Bishop in check

 

Well, what did the Federal Liberal Party expect? Once it began to use its Deputy Leader as the main attack dog targeting the Prime Minister, eventually it would become a case of political pot kettle black.

Practicing law in Perth in the 1980s with Robinson Cox - then reportedly as a managing partner with Clayton Utz - before entering Federal Parliament in 1998 and, with Clayton Utz becoming somewhat notorious as one of the law firms hired by CSR to fight asbestos disease compensation claims there were always going to be negatives associated with her name.

 

 

News.com.au 3 December 2007:

 

DEPUTY Liberal leader Julie Bishop has defended her efforts to deny compensation to WA asbestos victims in her role as a corporate lawyer in the 1980s.

In Australia's greatest single industrial disaster, an estimated 1000 people living and working near the mine at Wittenoom have died from asbestos-related diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Ms Bishop, the federal Opposition's industrial relations spokeswoman, confirmed her role as an instructing solicitor for mine owner CSR in cases involving three asbestos victims who worked at the mine.
But she rejected a plea from the Asbestos Diseases Society to apologise for her actions. Ms Bishop said on Friday she commiserated with those affected, who included CSR executives, whom she had represented.

 

The Telegraph 18 November 2012:

 

Lawyer Peter Gordon told Australian Doctor magazine in 2007: "We had to fight even for the right of dying cancer victims to get a speedy trial. I recall sitting in the WA Supreme Court in an interlocutory hearing for the test cases involving Wittenoom miners Mr Peter Heys and Mr Tim Barrow. CSR was represented by Ms Julie Bishop (then Julie Gillon). (She) was rhetorically asking the court why workers should be entitled to jump court queues just because they were dying."

News.com.au 18 November 2012:

 ABC Four Corners 10 June 2002 on the subject of Clayton Utz:



 

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