Showing posts with label royal commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label royal commission. Show all posts
Saturday 5 March 2016
Quotes of the Week
Ms Furness assisting the Royal Commission: And human beings talk among themselves about their colleagues, don't they, Cardinal?
Cardinal-Prefect George Pell: Human beings in different categories have very different approaches to these matters. We work within a framework of Christian moral teaching. {Loud burst of laughter from people in Rome interview room} Pardon?
Ms.Furness: And what does that mean –
Cardinal Pell: Would you like me to continue?
Ms.Furness: I would, indeed.
[Based on Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Day 160 transcript of hearing webcast, 1 March 2016]
I share the dismay and disgust of a great many people, Catholics and others, with the Cardinal’s display…..
It’s made plain to the world who he is and what he’s like…..
I’ve known Cardinal Pell for over 30 years and I really think he is one of the best developed narcissists I’ve met in my life…..
astonishing the way he can deploy his insensitivity, he seems impervious to human experience…..
a big man and a big bully…..
[Father Michael Kelly SJ, 702ABCSydney interview on the subject of Cardinal Prefect George Pell’s evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 3 March 2016]
Wednesday 24 February 2016
Just because Australia's Attorney-General doesn't like the lyrics.....
It appears that Australian Attorney-General, Senator George Henry Brandis QC, is upset by certain topical lyrics written by singer-songwriter Tim Minchin.
I felt it only right that I upset that rather pompous alumnus of the private Catholic Villanova College even more by posting Tim’s lyrics here.
COME HOME (CARDINAL PELL)
[Verse 1]
It's a lovely day in Ballarat
I'm kicking back, thinking of you
I hear that you've been poorly
I am sorry that you're feeling blue
I know what it's like when you feel a little shitty
You just want to curl up and have an itty-bitty doona day
But a lot of people here really miss ya, Georgie
They really think you oughta just get on a plane
(Just get on a plane)
We all just want you to...
[Chorus 1]
Come home, Cardinal Pell
I know you're not feeling well
And being crook ain't much fun
Even so, we think you should come
Home, Cardinal Pell Come down from your citadel
It's just the right thing to do
We have a right to know what you knew
[Verse 2] Couldn't you see what was under your nose, Georgie
Back in '73 when you were living with Gerry?
Is it true that you knew but you chose to ignore
Or did you actively try to keep it buried?
And years later, when survivors, despite their shame and their fear
Stood up to tell their stories, you spent year after year
Working hard to protect the church's assets
I mean, with all due respect, dude, I think you're scum!
And I reckon you should...
[Chorus 2]
Come home, Cardinal Pell
(Cardinal Pell)
I know you're not feeling well
Perhaps you just need some sun
It's lovely here, you should come
Home, you pompous buffoon
(Pompous buffoon)
And I suggest do it soonI hear the tolling of the bell
And it has a Pellian knell
[Bridge]
I want to be transparent here, George, I'm not the greatest fan of your religion
And I personally believe that those who cover up abuse should go to prison
But your ethical hypocrisy, your intellectual vacuity, and your arrogance don't bother me as much
As the fact that you have turned out to be such a goddamn coward
You're a coward, Georgie
(You're a coward, George) Come and face the music, Georgie
(Face the music, George)
You owe it to the victims, Georgie
(You owe it, George)
Come and face the music, the music Hallelujah, hallelujah
If the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
He would take one look at you and say:
(One look at you and say)
[Chorus 3]
"Go home, Cardinal Pell
I've got a nice spot in hell
With your name on it and so
I suggest you toughen up and go
"Home, Cardinal Pell
I'm sure they'll make you feel wel-
Come at the pub in Ballarat
They just want a beer and a chat"
Come home, Cardinal Pell
(Cardinal Pell)
I know you're scared, Georgie-Poo
(Come home)
They have a right to know what you knew
Your time is running out to atone, Georgie
I think the Lord is calling ya home, Georgie
Perhaps he could forgive even you
If you just let them know what you knew
[Outro]
Oh, Cardinal Pell
My lawyer just rang me to tell
Me this song
Could get me in legal trouble
Oh well, Cardinal Pell
If you don't feel compelled
To come home by
A sense of moral duty
Perhaps you will come home and frickin' sue me
It's a lovely day in Ballarat
I'm kicking back, thinking of you
I hear that you've been poorly
I am sorry that you're feeling blue
I know what it's like when you feel a little shitty
You just want to curl up and have an itty-bitty doona day
But a lot of people here really miss ya, Georgie
They really think you oughta just get on a plane
(Just get on a plane)
We all just want you to...
