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Bill Heffernan 'paedophile list' allegation: former royal commissioner James Wood
By Jane Lee And Latika Bourke
[with video] A former royal commissioner has hit back at claims by senator Bill Heffernan that he failed to properly investigate lawyers who allegedly attended a "boy brothel", as new details emerge of a "secret list" containing the names of high-profile alleged paedophiles.
The controversial Liberal senator used parliamentary privilege on Wednesday to claim that a former Australian prime minister was on the list, which he claims forms part of a police document. Many of the people on the list and otherwise named in the documents were "prominent", Senator Heffernan said: "They were delivered to me by a police agency some time ago because no one seems to want to deal with them." He also claimed every Commonwealth attorney-general since Philip Ruddock had seen the list. Fairfax Media understands Mr Ruddock referred Senator Heffernan's list to his department when he was the federal attorney-general in the Howard government between 2003 and 2007. Mr Ruddock referred the list to the then secretary of his department, Robert Cornall. Former Labor attorney-general Mark Dreyfus was also shown the list. He told Senator Heffernan to take any allegations he had to the relevant authorities. Attorney-General George Brandis has said he did not have a copy of the documents. Senator Heffernan said the list of 28 people formed part of police documents that had been "signed off" by Gary Crooke, QC, the former senior counsel assisting NSW's Wood royal commission into police corruption in the 1990s. He also accused former royal commissioner Justice James Roland Wood of refusing to investigate lawyers who had allegedly attended a Kings Cross "boy brothel". The former NSW Supreme Court judge denied Senator Heffernan's claims that he covered up allegations during the commission or protected anyone from inquiry when contacted by Fairfax Media on Wednesday. Mr Wood could not recall if the alleged list had been raised at the 1995 commission but said: "I reject that we failed to investigate anyone that fell within our terms of reference." The veteran senator has previously used parliamentary privilege to falsely accuse a former judge of using Commonwealth cars to procure young men for sex in 2002. He was later forced to apologise. Senator Heffernan wants the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse to investigate his list but said he had been told this was not within its terms of reference. When contacted, a spokeswoman for the commission declined to comment. The commission, which was established in 2014, has inquired into child abuse in a wide range of institutions, including sporting groups, schools, churches and after-school care services. It has power to look at abuse that occurs in an institutional context, in "any public or private body, agency, association, club, institution, organisation or other entity or group of entities of any kind (whether incorporated or unincorporated)". Senator Heffernan called for the commission's terms to be changed to include the "institution of the law". Senator Brandis on Tuesday told Senator Heffernan: "Just because someone's name appears on a list doesn't make them guilty, and if there are serious allegations … they should be put in the hands of the police. Nobody is above the law. I don't comment on your general allegations, but no one is above the law." Senator Heffernan has not said that anyone on the alleged list has committed child sex offences.
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