Darwin’s close-knit law and justice patch … Leading Darwin silk complains to the Judicial Commission about the conduct of a NT Supreme Court judge … Finding that it was reasonably open to suspect the judge of being “politically partisan” and bearing malice … Role of chief justice … Fallout from flawed Stella Maris investigation … Buffalo Bruce reports 

Wyvill has alleged that Southwood was “politically partisan” in a judgment following the Stella Maris affair, that his reasons were “suggestive of malice” which called “into question his Honour’s fitness to be a judge”. 

Other grounds of complaint included allegations of the judge’s bullying of lawyers and a history of “extraordinary delay” in delivering judgments. The most recent instance was found in Blackwell v Bara – heard on April 3, 2020 and delivered nearly two years later on March 2, 2022. 

Wyvill’s letter to the Judicial Commission says its members (all save the one or two lay members) “are part of the local legal community which has acted or failed to act in this way, some with greater involvement than others”. 

“There is I suggest an urgent need not just to address the alleged misconduct of Southwood J but these broader issues as well, not least because they are relevant to the scope of the proper discharge of the commission’s function to investigate the alleged misconduct of Southwood J. 

“Manifestly, the commission as presently comprised is not well-suited to do this. It will need to make appropriate arrangements to constitute an examination of these matters that is.” 

Wyvill’s complaint stems from the Stella Maris affair, the history of which is long and hairy – but can be bulleted in this brief excursion: 

• Following the election of the CLP government in 2016, the chief minister Adam Giles commissioned former senior Federal Police officer John Lawler to dig up dirt on the previous Labor government and the former deputy chief minister and then leader of the opposition Delia Lawrie. In the dying days of the ALP government the lease on the heritage Stella Maris property in Darwin had been transferred to Unions NT, following a decision of the Labor cabinet – for which Lawrie had been pushing. 

• Wyvill and solicitor Cathy Spurr acted pro-bono for Delia Lawrie at the Lawler inquiry, which was strung together without legal funding, transcripts or counsel assisting. The retired copper, who is not a lawyer, did the questioning. In June 2014, Lawler reported adversely about Laurie – that there was bias in favour of Unions NT and other expressions in interest in the lease had not been allowed. He recommended that parliament should consider referring the former deputy chief minister to the privileges committee. 

• Lawrie challenged Lawyer’s findings in a judicial review application, contending that she had been denied procedural fairness. In his reasons, Southwood J found that in claiming the pro bono services to Lawrie had been exhausted there had been a strategy devised by Wyvill and Spurr to “disengage or discredit” the commission by abandoning participation, and that Lawrie had waived her right to procedural fairness. Lawrie resigned as leader of the opposition and Wyvill resigned as president of the NT bar. 

• On appeal, three foreign judges (Doyle and Duggan from SA and Heehan from WA), found that Lawrie had not waived her right to procedural fairness; and there was no reason for Southwood to explore the motives of Lawrie’s legal advisers and make unwarranted observations about them. 

• Despite Wyvill being substantially vindicated in the appeal, the local NT Law Society decided to bring disciplinary proceedings against the Darwin silk. Arthur Moses was hired to do the job for the NT Law Society and Jeremy Kirk appeared for Wyvill. There were numerous allegations, including that Wyvill had emailed the bar association impugning the independence and character of Southwood, saying his conduct was suggestive of malice, and that he was politically motivated. The disciplinary tribunal comprised former Tasmanian judge Peter Evans, Queensland and NT family law practitioner Nardine Collier and Darwin business woman Heather King. 

• The outcome from the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal was a whopping triumph for Wyvill and a smack in the chops for Southwood J. It was a costly misadventure by the Law Society, which paid Wyvill $550,000 in costs. The tribunal found there were ample grounds for concluding that the Lawler inquiry was conducted unfairly; that Wyvill was entitled to defend himself to the bar association against the attack from Southwood; the decision not to continue to act for Lawrie was not a device to allow a claim of procedural unfairness to be made; and there was a “basis for a belief” that Southwood’s findings in Lawrie v Lawler “were politically partisan … suggestive of malice … and called into question his fitness to be a judge”.  

In June 2021, Wyvill made a formal complaint to the NT AG about Southwood, which included the tribunal findings in relation to political partisanship, malice and unfitness, plus other grounds – bulling and delays in delivering judgments. 

At that time he claimed Southwood had 35 cases that had taken at lest six months to arrive at a judgment and sometimes as long as five years. 

The attorney general replied that Wyvill should refer his complaint to the Judicial Commission, which was due to commence operations in October that year. 

In November 2021, Wyvill took these complaints to the newly created Judicial Commission, chaired by the chief justice, Michael Grant. The NT ICAC took over portion of the complaint in December 2021. 

ICAC commissioner Michael Riches declined to give consent to the Judicial Commission to hear the allegations of impropriety against Southwood concerning Lawrie v Lawler, deciding he would investigate that element himself and ignoring the other complaints about timeliness and behaviour. 

Ultimately, that investigation went nowhere, with the ICAC commissioner saying: 

“I did not find any evidence to support the contention that Justice Southwood’s decision in Lawrie v Lawler was motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself to the Country Liberal Party in order to advance his interests in securing appointment as Chief Justice. 

I have informed the Judicial Commission of that fact and have consented to that body receiving and dealing with the entirety of your complaint.” 

The commissioner declined to give a copy of his work to Wyvill. A further request for Inspector Bruce (McClintock) to examine the way Riches’ handled the case also went nowhere.  

And there is it. Wyvill has received nothing substantive from the Judicial Commission and no suggestion that a properly constituted investigation panel will be created for the task. 

There are other wrinkles, raised by Wyvill in his correspondence with ICAC. Riches conceded that he had discussed the complaint with Michael Grant CJ. 

Grant, in his previous role as NT solicitor general appears to have advised commissioner Lawler throughout his inquiry. In correspondence with Riches, Wyvill claimed: 

“This file [from Commissioner Lawler’s solicitor] also suggests that Michael Grant was closely involved behind the scenes in the conduct of the Commissioner’s defence in the proceedings brought by Ms Lawrie, even to the point of selecting the junior counsel from Sydney who put the serious misconduct case against Ms Lawrie to Southwood J. Again, the appropriateness of this secret participation, it seems on behalf of the CLP Government, is not apparent.” 

Further, Southwood’s wife, who worked at the Department of Justice was involved: 

“The privileged correspondence between the Commissioner’s legal team and Michael Grant discussing strategy was also sent to Denise Southwood (working in the Department of Justice) in the weeks prior to the trial before her husband. The concerns to which communications of this kind give rise are obvious.” 

Denise Southwood was privy to the workings of the Lawler inquiry and arranged for payment of Lawler’s lawyer on the public tab. 

Southwood J ruled that his wife’s department activities did not compromise his own role. 

Wyvill asserts that Southwood J and Michael Grant are good friends. Further, that the chief justice’s brother, Matthew Grant, is the deputy chief executive office of NT’s ICAC. He is an ex-copper from the AFP. 

Things are closely interwoven at the Top End law ‘n’ justice scene. 

One more titbit. A warrant was executed after agreement between solicitors for Wyvill and the police for the NT coppers to take from his chambers a memory stick containing documents about his advice to Delia Lawrie.

This was a coercive and targeted entry by police into the barrister’s chambers, following Southwood’s findings in the Lawrie case.