[Chorus 1]
Come home, Cardinal Pell
I know you're not feeling well
And being crook ain't much fun
Even so, we think you should come
Home, Cardinal Pell Come down from your citadel
It's just the right thing to do
We have a right to know what you knew
[Verse 2] Couldn't you see what was under your nose, Georgie
Back in '73 when you were living with Gerry?
Is it true that you knew but you chose to ignore
Or did you actively try to keep it buried?
And years later, when survivors, despite their shame and their fear
Stood up to tell their stories, you spent year after year
Working hard to protect the church's assets
I mean, with all due respect, dude, I think you're scum!
And I reckon you should...
[Chorus 2]
Come home, Cardinal Pell
(Cardinal Pell)
I know you're not feeling well
Perhaps you just need some sun
It's lovely here, you should come
Home, you pompous buffoon
(Pompous buffoon)
And I suggest do it soonI hear the tolling of the bell
And it has a Pellian knell
[Bridge]
I want to be transparent here, George, I'm not the greatest fan of your religion
And I personally believe that those who cover up abuse should go to prison
But your ethical hypocrisy, your intellectual vacuity, and your arrogance don't bother me as much
As the fact that you have turned out to be such a goddamn coward
You're a coward, Georgie
(You're a coward, George) Come and face the music, Georgie
(Face the music, George)
You owe it to the victims, Georgie
(You owe it, George)
Come and face the music, the music Hallelujah, hallelujah
If the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
He would take one look at you and say:
(One look at you and say)
[Chorus 3]
"Go home, Cardinal Pell
I've got a nice spot in hell
With your name on it and so
I suggest you toughen up and go
"Home, Cardinal Pell
I'm sure they'll make you feel wel-
Come at the pub in Ballarat
They just want a beer and a chat"
Come home, Cardinal Pell
(Cardinal Pell)
I know you're scared, Georgie-Poo
(Come home)
They have a right to know what you knew
Your time is running out to atone, Georgie
I think the Lord is calling ya home, Georgie
Perhaps he could forgive even you
If you just let them know what you knew
[Outro]
Oh, Cardinal Pell
My lawyer just rang me to tell
Me this song
Could get me in legal trouble
Oh well, Cardinal Pell
If you don't feel compelled
To come home by
A sense of moral duty
Perhaps you will come home and frickin' sue me
Readers will note there in one "shitty", a single "goddamn" and a lone "frickin" - terms which would barely register on the offensive expletives scale.
Which makes this The Guardian headline on 12 February 2016 above an article by Monica Tan, Tim Minchin asks George Pell to 'come home' in expletive-filled new song, all the more puzzling.
Sunday 21 February 2016
Come down from your citadel Cardinal Pell and tell us what you knew
Vatican Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy Cardinal George Pell has always enjoyed due process in any Australian court case, state inquiry or royal commission concerning child sexual abuse at which he was a witness and, observation over time would lead an ordinary person to conclude that his various religious titles have afforded him what amounts to favoured treatment by both the police and legal profession.
Fair treatment was also afforded Pell in the 2002 internal Catholic Church inquiry into his past conduct as a seminarian in the early 1960s.
Given that barely a year after appearing before the Victorian Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations Pell announced he was leaving Australia to reside permanently in the Vatican from 31 March 2014 and; after initial witness appearances on 24 & 26 March 2014 has now thrice refused to comeback to give evidence in person again at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (preferring to be questioned by video link on 21 August 2014 & this coming 29 February 2016); is it any wonder that in the face of his obvious sense of entitlement the mood has finally swung sharply against this man?
A new twist to Cardinal Pell's reluctance to return to Australia was revealed on the front page1 of the Herald Sun on 20 February 2016:
These allegations concerning Pell seem to spring from information received by Victoria Police's Sano Task Force:
The new allegations (which Cardinal Pell denies) are likely to compound the community response which finally spilled over four days earlier.........
This song is for the survivors
Tim Minchin
Ballarat survivors of sexual abuse plan to travel to Rome to hear Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the royal commission into child sex abuse, as a result of a crowdfunding campaign.
Cardinal Pell will remain in Rome after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse accepted a doctor's report that said he was too sick to return to testify in Australia.
