The agency rushed to court on Wednesday night for the last-minute injunction,afterThe Age sent a series of questions to several individuals relating to the previously unreported IBAC investigation earlier that day.
The Agerevealed on Friday afternoon that a key focus of IBAC’s investigation into the grants – worth $3.4 million – is what role the premier and some of his advisers played in promising the money to the Health Workers Union,despite objections from Health Department officials.
Loading
That article was based on information gathered outside IBAC’s draft report.
On Friday afternoon Justice Greg Garde granted IBAC an injunction to restrainThe Agefrom publishing information that “may have been derived” from a draft report from the investigation.
IBAC had sent the confidential draft findings to individuals involved in the probe,so they could respond before the commission finalised and released a public report.
IBAC’s barrister Emrys Nekvapil,SC,told the court during the Wednesday night hearing that the commission believed somebody provided with its report “must have then passed on the report,or at least read out or conveyed information from that report … to a journalist atThe Age”.