit. Ali also races over and starts to check him out. One of Simon’s gophers starts to object, and stops when she sees the medical bag Ali has as no one had seen it earlier because it’s the same colour as Kim’s chair which it was hanging on the back of.

Two more bailiffs race into the courtroom to help. Under direction from Ali they give him oxygen from a cylinder they have while one does external heart compression. After a few more minutes two Emergency Medical Technicians race in, they take over: one working on Simon while the other notes the symptoms and what they’ve done. One of the bailiffs soon arrives with the gurney. They get Simon ready to take to hospital. Ali is concerned as she now has two patients to deal with. Kim sees her concern and waves for her to go with Simon. She gives him a brief smile and goes with Simon because he’s in more need at the moment.

Kim looks around and notices the gopher who got the drinks is very careful in collecting the empty or almost empty cups and he takes them outside to dispose of them. Kim is sure George just took action to deal with a hard obstacle in his way. He looks up to see Kerry looking at him. Kim shrugs, and Kerry gives him a wry grin. Party politics in action.

Kerry calls the respondents over and they start a heated discussion. It goes on for several minutes with the power voters split three and three. After several minutes the Minister for Education makes a long statement and goes to speak with their legal representatives.

After a few more minutes of talking the Attorney General throws up his hands before he heads back to the table with the lawyers. He talks with the Minister. A minute later the senior barrister walks over to say, “Excuse me, Kerry told us what you offered as a settlement earlier. Will you accept settlement by two respondents where they agree to the parts specific to them? There doesn’t seem to be a meeting of minds at the moment.” Amanda turns to Kim. With no change of expression he nods yes, and the legal representatives start writing a document on Amanda’s notebook computer. A few minutes later it’s done, printed on her portable bubble jet printer, and signed. Copies to all involved.

With an evil grin Kim hands an extra copy to one of Kerry’s staff to hand to Kerry. The man glances at it, then he stops to read it. He hands it to Kerry and whispers urgently to him. Kerry looks up and turns back to the Premier, handing the document to him to read. He gulps, turns, and glares hard at the other two men. The document includes statements by them admitting culpability while stating what they’d done. This pulls the last possible chance of any defence out from under the feet of the other respondents. The Attorney General and the Minister are both well past minimum retirement age, so they can see their pensions are on the line if this goes against them in the court, and they can’t see a win so they’re cutting the best deal they can for themselves and stuff the others. It’s the exact same attitude the others have applied to everyone else, so they can’t blame them for it; but, of course, they do blame them for it.

It only takes Kerry another few minutes to get the rest to agree to the terms of settlement and to get documents drawn up, printed, and signed. The respondents write out personal cheques for their private payments, if they don’t clear it’s then a simple criminal charge. The government payments will take a little longer to sort out, but they’ll be done during the week before the key players hand in their resignations from their positions. Five very sad and defeated people sit down to wait for the judge to return as it’s ten minutes to three o’clock.

Kerry walks over to Kim, “Thank you, Kim, for not taking the whole party down with this lot. It’s my hope we can now rebuild it better. I know you think we can’t, but I can’t help but feel we can, and I have to try. At least we now have a chance to do so.”

Kim reaches out to shake his hand while saying, “I know you have to try and I wish you luck in the attempt, even if I think you’ll fail. But the worst of the scum are now out. Just try to weed out the worst of what remains, OK?” Kerry smiles as he nods yes while he shakes Kim’s hand.

Judge Finnegan returns and the settlements are quickly processed. When everything is done the judge says, “Young Mister Majors, in my youth I watched Abe and Ben Majors at work, but you put them both to shame. I wonder how things will go when you hit your prime. I wish you good luck, young man, even if you may not need it.”

Kim smiles at the judge. Finnegan stands and leaves as the case is now over. Amanda puts all of the papers back in her bag while making sure no one gets a look at them. The Premier walks over and says, “Please, Miss Casey, I need to satisfy my own curiosity. Are those papers really what you say? I feel they can’t be because they could only be gotten from one of a few of the most trustworthy members of the party.”

“I can’t let you see them because I promised I wouldn’t let them be seen if they aren’t presented as evidence. But I will read out a few sentences from them if that will do to convince you as to them being genuine. I got them because some members of your party did not like the way you were placing the lives of children at risk, but I won’t say who they are.” With that she carefully extracts a few pages and reads aloud several sentences from the critical meeting minutes.

He goes white on hearing the parts being read. Gulping hard he nods yes while saying, “Yes, those are genuine. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity. Until just now I was sure you were running a bluff.”

Everyone finishes packing their gear and leaves. At four o’clock Kim and his personal entourage are back in his hospital room. Tim joins them and he has fun telling them about transferring the millions of crime proceeds to charities, thus taking away most of Dave’s money. He also confirms Dave has left town because he drove to a small airfield outside the city to take a fast private plane to places unknown by them. Both Jim and Jungle are upset they lost him.

Kim smiles at them and says, “Don’t worry. I know how to find him when we need to. He can run but not hide. Let’s let him get settled in somewhere and then send the police calling with their warrants. That’ll really upset him.” They all laugh at the thought while they wonder how he’ll do it. They sit around to chat while they let the tension of the day unwind. At five thirty dinner arrives for them all and they have a good meal. The visitors all leave after dinner and Kim takes a sleeping tablet to have an early night to recover from the day’s stress. He’s soon asleep.

The Next Several days

Wednesday starts out good with a great breakfast and all goes well with Kim concentrating on his therapy until mid-afternoon. Parliament sits and one of the first things presented is a proposed budget change to pay the compensation to meet the terms of the settlement. It’s heavily debated, and the government ends up having to agree to a few minor changes to get it quickly through parliament that day. The matter is not noticed by most of the media since they concentrate on the resignation of the Attorney General while the resignations of several other government staff involved in the affair are missed by them. Kim finds it odd the deaths of numerous criminals yesterday have gone unnoticed.

The evening passes well with visits from Gabby and her family then Lee and Helen. Jungle stands down many of his people and all security measures are cut back a bit, but a high level of security is maintained.

The whole day and evening pass in a calm manner. Kim has another early night to get two very good night’s sleeps in a row.

Thursday starts off nice as well. By lunchtime the media are tied up with a number of street gang related clashes going on around town. The media and the gangs have noticed Doomben Dave has left town and the other gangs are now clashing with each other while they disagree on how they’ll slice up Dave’s old territory.

By mid-afternoon the ripples of the budget changes are being felt in the streets when all of the people promised the pork barrel projects get the official word of the funding changes for their special interest projects are now being unfunded and deferred until after the next election while those that are started are being brought to a halt a.s.a.p. They start in on the politicians, and find no help there. By nightfall they’re talking to the media and making a lot of noise.

For Kim and his family it’s another calm day and evening with a third early night. But the tension is rising. Kim and Madison know it’s going to hit the fan soon, when someone puts things together. Amanda went back to Adelaide on Wednesday morning so it’ll be Madison and Kim to deal with the media in Brisbane when it blows up.

Friday Kim wakes up to another good breakfast and he settles down for the media siege he expects to start today. Starting last night a lot of the media are chasing around looking for the story behind the shut-down of so many of the special interest projects funded by the government in the last budget that are now stopped due to the budget changes. Since the papers on the budget are all public documents they soon find out about the compensation claim and they do the sums to see most of the changes relate to funding that payment. They next try to find out what the compensation is about, so that takes them to the court lists which are another set of public documents, and finally to the settlement agreement. The bulk of the agreement is sealed and not available, but the basics of what it’s for as well as the main payments are listed with the four main recipients.