Anderson Report - The Board of Inquiry

The Board of Inquiry

A Board of Inquiry does not have the same legal status as a trial. It is not necessarily presided over by a judge or a magistrate and does not sit in a courtroom; witnesses are not subpoenaed but appear by invitation. It is not bound by the rules of evidence. The Board of Inquiry into Scientology consisted of Mr Anderson sitting alone, assisted by Mr. Gordon Just who was instructed by the Victorian Crown Solicitor. After an initial sitting on 6 December 1963, the Board sat in the theatrette of the National Herbarium of Victoria from 17 February 1964 to 21 April 1965.

The HASI was represented by counsel J.R. O'Shea and I.G. Abraham, who called as witnesses HASI staff members and many individuals who had received Scientology training and counselling. HASI files and publications were also tendered in evidence. They withdrew from the hearings on 12 November 1964 claiming biased conduct of the Inquiry by Anderson as the reason.

Two former Scientologists, Phillip Wearne and Douglas Moon, appeared as the main witnesses for the Committee for Mental Health and National Security (an ad hoc unincorporated organisation opposed to Scientology). They were represented by counsel Warren Fagan. Dr Eric Cunningham Dax, Chairman of the Mental Health Authority of Victoria, and one of his staff, Dr. M.B. Macmillan, coordinated the evidence given by expert witnesses in medicine and psychiatry. Dax also conferred with Wearne before the latter gave evidence at the Inquiry.