Dear editor … ABA throws ink at the Daily Telegraph … Qld bar’s mea culpa in blame game … Pass the butter – seating at Gov House for High Court feast … Judge upset by school protocol governing criminal complaints
He fired off an incandescent letter to the wretches at The Daily Smellograph taking them to task for journalist Janet Fife-Yeoman’s report of Chief Justice Tom Bathurst’s opening of law term speech.
“THE state’s top judge has launched a stunning attack on ‘popular sentiment’ and ‘xenophobia’’ in Australia, claiming only he and his fellow judicial officers – not the government – could be relied upon to promote fairness and equality.
During a controversial speech to officially open the 2017 law year last night, Chief Justice Tom Bathurst claimed the rule of law in Australia was in danger because of rampant racism, in a clear attack on populist government policies on immigration.”
The CJ referred to a 1888 case in NSW where the Supreme Court overturned a government order to prevent Chinese passengers disembarking from a ship.
In Trumpian overtones the premier, Sir Henry Parkes, dismissed the decision as “technical”. The then CJ Fred Darley attacked the government’s attempt to disregard the law.
Bathurst told the feasting bigwigs:
“As stated by my predecessor, Jim Spigelman, it should give us pause that one of the most serious threats to the rule of law in Australia was grounded in xenophobia. However, this story also demonstrates the role of the judiciary and the profession in promoting equality, fairness and the rule of law, in spite of popular sentiment.”
The Smello converted this into Bathurst’ delivering a partisan political attack on popular sentiment and the government’s policies on refugees.
Missing was any notion that we live in a nation of laws, as interpreted by the judicial arm of government. It’s not surprising the paper can’t handle too many complications – for example, Trump’s Muslim travel ban is popularly supported in the US, while the judge who ordered a stay on the executive order is a Dubya appointed “mainstream Republican”.
President Willy said that the newspaper “should be embarrassed of [sic] yesterday’s article”.
“It is abundantly clear by her report of his Honour’s opening of law term address, that she has not found time to read the address in full and report it accurately … the chief justice’s speech does not claim the rule of law in Australia is in danger of ‘rampant racism’ in our country”.
The Smello is the all-knowing voice of popular sentiment. It’s in touch with its readership, so much so that its campaign against the Labor Party at the last federal election saw the ALP capture from the Liberals four western Sydney seats in the paper’s hometown market.
The summer heat has got to the brass at the saintly Bar Association of Queensland.
Last Thursday (Feb. 2) local bar president Chris Hughes tried to round up the troops to attend a ceremonial sitting at 9.15am the next morning to celebrate the 25th birthday of the Court of Appeal.
Black robes were to be worn and it would be a “mark of respect to the court and its president” if the rank-n-file turned-up.
“I apologise for the late notice but this was the result of an administrative omission at the court,” said Hughes.
Oh no it wasn’t. Hours later came the president’s grovel.
At the time he sent the earlier email he was “under the impression that the late noice resulted from an administrative omission at the court”.
“I have subsequently discovered that that is not the case and the administrative error was one of the Bar Association of Queensland.”
Hughes grovelled to court president Margaret McMurdo.
Cadet reporters are instructed in Journalism 101 that if they are going to shaft anyone they should check it out first.
How would Soapy Brandis have felt about the Government House seating arrangements for the dinner to farewell the outgoing CJ, Robert French?
Not very happy, if you look at the table plan.
There’s Soapy between Susan Kiefel’s husband and Justice Virginia Bell and opposite boring old former GG, Michael Jeffrey, while his dread Labor opponent Mark Dreyfus is right next to the new CJ and opposite the lovely Quentin Bryce.
It’s likely that Soap, a man filled with an over-weening sense of self-importance, would have felt that he should have been more towards the centre of the table from where he could regale everyone with his buttery tones.
Bring me the head of the person responsible for this ghastly seating plan at Yarralumla?
Judge Andrew Colefax has issued a crisp 15 paragraph judgment in the NSW Dizzo that should have been picked-up earlier and reported widely.
It was a criminal case in which both the accused and the complainant were children in a learning support stream at a NSW high school.
It was alleged that the accused had sexual intercourse with the complainant, who was above the age of 10 and under 14.
When the school principal heard about the incident he interviewed the accused in accordance with a procedural protocol that had been drawn up by the department.
Colefax’s concern was that this child, with an intellectual impairment, was interviewed without a parent being present and without an opportunity to get legal advice.
The upshot was that the child made admissions of wrongdoing, which were provided to the police.
During the subsequent interrogation by the coppers the child’s father, who had very limited English, was present. Further admissions were extracted with Colefax saying he found the whole process “concerning”.
Some of this might have been addressed if an objection had been taken to adducing these admissions into evidence.
The judge said that if an objection had been taken it is likely he would have rejected the evidence.
But this was beside the point.
“The point is that there appears to be a protocol in place in NSW schools which permits not only the interrogation of children without adults present, but the interrogation of children with learning difficulties – the result of which are made available to police.”
The manner in which bail was handled gave rise to another concern.
The father cannot read English and the child is effectively illiterate. Neither of them could read the bail slip or understand the bail conditions.
The result was that the reporting conditions were breached and the accused was arrested – with the result that the child experienced suicidal ideation.
“This should never have occurred.”
The accused was found not guilty on the grounds of mental illness. Colefax signed off saying that there is nothing more the court can do, “apart from highlighting these issues and making them public in the hope that appropriate authorities will address them”.