‘You don’t deserve to have an AC’: why does Dyson Heydon still hold Australia’s top honour?

Former judge’s associate Alex Eggerking has detailed how former High Court judge Dyson Heydon used his power to “manipulate” her into a situation where she felt “viscerally unsafe” on her third day working in his office. 

On Monday the Commonwealth settled damages claims with the three of the six women who were found to have been sexually harassed by Heydon by an independent inquiry commissioned by the High Court. 

In an interview on ABC’s 7.30 last night, Eggerking spoke directly to her former boss: “Dyson, you ruined my career, you destroyed my love for the law, you destroyed my faith in legal institutions and the legal profession.

“You don’t deserve to have an AC, you don’t deserve to have a practising certificate.

“You didn’t get away with it. Strong, courageous, vulnerable, bloody determined women stood up and said: ‘That’s enough. R, this is what happened to me, and you won’t get away with it’.”

More than symbolism

Crikey has written about this before: why hasn’t Heydon been stripped of his Companion of the Order of Australia? The country’s highest legal authority concluded he is a serial sexual harasser who used his power to prey on young women, and stated they were “ashamed” of this association, and yet he still holds the highest honour bestowed on an Australian. 

What would it take to remove the award?

As David Hardaker has previously reported in Crikey, the governor-general has wide discretion to strip people of Order of Australia honours. In the 45-year history of the award, more than 40 people have been stripped of their honours, mostly because of criminal convictions. But beyond criminal convictions, the constitution of the awards explains the grounds the governor-general may rely on, and establishes a very broad discretionary power.

The grounds include where a court, tribunal or body exercising judicial or administrative power makes an adverse finding against the person, where in the governor-general’s opinion the person has behaved or acted “in a manner that has brought disrepute on the order”, and finally whether the decision to grant the award would have been made if the order had the information it now has. 

The independent inquiry commissioned by the High Court that found Heydon had sexually harassed a number of women would not be likely to amount to the first ground, but there’s no question that Governor-General David Hurley could exercise his discretion to remove Heydon’s award on the basis of either of the other two grounds. 

When Crikey contacted the office of the Order of Australia today, it said it couldn’t comment on individual cases. And when the High Court’s inquiry first became public in 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there would be a “proper formal process” to address “those allegations”. But there’s been no further word on that front either. It’s hard to see this changing any time soon.

Should Dyson Heydon lose his AC? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.