Allegation Of Plot In Turnbull Case

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28619, 23 June 1958, Page 11

Allegation Of Plot In Turnbull Case

(Rec. 7 p.m.) HOBART, June 22. A witness told the Hobart Police Court yesterday that the former Tasmanian Treasurer, Dr. R. J. Turnbull, had told him that bribery allegations against Dr. Turnbull were “part of a plot engineered by the Premier.” The “Premier” referred to is Mr Robert Cosgrove, Premier of Tasmania.

According to the witness, the Tasmanian Under-Treasurer (Mt K- J. Binns), Dr. Turnbull told him the object of this “plot” was to get him out of the Tasmanian Government. The court is hearing bribery charges against Dr. Turnbull made by Sydney businessman, Mr George Fitzpatrick. Mr Fitzpatrick alleges that Dr. Turnbull demanded £20.000 for the issue of a lottery licence to his company.

Mr Binns said that when he told Ur. Turnbull about Mr Fitzpatrick's allegations on November Dr. Turnbull said: “Did Fitzpatrick tell you that if I was prepared to grant a licence to him personally, it was worth £5OOO to me?” Mr Binns said that Dr. Turnbull also told him that Fitzpatrick had offered him 5 per cent., then said “No, 3 per cent..” of the turnover of Tasmanian lotteries.

Fitzpatrick claimed on Friday that Dr. Turnbull said that the £20.000 was to be paid in two certified bank cheques, each for £lO.OOO. He claimed that Dr Turnbull had said he would return one of the bank cheques immediately Fitzpatrick formed a company—which would receive 5 Per cent, of the lottery profits for

10 years—for Dr. Turnbull’s benefit. Mr Binns told the court that after Dr. Turnbull’s statement that the charges were part of a plot, he had told the Treasurer that it was his duty, as UnderTreasurer to warn Dr. Turnbull against his practice of seeing people on official matters on his own, and without his advisers in attendance. Mr Binns said that Dr. Turnbull then gave him his version of the 6 o’clock meeting with Fitzpatrick, at Hobart’s West Point Hotel. “The Treasurer told me that he got to the room more quickly than Fitzpatrick had apparently anticipated, because he believed Fitzpatrick had planned to hide someone in an adjacent room, so that -that person could overhear the conversation,” Mr Binns said Went Into Bathroom Mr Binns said that the Treasurer told him that Mr H. S. Whitman, a Sydney _ accountant and adviser to Fitzpatrick, had gone into the adjoining bathroom but the Treasurer knew Whitman was there. A bribe of £5OOO and an offer of 5 per cent., later changed to 3 per cent., of the turnover of Tasmanian Lotteries had been made to the Treasurer, according to the version he gave Mr Binns Mr Binns said that the Treasurer told him his reason for not immediately denouncing Fitzr»a*rick was the fact that he knew Whitman was in the bathroom. Mr Binns said in his outline of ’•'itzna trick’s allegations to the Treasurer, he was frequently interrupted bv the Treasurer, who remarked that it was “all part of a plot engineered by the Premier to get me out of the Government.” The hearing is continuing.