Comedian Meshel Laurie and television presenter Gorgi Coghlan started a GoFundMe page to send 15 people, including representatives from the City of Ballarat, survivors and support people to Rome for the hearing.
The campaign exceeded its target of $55,000 after the fundraising page was shared more than 3,100 times on Facebook and Twitter.
At midnight on Tuesday it was nearing $75,000 at 2.17pm on Wednesday it was over $100,000, at 11.07am on Thursday it was over $175,000, at 8am on Friday it was nearing $189,000 at 4.36pm on Saturday it was $202,210, including an anonymous donation of $10,000.
The campaign aimed to raise the funds before the hearing on February 29 and says "the opportunity to face Cardinal Pell is the least our community can do for these brave people who have bared their souls to ensure the world is a safer place for all children".
Abuse survivors like Stephen Woods want Cardinal Pell to give evidence in an "open" place like the Australian embassy where they can watch.
"It has to be somewhere where he's not in control, his lawyers are not in control and that way he will actually be pushed to give better answers than the usual 'I can't remember'," he said.
"We want to see a candidness that we haven't seen before with Cardinal Pell.
"We want to see honesty. We want to see a veracity, transparency.
"That will be really good to see face to face." [my updates in red]
ABC News, 17 February 2016:
Former New South Wales Labor premier and Catholic Kristina Keneally said she laughed when she first heard the song, but on second listening was brought to tears.
"It spoke really deeply to the abject failure of the Catholic Church to deal with the child sexual abuse crisis," Ms Keneally said.
"I have yet to see from the Vatican the type of frank, honest, acknowledgement of the damage that it has done and the recognition of the things that need to change in the Catholic Church to ensure this never happens again."
Tim Minchin's song peaked at number one on the Australian iTunes songs chart on Wednesday 17 February and reached 825,569 YouTube video views by the following Saturday.
Footnote
1. Apparently the Vatican, Cardinal Pell and senior clergy in Australia are more concerned with who leaked the latest sexual abuse allegations to the media rather than focusing on the possible suffering those allegations might represent.
Having grown up in a predominately Catholic community, with one paedophile priest having free run of the local primary school and another frequently entertained in their homes by parents of young children, I understand the scale of such offending by men hiding behind the authority of black cassocks and birettas.
In fact both these men appear to have gone to their graves unaccountable for their predatory behaviour and unremarked by the wider community.
It is beyond belief that the Vatican still doesn't acknowledge the true historical scale of sexual abuse and fails to immediately request that named ordained priests (including cardinals) stand down pending the results of any such police investigations.
Footnote
1. Apparently the Vatican, Cardinal Pell and senior clergy in Australia are more concerned with who leaked the latest sexual abuse allegations to the media rather than focusing on the possible suffering those allegations might represent.
Having grown up in a predominately Catholic community, with one paedophile priest having free run of the local primary school and another frequently entertained in their homes by parents of young children, I understand the scale of such offending by men hiding behind the authority of black cassocks and birettas.
In fact both these men appear to have gone to their graves unaccountable for their predatory behaviour and unremarked by the wider community.
It is beyond belief that the Vatican still doesn't acknowledge the true historical scale of sexual abuse and fails to immediately request that named ordained priests (including cardinals) stand down pending the results of any such police investigations.
Saturday 30 January 2016
Are Cardinal George Pell & the Vatican flipping the bird at Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse?
Is Cardinal George Pell really so ill he genuinely cannot travel? Or is it a smoke screen allowing him to hide from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse?
Only his doctors would know with any certainty, because his very active life in Rome gives no indication.
What Pell and the Vatican are saying.....
What Pell and the Vatican are saying.....
The Guardian, 28 January 2016:
Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, is still too unwell to fly and will address a philanthropic Catholic organisation in the US on Thursday via video link from Rome.
It comes days before Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse is due to hear from Pell’s lawyers about whether he will be well enough to appear in person before the commission in February, when hearings are due to continue in Ballarat.
Pell angered Australian child sexual abuse victims in December when he cancelled his flight to Melbourne days before he was due to appear before the commission. The Vatican said Pell was too ill to travel although his specific medical condition was not disclosed.
A directions hearing will be held by the royal commission in Sydney on Friday 5 February to hear whether Pell will appear in person when hearings resume.
What the world is seeing.....
What the world is seeing.....
