Former WA MP Phil Edman.Credit:Radio 6PR
Mr Edman was the subject of a CCC report released in December 2019,which claimed he used his electoral allowance to visit strip clubs and pay for “sugar babies”.
The fight started when the CCC issued warrants to the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s then-director general Darren Foster seeking emails from former upper house members and their staff in April 2019.
Former upper house president Kate Doust,who has since been relegated to the backbench,said in a parliamentary report on the fiasco that a protocol was worked out with the CCC on how non-privileged material could be handed over,but then claimed commissioner John McKechnie reneged on the deal and tried to negotiate with Attorney-General John Quigley instead.
Loading
Mr Foster handed over the email materials to the CCC,despite protests from the upper house,in July 2019,and Mr Edman’s home was raided and the laptop and two hard drives seized a month later.
Another month on in September,and the Attorney-General launched Supreme Court action against Ms Doust and the upper house clerk Nigel Pratt against an order by the upper house preventing the clerk handing material to the CCC,while she simultaneously started a case against the CCC seeking a declaration the watchdog’s notices to produce were invalid.
Mr McKechnie also handed in the laptop and hard drives,assuming he would be ordered to do so by the upper house.