Pokie Palaces adopt suppression agenda for contempt crucification of dying man … Whistleblowing about money laundering … Law firm in barbed wire straddle … Whopping sums of money to run the Catholic Church’s “Melbourne Response” … Failure to print … Grief sweeps Vic’s Bar ‘n’ Grill over death of monarch … Theodora’s Notebook 

The business model of the clubs requires punters put pay packets through their poker machines. If the consequences include the ruination of families – then that is a small price to pay for discounted ham and prawn smorgasbords with lashings of liquid refreshments. 

The clubs lobby is confident that it has both sides of politics in its pocket and that nothing will disturb the constant ka-ching issuing from its Pokie Palaces. 

However, Mr Stolz has been doing his best to upset this cosy arrangement. As a former employer of Clubs NSW he has masses of information which suggest poker machines being knowingly used as money laundromats. 

His whistleblowing upset the pot-bellied club nabobs and they obtained orders last November from Justice David Yates in the Federal Court, which were supposed to restrict Stolz from shooting his mouth off about the clubs and their unholy rackets. 

Instead, Stolz turned up on Jordy Shanks-Markovina’s YouTube channel and published posts on Twitter and LinkedIn, allegedly in breach of the court ordered gag. 

The clubs lobby commenced contempt proceedings against Stolz and Shanks and then sought orders suppressing the reporting of the contempt case. 

Without additional topsoil to bury the case in secrecy the clubs argued that publicity about the contempt prosecution would generate too much excitement and prejudice its primary case against Stolz concerning his use of club information. 

The judge was told by the clubs’ lawyer that “open justice is not an end in itself”. 

This didn’t wash with Yates J and so the contempt case will be heard in the glare of a reasonable amount of sunlight. 

Stolz acknowledges he breached the “gag” orders when he spoke publicly about the inner workings of club-land. He also says he’s dying of terminal cancer, so maybe it’s a case of contempt – so what? 

Another intriguing morsel is that Thomson Geer is the law shop for Clubs NSW. Wearing other hats the firm also acts for all the mainstream media companies – Fairfax, News Corp, channels Seven, Nine and Ten, national radio stations, AFL Media and the ABC. 

In that capacity one of its partners ran the media defence for the contempt prosecution that arose from “publication” of the Cardinal Pell child sex guilty verdict (since overturned). 

Some of the media clients have lavished generous amounts of time and space criticising Thomson Geer’s other client for persecuting a dying man. 

Registered Clubs Association of New South Wales v Stolz (No 4) 

Late last month the Financial Review did a wrap of the law shops lining up to take over Corrs’ Catholic Church child abuse work. 

A slab of the article seems mysteriously to vanish when the story is sent from the computer to the printer. The newspaper’s online print function has always been wonky, so maybe it’s no surprise that gremlins have crept in. 

Here’s the missing chunk of unprintable text:

“Since law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth abruptly dumped the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne’s ‘personal injury work’ in July, a major power shift has been underway in the darkest crannies of the legal fraternity.

Corrs effectively wound up the practice of partner Richard Leder, longstanding adviser to the church and architect with George Pell of the 1996 ‘Melbourne Response’, the world’s first compensation scheme for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. And a sublime euphemism.

It was a shitful response, absolving institutional liability in return for maximum payments of $50,000. Its single greatest beneficiary was “independent” commissioner Peter O’Callaghan QC, whose $7.7 million in fees accounted for 44 per cent of the program’s total outgoings. 

Which rival shop Leder now lands at, or whether he’ll hang out his own shingle, remains an open question, but his annual billings from the Catholics alone were north of $4 million.

Yes, this is a seriously lucrative calling if your conscience can suffer it.” 

Actually, eight years earlier, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald reported from the Institutional Response Royal Commission that the church had forked out $17.2 million in ex gratia payments for child sexual abuse claims over the past 18 years. 

The survivors received an average payment of $36,100. 

“The cost of administering the Melbourne Response was more than $17 million, which included $7.7 million to Independent Commissioner Peter O’Callaghan [KC] and his staff.” 

We’re just helpfully ensuring that you don’t miss crucial bits that are prone to vanish if you print something from the Financial Review’s online edition. 

There’s no limit to the revenue enhancing opportunities flowing from the death of QEII. 

Ludlows, the legal regalia people in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, whipped out a fast promotion for mourning bands – “traditionally worn by judges, kings counsel members and junior barristers alike during periods of mourning for high rating public officials”. 

With dark strips the bands came in one-size-fits-all, adjustable for any neck, in self-tie cotton with a polyester strap – at $25 a snip for those who wanted to grieve openly. 

In the Old Dart KCs and juniors turned out in mourning bands as well as “weepers” – white cuffs regarded as a “ceremonial mark of sorrow“. 

However, the hottest ticket in town is for Vic Bar’s October 25 black tie dinner to “celebrate the life and service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of blessed and glorious memory”. 

It’s $170 a pop for the glorious memories.