Cardinal George Pell, front row, centre left, Monday 18 January 2016
Image from The Global Foundation
Cardinal Pell celebrated official Rome Forum mass in the afternoon of Sunday 17 January 2016.
He also gave a 10-page (3,713 words) Keynote Address at an official forum dinner in evening of 17 January.
UPDATE
The Guardian, 5 February 2016:
The cardinal won’t be coming. It’s his heart. A fresh medical report from Rome says it would be “difficult” for Cardinal George Pell to take the long flight home to give further evidence to the royal commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
“It doesn’t preclude his travel,” observed the commissioner Peter McClellan. “It doesn’t say he can’t come.” But McClellan has accepted the verdict of Pell’s medicos that a journey home at this time might have “serious consequences” for His Eminence’s health.
It’s an unhappy outcome all round. McClellan wants him to give evidence in person. Abuse victims are keen to confront the man in the flesh. And the cardinal, it seems, may never walk the streets of his native Ballarat again.
Just how sick he is remains a mystery. Pell is keen to keep the finer details of his heart problems secret.
His counsel, Alan Myers QC, argued against releasing the medical reports in full: “All it would do is provoke some sort of debate in the press about the medical condition of Cardinal Pell. There is no public interest in that.”
Under strict secrecy, McClellan allowed four barristers to read the latest report. Unimpressed was Paul O’Dwyer SC who told the commission the two-page document revealed “common or garden problems in a man of the cardinal’s age”.
Saturday 2 January 2016
So who is 'Mr. Apprehended Bias 2015' and what makes him tick?
Former High Court justice John Dyson Heydon AC QC presided
over the federal Royal Commission into Trade
Union Governance and Corruption.
This commission was in existence for six hundred and sixty-five days from 13 March 2014 to 28 December 2015 and, there were a total of one hundred and eighty-nine hearings days in the capital cities of five states.
The cost to taxpayers was reported as in excess of $45.9 million. Heydon's own contract as a royal commissioner is estimated as worth between $1.5-$2 million of this.
This commission was in existence for six hundred and sixty-five days from 13 March 2014 to 28 December 2015 and, there were a total of one hundred and eighty-nine hearings days in the capital cities of five states.
The cost to taxpayers was reported as in excess of $45.9 million. Heydon's own contract as a royal commissioner is estimated as worth between $1.5-$2 million of this.
Heydon produced a two volume Interim Report in December 2014 and his Final
Report ran to six volumes with thirty-five appendices - the contents of
the last approx.187-page volume (allegedly containing verifiable threats to witnesses) being kept secret from the public and only shared with the Coalition prime minister, members of his cabinet and senior staffer/s in the prime minister's office.
Heydon’s “Introduction and Overview” to
this final report ran to one hundred and sixteen pages in which he used the
qualifying word “may” one hundred and twenty-two times, based on a word check count.
Throughout the report the language used
by Heydon was sometimes highly coloured and its pages contain a number of bold assertions that do not appear to be supported by hard fact.
After all that time and money, Heydon made
seventy-nine
law reform and/or 'political' recommendations, as well as referring two
unions, two companies, thirty-five union members and and six other individuals to either the Fair Work Commission, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, state industrial relations commissions, police, public prosecutors, or a number of other federal and state agencies, for further consideration.
With the Australian Bureau of Statistics recording 1.57 million persons who were members of a union in their main job in August 2014, only finding thirty-seven 'suspect' unionists (or 0.00235% of est. union population) is not what might be called a good look for this very expensive royal commission which examined over five hundred witnesses. Especially as its findings assert the existence of an endemic culture of corruption within unions.
With the Australian Bureau of Statistics recording 1.57 million persons who were members of a union in their main job in August 2014, only finding thirty-seven 'suspect' unionists (or 0.00235% of est. union population) is not what might be called a good look for this very expensive royal commission which examined over five hundred witnesses. Especially as its findings assert the existence of an endemic culture of corruption within unions.
As one of the previous referrals flowing from
the royal commission police taskforce resulted in a
prosecution which was dropped by the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions in
October 2015 with no evidence offered, one wonders how many of those final referrals
will also dwindle away into nothing.
This particular royal commission has
had distinct overtones of political bias from the very beginning, exacerbated
by Heydon’s own unsatisfactorily self-tested apprehended bias.
So what manner of man is Dyson Heydon and how have others viewed him over time?
