AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-2009
Fed: Costigan farewelled
By Mike Hedge, Senior Correspondent
MELBOURNE, April 20 AAP - His grandchildren wept for an extravagant and loving grandfather,
his sons and daughters for a father who placed his family above all else and his colleagues
for a man of deep compassion.
Along with everyone else who came to say goodbye to Frank Costigan on Monday, they
farewelled a man of integrity, a bastion of moral authority and a man of extraordinary
modesty.
Fellow barrister Doug Meagher told around 400 mourners at St Patrick's Cathedral in
Melbourne on Monday that his great friend and colleague had become a household name throughout
Australia in the 1980s for his role in a commission of inquiry that rocked the nation.
"But in all the years I knew Frank Costigan, I never heard him talk about himself or
his achievements," Mr Meagher said.
As well as a long list of humanitarian virtues, Mr Costigan, who died last week aged
78, may well have been one of Australia's most successful crime fighters.
In 1980, he was appointed to investigate the activities of the Federated Ship Painters
and Dockers Union, an organisation in which serious crime was entrenched and whose members
had almost total disregard for the law.
The Painters and Dockers Royal Commission busted the grip the union had on the Melbourne
waterfront, in the process turning up extraordinary tax evasion schemes and linking prominent
figures with illicit activities ranging from drug trafficking to prostitution and murder.
It was Mr Costigan who coined the phrase "bottom of the harbour" to describe the tax
dodging that was rampant at the highest levels of Australian society.
In his final report, he summed up the Painters And Dockers as an organisation that
"treats the law with contempt, and are scornful of its punishments.
"They treat law enforcement agencies as their enemies. They are motivated by greed
and are not controlled by any consideration for their victims.
"Violence is the means by which they control the members of the group. They don't hesitate
to kill."
The Costigan royal commission also led to the emergence of a figure known as "The Goanna",
who was linked to various and serious criminal behaviour.
Kerry Packer later admitted he was "The Goanna", but was innocent of any of the crimes
attributed to him.
In fact, the royal commission had tagged Mr Packer as "Squirrel", the more evocative
nom de plume being the invention of a newspaper.
Mr Meagher, also a member of the royal commission's legal team, recalled today how
he had initially been concerned that Mr Costigan might not be the right man to deal with
"this group of thugs".
"Those being investigated were all hardened criminals," he said.
"As it turned out, a better person to head the royal commission would have been hard to find."
In the face of threats of violence, Mr Costigan had employed tact and guile, Mr Meagher said.
As a result, more than 2,000 successful prosecutions flowed from Mr Costigan's inquiry.
Following the royal commission, Mr Costigan returned to his legal practice, becoming
a specialist in the field of arbitration.
He later became involved in Catholic campaigns for social justice and served as president
of the Australian Bar Association, chairman of the Victorian Bar Council, member of the
Executive of the Law Council of Australia, member of the Victorian Law Foundation, chairman
of the Victorian Drug Rehabilitation Fund, director and vice-chairman of the Jesuit Social
Services and chairman of the Victorian Government Sentencing Task Force.
In 2005, he was appointed chairman of the Australian chapter of the anti-corruption
coalition, Transparency International.
To his five children, their children, the 20-or-so judges, the dozens of lawyers and
the hundreds of friends who filled St Patrick's on Monday, Mr Costigan's life was summed
up more simply by Mr Meagher.
"He was the finest of men"
AAP mh/it/jlw
KEYWORD: COSTIGAN (PIX AVAILABLE)
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