By Teresa Dowding
HOBART -- Royal commissioner William Carter released his long-awaited report into the attempted bribery of Labor MP Jim Cox by Tasmanian media magnate Edmund Rouse on November 5. Rouse had tried to bribe Cox with $110,000 to cross the floor of parliament in June 1989, in order to foil Labor's plans to form a minority government with five Green Independents.
The royal commission was established to determine who was involved in the bribery attempt other than Rouse and his go-between, Tony Aloi. Carter's report confirmed that Robin Gray, the then Liberal premier, had acted “deceitfully and dishonestly” and had been “misleading and deceptively evasive”.
On the subject of a $10,000 donation to the Liberal Party from Rouse shortly before the bribery attempt, Carter found that Gray had kept the money at his home for no less than three months, and there was suspicion that he intended to retain it for his own benefit.
But that's about as far as “justice” goes in Tasmania if you are not black or on welfare. Carter decided against recommending that Gray be prosecuted, despite the fact that he had found Gray deceitful in his dealings with the police, that Gray had withheld vital information, and that Gray's involvement in the scandal could have ranged from conspiring to bribe to failure to report knowledge that Rouse intended to unlawfully entice Cox to cross the floor.
Rouse has just been released from jail after serving a mere 18 months for his part in the scandal.