Commencing In December 2015 and working backwards to 1999, here is a small selection of opinions:
Journalist Damien
Murphy in The Sydney Morning Herald article
Commissioner
Dyson Heydon: A man for all reasons, 30 December 2015:
He joins a short line of
judges who have delivered similar decisions against unions such as the defunct
Builders Labourers Federation, the Painters and Dockers, and the Construction,
Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
But only Mr Heydon
achieved the singular honour of shooting himself in the foot with his own royal
commission.
On August 31 this year,
he administered the kiss of life to himself to save his own royal commission.
For 18 days he'd been
drowning in a whirlpool of his own making. For much of that time Australia had
been wondering how the former High Court of Australia justice could save
himself and breathe life back into his Royal Commission into Trade Union
Governance and Corruption.
It emerged Mr Heydon had
agreed in April to deliver the 6th Sir Garfield Barwick Address, a fundraising
event organised by a branch of the Liberal Party, and had
"overlooked" the political aspect of his dining companions.
The matter bubbled away
while Mr Heydon continued to conduct his hearings.
On August 17, Fairfax
Media reported that Mr Heydon, a former Rhodes Scholar, was on the panel that
awarded then prime minister Tony Abbott his Rhodes scholarship.
Unions went ballistic.
Four days later the
ACTU, AWU and CFMEU all made applications in the commission for Mr Heydon to
step down.
His opponents saw it as
a question of propriety. Mr Heydon, and the government who appointed him, saw
it purely in legal terms.
Known as a loner with a
love for black letter law, an aversion to computers and an apparent fear of
emails, Mr Heydon, 72, served as a justice of the High Court of Australia
between 2003-2013 after being a justice of the NSW Court of Appeal.
Previously he'd been
dean of the Sydney Law School. He'd retired from the High Court at the
constitutionally mandated age of 70 and picked up the trade union royal
commission as a retirement gig.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 2015:
The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 2015:
Gabrielle
Appleby and Heather Roberts writing in Bias
and the ‘black-letter’ judge: who is Dyson Heydon? [The
Conversation, 21 August 2015]:
There is no doubt that
Heydon was and is a brilliant legal mind, with a very firm grip on the
applicable law. His distinguished legal and judicial career is credit to that.
Heydon’s legal
brilliance did not guarantee, however, that he was influential while on the
High Court. His approach was increasingly out of step with the court’s other
members, particularly in the areas of implied rights and limits on government
power, which he was reluctant to extend. His dissent rates would eventually
earn him the moniker the “Great
Dissenter”, and his frustration became increasingly evident in the tone of
his judgments.
As a judge, Heydon also
exhibited a particularly visible form of independence. Constitutional law
academics Andrew Lynch and George Williams have referred to
this as his pronounced “individualism”. By 2012, the year prior to his
retirement, Heydon wrote every one of his judgments alone, even when he joined
the result of the other justices.
Also in 2012, Heydon
delivered another
speech that caused a stir in the legal profession. It went part of the
way to explaining his individualism. He referred to what he thought was one of
the most dangerous threats to judicial independence: the pressure on judges to
participate in joint judgments and the elevation of consensus as a value over
individual intellectual integrity.
There is a degree of sad
irony that, as royal commissioner, Heydon has found himself steeped in
controversy alleged to be undermining public confidence in the integrity of the
justice system. Heydon prided himself throughout his judicial career – and
rightly so – on the robust independence and intellectual integrity he brought
to the role.
It is important to be
clear that the claim made against Heydon is one of apprehended bias only. The test
for apprehended bias is whether a “fair-minded lay observer” might
reasonably apprehend that Heydon’s impartiality has been compromised by his
conduct.
It might seem
incongruous for a member of the general public to understand why
Heydon is being asked to apply the test to himself. There is a whiff of
apprehended bias in the very idea.
It is true that this
practice accords with the ordinary
legal process for apprehended bias claims. A person against whom an
apprehended bias claim is made is expected to apply the test objectively by
reference to the standards of the fair-minded lay observer. According to a
traditional black-letter approach, the individual’s personal feelings will
simply not enter the decision.
But can, as Heydon has
argued throughout his judicial career, legal tests really be objectively
applied by reference only to the law in the books – and unaffected, consciously
or subconsciously, by the individual judges’ background, interest, values and
morals? This question has given rise to some of the great ongoing debates of
legal philosophy.
