Don Coulson at the Court of Appeals. Picture: Derrick Den Hollander Source: Herald Sun
DON Coulson is the latest victim of the secret tapes affair, which has already re-shaped Victoria's political landscape.
A week after the Herald Sun revealed former police adviser Tristan Weston had been paid money by the Liberal Party and promised help to find work, Ted Baillieu and his chief of staff, Tony Nutt, are gone, while his deputy, Peter Ryan, has been moved on as police minister.
Mr Coulson was one of the most controversial figures in Mr Baillieu's government.
While his title may merely have been "adviser", in reality he was responsible for dealing with Freedom of Information requests across the whole Government.
Mr Coulson agrees that he met Mr Weston outside the MCG at the height of the police command crisis but he steadfastly rejects Mr Weston's allegation that he told him Sir Ken Jones's phone was "off".
Don Coulson has become the latest victim in the secret tapes crisis.
"To the best of my knowledge the OPI did not brief the Premier's office on operational matters."
But in any case, he denies that he could have informed Mr Weston.
"I didn't know. I couldn't know. That's not information that I would have been privy to," he said.
There seems no doubt the two men discussed the Jones-Overland standoff - after all, their meeting was to talk about FOI requests from the Herald Sun on the matter. Perhaps Mr Weston misinterpreted something Mr Coulson said.
Whatever the case, two years later it was enough to get Mr Coulson sacked yesterday.
Mr Coulson's sudden exit comes after a dramatic week in state politics that saw the departure of premier Ted Baillieu, three days after the Herald Sun revealed that his chief of staff, Mr Nutt, had promised to find Mr Weston work.
The promise was made despite denials at the time by Mr Baillieu that his senior staff were trying to assist Mr Weston.
Mr Baillieu's departure was followed two days later by the resignation of Mr Nutt.
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