Public trust in the courts

COMMENT by BOB BEADMAN. Part three.

I’m still seeking answers to the question, is the law an ass? Our horrific rates of domestic violence have dominated the news this year, yet it is regularly reported that the offender was on a Domestic Violence Order (DVO). Are they useful?

And in May 2024 there were up the four-month delays in providing counselling services to offenders around Australia. There is clearly a disconnect here.

Immigration detention: Of course, the High Court stepped in. It is common sense that you cannot keep a person in detention indefinitely without trial or conviction. Charge or deport. Amend the legislation if necessary to enable these processes to be fast tracked.

Whistle-blower protection? People with information on illegal activity are in a terrible quandary on whether to come forward with the evidence. Governments have spent years in orgies of self-congratulations about protections offered to whistle-blowers and encouraging them to report wrongdoing.

Legislation establishing the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, and the new National Anti-Corruption Commission (to name just a couple of provisions) both contain specific measures to protect people who are brave enough to come forward.

Yet internationally Mr Assange has occupied the headlines for two decades, and nationally the Government pursued Witness K and Mr Collaery through the courts for about the same length of time. And in May 2024 Mr McBride was sentenced to over five years in gaol.

In the same month Mr Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, describes the long, meandering court process he has faced as “punishment by process.”

So, is pub talk going to encourage people with the dirt to come forward?

Respect for our Institutions: One struggles to understand the Trump phenomenon in USA, even allowing for possible bias in reporting. Occasionally a commentator will catch my eye with their analysis that Trump attracts the protest votes at the establishment and the ruling class families.

And then one turns their eye to what is happening at home. In recent weeks in the Northern Territory serious allegations were levelled against our Chief Minister, Minister for Police, Commissioner of Police, and the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption. Allegations only, but very damaging.

The last thing I want to be accused of is spreading these stories. But if I failed to mention the obvious, I would be accused of a cover-up.

Unfortunately, coming as this does in the aftermath of the failure of The Voice referendum, Indigenous confidence in the establishment is at its lowest point ever.

Conclusion: As well as the matters discussed above, I also had in mind the (mis)trial of Bruce Lehrmann, and my repeated astonishment at the regular revelations of ineptness. To the casual onlooker it seems about everybody who had any involvement is tainted – the ACT Government, Director of Public Prosecutions, Australian Federal Police, a Federal Minister, a former Queensland Supreme Court Judge and of course the alleged victim and accused.

And just when you think the case has finally run out of fuel, there is more!

• The Australian Capital Territory Integrity Commission announced an investigation into the conduct of Walter Sofronoff KC during an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann. (Mr Sofronoff KC was a former Solicitor General for Queensland, and President of the Queensland Court of Appeal).
• Five members of the Australian Federal Police are suing the former Director of Public Prosecutions in the ACT, Mr Drumgold, for $1.42 million over critical comments he made about their handling of the investigation.

What is the total cost of the entirety of this omnishambles? (Thank you, Justice Michael Lee, for the word.)

The Robodebt Royal Commission and the associated investigations that preceded it and followed it, is another spectacular case. Recently, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has wiped its hands of the case. Is now the time to open the sealed section of the Royal Commission Report? Else, all this effort, and cost, and no consequences?

Can any connections be made between the diversions of resources into cases like these and the unreasonable delays in conducting court cases?

Will anybody claim these are examples of “the law” working effectively? What have cases done to destroy the confidence of the person in the street?

The Northen Territory: By now readers may be questioning whether I have swept our problems under the carpet. No. But the topic lends itself for someone to write a book, rather than incorporate a paragraph or two in this paper. The book might cover:

• Aboriginal Customary Law (Lore) and the banning of practices considered barbaric.
• The Anunga rules (requiring that Aborigines be properly cautioned by police and that a suspect be offered a prisoner’s friend to assist him with the interview, as well as an interpreter, if necessary).
• Court interpreters.
• The shooting in Yuendumu, west of Alice Springs, and murder trial of a police officer.
• Role of the Office of Public Prosecutions, Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC), Chief Minister, and Commissioner of Police.
• Duration of the Inquest (the death occurred in November 2019, and in May 2024 the Inquest is ongoing – I am not pointing the finger at the Coroner, but at the processes of the “Law”).
• The ICAC finding of serious racism within NT Police force.
• The broader role of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption over the life of the Office.

Final questions: Are we going to maintain the pretence that everybody is equal before the law? Is the law an ass?