Excerpts from
the pen of Allan C. Hutchinson in "Heydon'
Seek: Looking for Law in the Wrong Places" [2003, Monash
University Law Review 85]:
As already should be
clear, I am sceptical about the possibility of there being a definitive and
cogent account of the common law's operation in line with traditional claims
and ambitions. Nevertheless, I was excited to be told on my arrival in
Australia that there was a recent paper that attempted to do just that. I
eagerly obtained this essay by a former academic and now Justice of the
Australian High Court, Dyson Heydon. The title of his paper, Judicial Activism
and The Death of The Rule of Law, should have immediately tipped me off to what
was to follow.' Still, knowing little of Heydon personally or professionally
and knowing almost as little about Australian recent judicial history, I set to
reading the written version of his speech to the Quadrant Dinner in October
2002. The author was clearly a polished and sophisticated fellow who peppered
his talk with witty asides and sprightly anecdotes. Yet, beneath the gloss and
erudition, the paper offered a very radical and almost anachronistic account of
the common law. Indeed, my first reaction was to think that the date on the
paper must be wrong as it read like something from 1902 rather than 2002.
Heydon offered a rendition of the Rule of Law and the common law that was as
fundamentalist in its formalism as any I could remember reading in any century,
let alone the 21st century. For Heydon, judges can only fulfil their judicial
duties by scrupulously attending to the law's formal structure alone: almost
any consideration of the law's moral or political content is anathema. While I
would normally recommend that such an audacious and frankly improbable proposal
be ignored, the fact that it is espoused by the most recent appointee to the
High Court means that it warrants serious debunking and outright rejection…..
In his incendiary
jurisprudential intervention, Dyson Heydon makes it clear from the outset that
the whole project of modern jurisprudence is mistaken and a betrayal of the
common law tradition. Identifying proudly and explicitly with 'hanging judges'
of yore, he idolises 'that evil old man in scarlet robe and horse hair wig,
whom nothing short of dynamite will ever teach what century he is living in,
but who will at any rate interpret the law according to the books and ... is a
symbol of the strange mixture of reality and illusion, democracy and privilege,
humbug and decency, the subtle network of compromises, by which the nation
keeps itself in its familiar shape'. This is stirring and disturbing stuff. Heydon
leaves no doubt that '[interpretation of] the law according to the books must
be scrupulously adhered to by judges as this is the most effective 'bar to
untrammelled discretionary power? Depicting judges as wild ideological animals
who, if left unharnessed, will wreak political mayhem on an unsuspecting
public, he offers an ideal judge who is 'an independent arbiter not affected by
self-interest or partisan duty, applying a set of principles, rules and
procedures having objective existence and operating in paramountcy to any other
organ of state and to any other source of power'. This means that so powerful and reliable is
'the disinterested application ... of known law drawn from existing and
discoverable legal sources independently of the personal beliefs of the judgeI6
that it can hold in check herds of rogue officials. Moreover, so tamed and
tethered, these institutional pets can be trusted to have supreme power in the
polity….
For Heydon, the recent
history of Australian common law is a morality play in which the dark hordes of
judicial activism have begun to eclipse the established forces of legal enlightenment.
Rallying the judicial troops around a battle-cry of 'Back To The Future', he
urges that time is well past to repel such interlopers and to return the common
law to its traditional grandeur. Unless swift action is taken, the common law
is destined to be sullied by those 'using judicial power for a purpose other
than that for which it was granted, namely doing justice according to law in
the particular case'? In this scenario, the initial assault of the dark
activists forces can be traced back to the 1970s and the villains of the piece
are Anthony Mason and Lionel Murphy. Inveigling their way in to high judicial
office, these usurpers professed allegiance to the common law, but only better
to hijack it for their own political purposes. With some wit and savvy, these
ne'erdo-wells began to abandon the orthodoxies of the common law and replace it
with new credos of their own design: 'the soignt, fastidious, civilised,
cultured and cultivated patricians of the progressive judiciary - our new
philosopher-kings and enlightened despots - are in truth applying the values
which they hold, and which they think the poor simpletons of the vile multitude
... ought to hold even though they do not'." Presumably aided by a duped
band of other High Court judges, the terrible two set about abandoning old
tried-and-true rules and replacing them with newfangled and controversial
doctrines which were little more than rough distillations of their own
political agendas. Indeed, if Heydon is to be believed, Australian common law
is quickly going to political hell in a judicial handcart. It is only with a
return to traditional legal values and judicial methods that such an
ignominious fate can be avoided…..
