{{Short description|Australian lawyer (1931 - 2009)}} {{for|the Australian rules footballer|Frank Costigan (footballer)}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Francis Xavier Costigan | image = Frank Costigan QC.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|01|14|df=yes}} | death_date = 13 April 2009 | birth_place = Melbourne, Australia | alma_mater = University of Melbourne | occupation = Barrister | known_for = Costigan Royal Commission | spouse = Ruth | relatives = Michael Costigan (brother)<br/>Peter Costigan (brother) }}
'''Francis Xavier Costigan''', {{post-nominals|country=AUS|QC}}, (14 January 1931 – 13 April 2009<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/13/2541517.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415164307/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/13/2541517.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 April 2009|title=High-profile QC Frank Costigan dies|date=13 April 2009|work=ABC News|location=Australia|access-date=13 April 2009}}</ref>) was an Australian lawyer, Royal Commissioner and social justice activist. Costigan is renowned for presiding over the Costigan Commission into organised crime.<ref name="when">{{cite book |last1=Barker |first1=Anthony |title=What happened when : a chronology of Australia, 1788-1994 |date=1996 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=St Leonards, NSW |isbn=1863739866 |page=328 |edition=Rev. and updated}}</ref>
==Background and early life==
One of eight children,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kirkman |first1=Deborah|title=Peter Costigan Profile |url=http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/apcnews/may98/costprof.html |publisher=Australian Press Council News Volume 10 No 2 May 1998 |access-date=24 August 2020 |date=31 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070831103054/http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/apcnews/may98/costprof.html|archive-date=31 August 2007}}</ref> Costigan grew up in Preston, a suburb of Melbourne and was educated by the Jesuits at St Patrick's College, East Melbourne, and at the University of Melbourne, where he obtained a law degree. He was admitted as a solicitor in Victoria in 1953 and became a barrister in 1957. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in Victoria in 1973, and was admitted to practise throughout Australia and in Ireland. Costigan was the twin brother of Michael Costigan, a writer and editor; and an older brother of Peter Costigan, Lord Mayor of Melbourne from 1999 to 2001.<ref name=costigan/>
Messenger describes him as truly decent person who persevered in the "cesspool of politics" because that is where the most good can be done for the most people.<ref name=costigan/>
==Career== Costigan was active in the campaign to reform the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. At the main Reform meeting held at the Festival Hall, in Dudley Street, Melbourne on 22 January 1971<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fraser |first1=Bryce |title=The Macquarie encyclopedia of Australian events |date=2012 |publisher=Macquarie Library |location=Macquarie University, N.S.W. |isbn=978-0949757937 |page=123 |edition=Rev.}}</ref> Costigan was a central and active voice demanding reform of the party. At the beginning of this large meeting, chaired by Tom Burns, Jim Cairns, Bob Hawke and George Crawford, Costigan seconded a resolution moved by Dally Messenger III that members of the Victorian Labor Party should have equal say with the Unions in the decision making processes of the party.<ref name="scott">{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Gareth Evans |date=1999 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=St. Leonards, NSW |isbn=1864487143 |page=72}}</ref> The resolution was disallowed by the chairman. On the second morning of this meeting Frank Costigan and his supporters, Brian, Max and Norma Edgar, Dally Messenger III, Gerry Cunningham, John Champion et alii,<ref name=costigan/> distributed the significant 50-50 leaflet, which ultimately led to a compromise motion moved by Bob Hogg that 60% control stayed with the unions and that branch members, who hitherto had had no representation, were to enjoy 40%.<ref name="costigan">{{cite web |last1=Messenger |first1=Dally |title=Frank Costigan QC: National Conference: ALP Reform |url=https://dallymessenger.com/2015/07/21/frank-costigan-qc-national-conference-alp-reform/ |website=Dally Messenger III |access-date=17 June 2020 |language=en |date=21 July 2015}}</ref>
Paul Strangio strongly underscores this Intervention Reform meeting as crucial to the success of the Labor Party in Victoria.<ref name="strangio">{{cite web |last1=Strangio |first1=Paul |title=The Move that saved Labor in Victoria |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-move-that-saved-labor-in-victoria-20021203-gduvcd.html |website=The Age - 3 December 2002 |date=3 December 2002 |publisher=Fairfax Publications |access-date=23 August 2020}}</ref>
<blockquote>"How do we explain Victorian Labor's changed fortunes over recent decades? The transformation of Victorian Labor can be traced back to federal intervention in the branch in 1970. During its long electoral drought that followed the 1955 split, Victoria Labor was renowned as the most doctrinaire and militant of the state Labor branches. Indeed, it was the Left counterweight to the Right-dominated New South Wales branch. By the late 1960s, forces within the ALP - both from outside and inside Victoria - led by Gough Whitlam, were convinced that Victorian Labor's intransigence was not only a stumbling block to the party's success in this state, but was keeping federal Labor out of office. Hence the rationale for intervention. Undoubtedly, intervention breathed new life into the Victorian ALP."<ref name=strangio/></blockquote>
Costigan, along with a group of lawyers including John Button, John Cain, Xavier Connor QC, Barry Jones, and Richard McGarvie, formed a reform group called "The Participants", which challenged the undemocratic state executive for control of the party and supported the political agenda of then opposition leader, and later prime minister, Gough Whitlam.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jones, Barry|authorlink=Barry Jones (Australian politician)|title=A Thinking Reed|page=166|publisher=Allen and Unwin|year=2006}}</ref><ref name=scott/>
In 1980, Costigan was appointed by the Australian Government to chair the Royal Commission on the activities of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (commonly called the Costigan Commission or the Costigan Royal Commission). The commission moved from the investigation of union criminality to allegations of tax evasion<ref name=when/> and organised crime. It also included a severe condemnation of the dishonesty, negligence and incompetence of the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department.<ref name=costigan/><ref name=scott/>{{rp|151}}
Costigan was subsequently involved in Catholic campaigns for social justice. He was a director and deputy chair of Jesuit Social Services. Described by Scott as a "tough-minded crimefighter", in the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute he accused the Patrick Corporation of using the same "bottom of the harbour" corporate strategies as he had exposed in his Commission. Costigan later mainly practised in Alternative Dispute Resolution, either as an arbitrator or mediator. In 2005 he was appointed chairman of the Australian branch of Transparency International, an anti-corruption coalition.<ref name=scott/>{{rp|160}}
==Personal== Costigan was survived by five children and ten grandchildren.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070911110650/http://www.vicbar.com.au/bp.aspx?RollNumber=559 Victorian Bar Council] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071011174808/http://www.jss.org.au/about/FCostigan.html Jesuit Social Services] *[http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=13103 Eulogy for Francis Xavier Costigan QC] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120503194431/http://www.vicbar.com.au/vicbar_oral/costigan_1.asp Victorian Bar Oral History: Frank Costigan]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Costigan, Frank}} Category:1931 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Australian Roman Catholics Category:Australian King's Counsel Category:Australian royal commissioners Category:Australian people of Irish descent Category:Lawyers from Melbourne Category:Melbourne Law School alumni Category:People from Preston, Victoria Category:Australian twins