Federal Court has had enough of this Instagram-famous cavoodle

CBD and its readers have not been able to get enough of the lengthy, acrimonious legal saga that all began with a very special Instagram-famous Cavoodle named Oscar.

But it seems like Federal Court judge Michael Wigney has, officially washing his hands of the affair for good in a decision delivered on Thursday.

A quick recap: barrister Gina Edwards successfully sued Nine (owner of this masthead) for defamation over a series of programs on A Current Affair which she alleged depicted her as a “dog thief”.

Edwards later had a bitter falling out with her former solicitor Rebekah Giles over $1.2 million in legal costs, which remains ongoing over a year after Wigney delivered judgment in the original case.

The relationship deteriorated to the point that, in July, Edwards filed a statement of claim in the NSW Supreme Court against Giles and her firm Giles George, alleging they were professionally negligent and had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct.

Edwards accused her former lawyers of bullying and coercive and intimidating conduct in a bombshell laundry list of allegations. CBD does not suggest the allegations are true, just that they are made. Giles George told us in a statement it rejected the claims by Edwards, and accused their former client of trying to seek publicity outside the court process.

Earlier this month, Edwards filed a separate motion in the Federal Court, seeking to get Wigney to recuse himself from the case on the grounds of apprehended bias, and to have the remaining costs dispute shifted to the Supreme Court and heard along with her professional negligence claim.

Edwards wanted Wigney to disqualify himself from the matter on the basis his honour had been to lunch with Dauid Sibtain, SC, the silk who represented Nine in the initial defamation case while it was pending. At the time, Wigney pointed out the pair had dined after he’d delivered his judgment, when only costs issues remained to be determined.

On Thursday, Wigney rejected Edwards’ attempt to have him recused, calling her claim “unmeritorious,” and noting he and Sibtain were pals from the bar who went back many years, at a hearing in which Giles watched on.

Another basis for Edwards’ claim was a quip from the bench by Wigney during one of the many interminable hearings in the case that it would be the “happiest day” if he no longer had to preside over the matter.

His honour labelled those comments tongue-in-cheek at the time. But joke or not, it looks like Wigney got his wish. On Thursday, he approved Edwards’ request to have the remaining stoush before the Federal Court transferred to the NSW Supreme Court. He is done with celebrity cavoodles, and for both him and Edwards, it was a happy day.

An inconvenient truth

Teal independent bankroller Simon Holmes à Court, the Climate 200 founder, hogged the headlines at the Midwinter Ball charity auction with his audacious bid for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s mystery flight in her Cessna-182 for a “classic Australian pub lunch” and “ripping yarns over a cold Australian lager”.

But he wasn’t the only environmentalist to triumph.

Holmes à Court splashed out $15,000 for the right to join Ley in the cockpit, bidding his own money (not Climate 200 funds) on behalf of 18-year-old climate activist, Katya Zheluk, who will take a (yet to be announced) climate scientist on the flight with Ley.

Chatter on a pilots’ forum speculating if the flight might be in breach of regulations, as its unusual nature might mean it failed to qualify for a certificate of airworthiness, led CASA to issue the following statement to us after inquiries.

“If the pilot and aircraft owner provide their services free of charge and are not reimbursed for any of the operating costs of the flight, then the flight would be deemed to be a private flight and not require an Air Operator’s Certificate.”

Incidentally, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher, who offered the prize of dinner at one of Canberra’s finest restaurants for four people, will also be entertaining an environmentalist.

Jack Gough, chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, delivered a knockout bid of $13,051 at auction close on Wednesday night, nearly double the nearest offer, to win the prize for four people.

“The treasurer didn’t invite any environmentalists to his roundtable, we had to pay to get access,” Gough told CBD.

“A lot of the thinking is about climate change and habitat destruction, but the mega-threat that drives the most extinctions in Australia is invasive species,” Gough told CBD.

“I’ll be chatting to them about why fire-ant funding is urgently needed to protect Australia from a $2 billion-a-year economic cost, and why stopping the feral deer is good for productivity.”

As we reported, two return Qantas business-class flights – to either London or Los Angeles – were won with an $18,000 bid by Pharmacy Guild executive director Gerard Benedet, who co-founded conservative lobby group Advance.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s round of tennis at The Lodge was won by Nathan Blamires for $13,232, beating David Morgan, the former Westpac chief executive and husband of ex-Labor minister Ros Kelly.

PR veteran John Connolly, a long-time Murdoch family whisperer, paid $3000 to be independent senator David Pocock’s plus-one at a Canberra charity event hosted by political influencer Konrad Benjamin (aka Punter’s Politics) which will raise funds to employ a “people’s lobbyist”.

Connolly also coughed up $8500 for a dinner with a handful of senior press gallery journalists, including Insiders host David Speers and The West Australian’s Canberra bureau chief Katina Curtis.

Connolly told CBD: “Dinner with the legends of the press gallery is priceless: but an annual event for me.”

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