From the Strewth column in The Australian, 20 December 2002:
From the Strewth column in The Australian, 20 December 2002:
DYSON Heydon may
have snared a prized position on the High Court following his controversial
speech contra judicial activism. He appears, however, to have peeved a few of
the blokes he pinged in the diatribe that some suggest was pivotal to his
appointment. Strewth hears former chief justices, and knights of the realm,
Gerard Brennan and Anthony Mason, will not be attending Heydon's
swearing-in when Mary Gaudron, pictured, retires in February. In the fraternity
that is the old boys' association of the High Court it is customary for all
manner of former judicial officers, friends, relatives and other hangers-on to
front for the boys' own initiation ceremony. So the absence of the two
immediate past chief justices will be conspicuous. Heydon made some
fairly pointed personal remarks about the Mason-era court of 1987-95, and did a
demolition job on the 1992 Mabo case in which Brennan wrote the lead judgment.
Yesterday Mason refused to comment on Heydon's attack on him, or whether
he would attend the swearing-in, and Brennan's chambers also delivered a firm
"no comment". Gezza and Tone aren't the only people cheesed off.
Journalist David Solomon
writing in The Courier Mail article A law
unto themselves, 19 December 2002 issue, p.15:
Heydon is the
fourth appointment made by the Howard Government, so its nominees to the bench
now constitute a majority of the court. In just three terms in office the
Government has been able to put its own stamp on the court, to reverse the more
liberal tendencies of the High Court under Chief Justice Sir Anthony Mason
(though he was first appointed to the court by the McMahon government in 1972,
and some of the appointees of the Hawke or Keating governments were far from
radical in their approach to the law).
This Government made no
secret of its intention of using its appointments to the High Court to change
its jurisprudence. Following the Wik decision in 1996, when the court
unexpectedly held that native title could exist in remote areas covered by
pastoral leases in Queensland, then deputy prime minister Tim Fischer declared
the Government would appoint "three capital-C conservatives" to the
court. It did so during the next year. And Dyson Heydon is the
fourth.
Journalist Valerie
Lawson in The Age article Library
speaks volumes for His Honour's passions, 19 December 2002:
John Dyson Heydon can't
sleep. It has nothing to do with his appointment as a judge of the High Court.
It's a habit of his years at the New South Wales bar.
He tends to begin his
day at 3 am, writing judgments, writing books, reviewing military history.
He is not alone in the
small hours. The 59-year-old works in the company of Napoleon (a marble bust),
the Duke of Wellington (a statue), and a library full of history. He can
recount any battle in detail."
His life has been as
orderly as his library since the time he swapped his rugby days as "Dirty Dyson"
(always covered with mud), to become a professor of law and a barrister….
Married to Pamela for 25
years, and father of Victoria, Christina, Alexandra and Nicholas, Justice
Heydon, QC, is the very model of a modern North Shore citizen. He lives at
Turramurra, and has a weekender at Robertson, NSW….
Valerie Lawson in The Sydney Morning
Herald article Silence on QC's rush to judgment, 11 February 2000 issue, p.7:
The State Government and
the legal profession yesterday stonewalled questions on the controversial
appointment of Mr Dyson Heydon, QC, to the NSW Court of Appeal.
Neither the
Attorney-General, Mr Shaw, nor the Chief Justice, Justice Jim Spigelman, would
comment.
But while the legal
profession publicly praised Mr Heydon's "eminence" lawyers
privately found it peculiar that he will be sworn in on Monday just three
months before his own appeal over a $7 million judgment against him is due to
be heard by the Court of Appeal.
The question on
everyone's lips was: what's the rush?
The State Government and
the legal profession yesterday stonewalled questions on the controversial
appointment of Mr Dyson Heydon, QC, to the NSW Court of Appeal.
Neither the
Attorney-General, Mr Shaw, nor the Chief Justice, Justice Jim Spigelman, would
comment.
But while the legal
profession publicly praised Mr Heydon's "eminence" lawyers
privately found it peculiar that he will be sworn in on Monday just three
months before his own appeal over a $7 million judgment against him is due to
be heard by the Court of Appeal.
The question on
everyone's lips was: what's the rush?
