This was published 7 years ago
George Masterman, NSW Ombudsman ready to clash with government
When George Masterman, QC, was appointed NSW Ombudsman in 1981, the head of the Premier's Department, Gerry Gleeson, is said to have told premier Neville Wran: "You are going to regret this!" Not that Gleeson was opposed to good governance. But Masterman had a mind of his own, and was disinclined to bend to the will of any political master.
So it turned out. In the more than six years Masterman held office, he fought the limitations placed upon him and resistance from bureaucrats and ministers of state. He strove for transparency. Few instrumentalities escaped Masterman's gaze, not the State Electricity Commission, Education Department, Department of Local Government, Attorney-General's Department, NSW Police, Sydney City Council, Dairy Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Department of Corrective Services, Leichhardt Council, the Department of Juvenile Justice…
George Masterman with his wife, Joan.
George Gurney Masterman was born in 1929, an only child. George Gladstone Masterman, his father, was born in Yorkshire, England, and settled in Sydney in the 1920s. George Gladstone was a soldier who suffered wounds in World War I and died in 1945. Ivy Stonehouse, his mother, was born in Australia and brought up George through his school and university years.
She owned and operated a haberdashery business in Sydney when wearing a hat was a formality in attire for men and women at the time. His mother sent him to The King's School, Parramatta in 1941, where George won an internal scholarship. In 1948, he attended Worcester College, Oxford University, studying politics, philosophy and economics in his first year, then taking up jurisprudence. Graduating in 1952, he returned to Australia, did his articles in law with legal firm, Allen, Allen and Hemsley, and continued studies at Sydney University.
George Masterman as a QC won the right for a pub to serve any beer.
In 1957, Masterman was called to the NSW bar. In 1961, he married Joan Ashton, whom he had met at university, and became brother-in-law of Rosemary Foot, later to achieve political prominence. Masterman and his wife went on to have two children, Michael and Julia.
Masterman specialised in trade practices law and in 1967 published Australian Trade Practices Law, written in conjunction with Ezekiel Solomon, a colleague in the law firm, which was to become a standard reference book. Masterman represented public interest and consumer groups and for more than 20 years was a director of the Australian Institute of Political Science, two years as chairman. Appointed Queen's Counsel in 1972, he won cases that established important principles such as the right for a pub to serve any beer, the right to import a book without censorship, and the rights of authors to earn royalties from their copyrighted materials. In 1976, he inquired into the collapse of the Patrick Partners stockbroking firm. He also became a visiting professor of law at the University of New South Wales.
When Wran announced in April 1981 that Masterman would be the next Ombudsman, he cited Masterman's extensive experience in law and community affairs. Masterman, replying to suggestions that he might have waited for appointment to the bench, said a judge had too many restrictions. He said there was too much secrecy surrounding Ombudsman's investigations, which could only be made public once reports had been tabled in Parliament. In his first annual report, in 1982, Masterman took issue with the NSW Department of Corrective Services and what he said was its failure to adequately investigate complaints against officers. corrective services minister Rex Jackson said the report was "grossly irresponsible".
Masterman's inquiries went everywhere, including one into maintenance procedures in the state's power stations. But his biggest obstacle came with the police, where the process was for the Ombudsman to refer a complaint to police internal affairs, but could do nothing when the report came back. He described this as "a solemn farce", which could only be put right when the Ombudsman had the power to reinvestigate complaints.
In the more than than six years that George Masterman held office as the Ombudsman, he fought the limitations placed upon him and resistance from bureaucrats and ministers of state.
He encountered resistance from the Government Insurance Office and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment but fought back. He attacked the minister for education, Rod Cavalier, for what he alleged was the minister's misrepresentation of his report on the Department of Education. Masterman clashed with Gerry Gleeson over his insistence that the Ombudsman's Office should be separated from the Premier's Department. He clashed with premier Barrie Unsworth when he claimed that at least some ex-gratia payments owing to people who had suffered from government malpractice or error were not being paid.
When a draft Ombudsman's report was leaked criticising Sydney City Council and the NSW Police over prostitution in East Sydney, Masterman said his draft reports should be given to the media anyway, and that the Ombudsman should be able to make public statements during the course of his investigations.
In September 1987, he announced his resignation, nine months before his seven-year term was to end, pleased that his recommendations relating to police had been accepted. "NSW now has both a fair and credible system of review of complaints against police", he said, adding: "My major regret is I was not able to persuade Parliament to amend the rigid secrecy provision of the Ombudsman Act. I hope Parliament will change its mind on the issue." Masterman had made the Ombudsman a power to be reckoned with, and his successor, David Landa, was to continue to make the office an irritant to government.
George for all of his legal career to the age of 70 was a member of the Legal Eagles Hockey team which was composed exclusively of members of the legal profession. With George on the team they won two grade hockey championships despite George always questioning the umpire and getting sent off. The team had two rules – no training and you had to have a beer at the pub after a game.
George loved body surfing and was a regular at North Bondi until his last year where he assisted in a rescue including of himself.
In his retirement George greatly assisted his wife Joan in her successful bush walking enterprises, Freycinet Experience and Cradle Mountain Huts which pioneered eco tourism in Tasmania. Whether it was accompanying attractive journalists along the Overland Track or removing "strangling dodar" from destroying precious Oyster Bay Pines at Friendly Beaches, George developed a passion for protecting the Tasmanian bush.
A memorial service was held at St Mark's, Darling Point, on October 11. Appeal Court judge Justice Tony Payne said Masterman had been "fiercely independent, plain speaking, and fearless". Many NSW ministers "found out that George could not be intimidated".
George Masterman is survived by his widow, Joan, children Michael and two grandchildren.
Malcolm Brown