Victimisation at the NSW ODPP … Why is Silbert’s advice on Cunneen secret? … Police bring their guns to court … Tony Abbott on the role of the courts – the new Joh Bjelke Petersen … Waterstreet with rough fingers
A letter arrives from Gayle Davies, who recently left as the librarian at the office of the NSW DPP.
It’s in response to an item Justinian published last month on the comings and goings of law librarians.
Gayle’s letter is worth reading as it brings to the surface the problem of bullying at the workplace and the downgrading of library services:
“Re my departure from the ODPP, and the issue of my replacement. I am currently on long service leave, so if the ODPP does advertise for another librarian, it probably won’t be till after my official retirement date.
However, given the quite extraordinary efforts by the ODPP over the past few years, to downgrade its library, I suspect that replacing me will be a low priority. I would also warn any librarian aspiring to the position that the professional isolation of being the only librarian in an organisation of over 400 lawyers is extreme and unsafe.
Last year, I appealed to the Industrial Relations Commission. In a conciliation hearing on 30th June, Commissioner Newall said my appeal was ‘of value, because it added to the developing body of jurisprudence on bullying and victimisation in the workplace’.
I could have added a great deal more, as the issue before him on that occasion was just the latest in a long and complicated saga, but by then I lacked the physical stamina and the financial resources to take it further.
I thank Commissioner Newall for his understanding and affirmation of the professional role of law librarians, and for his wise words, which have sustained me during my final year at the ODPP.”
Silbert is Yarraside’s chief crown prosecutor and the NSW solicitor general, Michael Sexton, asked him to provide advice on the Cunneen issue, so that it was all done at arms length from the NSW DPP, where Cunneen works.
Apparently, Silbert advised against a prosecution.
The DPP’s office did not reply to our inquiry whether Silbert’s thoughts on the matter will be made public and the solicitor general said he would not be making it available.
In any event, it would be interesting to know whether the Victorian went as far as clearing-up confusing contradictions, e.g:
• Margaret Cunneen claimed her vengeful sister, Carol, must have dobbed her into ICAC. As she put it in a letter to a member of the public, which we reproduced:
“What a malevent [sic] person my long-estranged sister is to take the bare bones of the terrible crash that my father told her about and do this to me.”
Carol said she didn’t know what Margaret was talking about:
“It was not me who was the complainant to ICAC. I knew nothing of the accident until I read of it in the press. She never asked me if I was responsible and I vehemently deny it.”
• Margaret had also downplayed her friendship with controversial racing identity Steve Fletcher, who had been banned from racetracks for receiving insider information from jockeys.
In 2011 Cunneen said:
“I have met him a few times. Quite frankly I don’t want to have any public connection with him. That wouldn’t assist me at the present time at all.”
She could not remember the last time she had seen Fletcher. But when The Sydney Morning Herald approachedthe famous gambler he confirmed they were good friends and that he had seen Cunneen the previous day when she dropped her son off to work at his punting shop.
Cunneen also said:
“I am very careful never to break any laws or to be with people who do. I take that very, very seriously. Over the past 35 years I’ve made it my practice never to associate with people who are shady or dodgy.”
When asked whether this included her attendance at Roger Rogerson’s book launch, she claimed she was there because she believed “in the power of redemption”.
Now that the drama is behind her, Margaret can get back to organising for the reintroduction of QCs for NSW briefs, and other important retrograde steps.
Just as life is settling down at the ODPP along comes the Lisa Munro case. She worked as a DPP solicitor and last month was charged with possession of cocaine.
The acting DPP, John Pickering, announced this on July 24, even though she was charged on July 11. Lisa resigned on July 13.
The Sunday Smellograph claims that the director’s chambers is “concerned about drug use throughout the organisation”, and that the police swoop on Ms Munro was “sparked” by the ODPP itself.
Thank god someone has spoken up about the ludicrous protocol to allow the NSW coppers to carry guns in court.
Police minister, Troy Boy Grant, and attorney general, Gabrielle Upton, easily rolled over to the demand of the police to take their weapons into courtrooms, so they could take pot shots at terrorists and other criminals.
Other states don’t allow this and the AFP doesn’t take armaments to court.
The NSW bar has come out saying the protocol is a mess because the sheriff is still in overall charge of court security.
“These ad hoc arrangements have the potential to cause confusion and harm in the event of a security incident in our courts,” said bar prez, Jane Needham.
Now, the plod in WA has latched onto the idea and wants to be loaded in court.
The sheriff’s role is now compromised by this silly arrangement. You wouldn’t expect Troy Boy to know any better, but Upton …
In a flurry of activity the Sydney Grill also pumped out another statement on Friday (Aug. 7) expressing “concern” at PM Abbott’s announcement in the wake of the Federal Court overturning the government’s approval of the Carmichael coal mine development in Queensland.
Fresh on the heels of his victory over the ABC with Q&A, Abbott is now after the judges. He’s up there with patron saints of idiocy like Joh Bjelke Petersen, particularly as the Commonwealth and the Indian coal company, Adani, consented to the mine’s approval being set aside.
The court merely rubber stamped what the Abbott government’s lawyers asked for.
Yet, the PM said that Australia has a “problem as a nation” if the courts could “be turned into a means of sabotaging” such projects.
“These comments demonstrate a lack of understanding of the independent role of the courts in out democracy,” said Needham.
None of this is a surprise. Abbott has only a tiny grasp of democracy and independence. Any time he opens his mouth something baffling is bound to come out.
The murder trial of former NSW plods Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara didn’t get far before the jury was discharged – just after the opening address by McNamara’s brief, Charles Waterstreet.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew told the jury of 15 that a “legal issue” has arisen and discharged them. His reasons for the discharge are subject to a no-publication order.
Before the curtain came down Waterstreet told the jury that Rogerson shot the young drug dealer Jamie Gao “in cold blood”.
He then pointed the gun at McNamara and threatened to kill him and his family, according to the the celebrity barrister’s opening address.
“He threatened to kill his daughters if (McNamara) did not comply.”
Other assertions were made about Rogerson’s colourful history as part of McNamara’s defence which raises elements of duress.
The new trial is set for August 18.
He went on:
“As you grow, and if lucky, mature, you learn that other lights exist that are grouped together around you, competing for the shadow …
In a multi-dimensional world, our hormone secretors and immune responses are on high alert, all the time as we were in the 1950s, forever waiting for the atomic bomb to go off. The continual level of stress plays out in our bodies in complex ways …”
He talked of the terrible consequences for his health while acting for a client for whom he got bail and did the trial.
“He worked out every morning before sun up while I was busy working on his case. His muscles grew as his post-prison diet took hold. Genuine routine exercise helped him to achieve the nut-brown skin of a cross fitter. Meanwhile, I grew old, very old, in fact my feet swelled in the juices he created from my glands that weren’t circulating my blood. My diet went south with comfort chocolates, packets of mint slices, chips and junk food …
My love life was beyond the reach of even my own hands. Stress kills sex drives. A boil appeared on my right leg by week two, a week later, it was joined by another, like twinning volcanoes. My fingers grew rough, something like the texture of my heels in winter when they crack. I started losing a barrister’s only asset, his voice. I was useless, I was as useless as the castrated in an orgy.”
We can only shudder at the thought of what the Rogerson-McNamara trial is doing to his health. Rough fingers, boils, no voice, no sex, a slow death, would be the least of it. Hold tight for August 18.