Nash said if an injunction was refused,“considerable damage” would flow to Woodman.

“His reputation will go further down the hill with further publication of the report,” Nash said.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the challenge,and Nash acknowledged that at no point during IBAC hearings did Woodman’s lawyers ask that they be held in private.

At the time,the court heard,Woodman had five lawyers acting for him.

Woodman arrived late to Monday’s hearing dressed in leisurewear and sat alone in the back row. Outside court,he said he was unaware of what was happening before cycling away along Lonsdale Street.

During publicIBAC hearings in 2019 and 2020,Woodman was accused of paying more than $1.2 million to Casey councillors and buying political influence by pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Labor and Liberal party coffers.

IBAC provided Woodman with the draft report ofOperation Sandon in two parts in December and January.

Court documents show Woodman commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court in May four days after an article published in this masthead indicated IBAC’s report was soon to be tabled before state parliament.

On May 23,Justice Steven Moore heard and dismissed the application and ordered Woodman pay costs for IBAC and the state government.

The grounds of his latest appeal alleged there were errors of law in Moore’s judgment.

Nash also declined to comment outside court on the likelihood of another appeal.

Integrity experts say the long delays resulting from Woodman’s legal challenges highlight the need for amendments to the IBAC Act.

Currently,the act only allows public examination of witnesses in ‘exceptional circumstances’,and it requires that anyone who has adverse findings against them be given the opportunity to respond before publication of a report.

The equivalent ICAC Act in NSW has neither the exceptional circumstance condition nor is it required to allow persons mentioned in a report to respond to adverse findings before publication.

Centre for Public Integrity spokesman and former Court of Appeal judge Stephen Charles KC,said the Victorian act was “very clearly deficient in both these respects”.

“The ICAC legislation in NSW works much more effectively in the public interest than Victorian laws.”

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