David Marr in The Sydney Morning Herald article Pm Brings Some PantomimeTo A Court's Silent Mark Of Power, 18 May 1999:
Dyson Heydon, QC,
arrived in a particularly dilapidated wig. He and a couple of Sydney law firms
were ordered last week to pay $21 million damages to the NRMA. The big question
at the Sydney Bar these days is: how much was Heydon's cover? As he passed
along the lines of his black-robed colleagues, they offered shy pats of
reassurance. He barely flinched. *Heydon and the law firms won on appeal on 21 December 2000 at which time he was a Justice in the NSW Court of Appeal*
the soigné,
fastidious, civilised, cultured and cultivated patricians of the progressive
judiciary – our new philosopher-kings and enlightened despots – are in truth
applying the values which they hold, and which they think the poor simpletons of the vile multitude – the great
beast, as Alexander Hamilton called it – ought to hold even though they do not.
The trouble is that persons adhering to different values or different
perceptions of need or different aspirations tend to be at risk of being
ruthlessly waved out of all decent society as enemies of the people. [my red bolding]
Last but not
least is Dyson Heydon’s view of many of his fellow judges and of all of us found at the Barnold Law blog, 2 September 2009:
Heydon sniffed in
relation to Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth (1992) 177
CLR 106 that
Labels:
John Dyson Heydon,
royal commission
Friday 1 January 2016
While I was away........
After a prolonged absence from blogging due to illness, here is a little catchup from the period July to December 2015.
* NSW Premier and Liberal MP for Manly Mike Baird puts "lipstick on a pig" by calling for an increase in the Goods & Service Tax (GST) to 15 per cent.
* The community
consultation dialogue between ratepayers and Clarence Valley Council over proposed consecutive rate rises every year for the next five
years remained as colourful as ever:
* One of
Australia’s most influential women, former Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin announced she will be
standing against sitting Nationals MP Kevin Hogan at the 2016 federal election.
[Echo Netdaily, 23
September 2015]
_______________
* Coal seam
gas company Metgasco Limited finally
bowed to people power and walked away from its exploration leases on the NSW
North Coast with a state government compensation cheque totaling $25 million
in its back pocket:
* The NSW Nationals used Twitter to take
credit for Metgasco’s capitulation – which saw a predictable response:
* The strength of NSW gun laws was demonstrated to a retiree living on Palmer's Island in the Clarence Valley:
* On 17
December 2015 The Daily Examiner published an article titled The
600 major companies that paid less tax than you, but neglected to tell
its readers that it was owned by one of these very same companies, APN NEWS
& MEDIA LTD, which had an income of
$310.3 million in the 2013-14 financial year.
A total of $21.2 million of this was considered taxable income, yet this
company had no tax payable listed for that financial year.
* That
one-time darling of the Liberal-Nationals federal government, Kathy Jackson, got her comeuppance:
* Royal
Commissioner Dyson Heydon delivered his discredited final
report on union governance and corruption to the Australian Governor-General on 28 December. The full report can be found at: https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/reports/Pages/default.aspx.
The disgraced union
leader declared bankruptcy in June, on the opening day of HSU Federal Court
proceedings which resulted in her being ordered to pay $1.4m to the union as
compensation for up to $2.5m misappropriated from members while she was its
national secretary between 2008 and February this year.
But her discharge from
bankruptcy will only remain in place for three years, meaning the HSU may be
able to continue to recoup some of the money she owes after that time.
On Tuesday, Ms Jackson's
bill increased by $997,349, when judge Richard Tracey ordered she pay
$554,215.67 in interest, $356,500 in legal costs and $86,633.81 in appeal
costs.
Brisbane-based
commercial barrister Gavin Handran, listed in the most recent Doyles Guide as
one of Australia's leading insolvency and reconstruction junior counsels, said
Ms Jackson solicited bankruptcy too early.
"The order for
costs, circa $350,000, made by Justice Tracey on 21 December is not a debt
provable in her bankruptcy even though it relates to a damages award made
before bankruptcy," Mr Handran said. "The HSU may accordingly enforce
that order against her, perhaps resulting in her again becoming bankrupt or
surrendering any assets she acquires in the interim, after her current
bankruptcy ends." Mr Handran said the law applied differently to interest
and costs. "She might be safe with the interest," he said.
"I suspect what
Kathy Jackson did, like so many in her troubled circumstances, was that she ran
off on first day and filed for bankruptcy. That was premature.
"It's particularly
important for the HSU workers to understand that she's not out of the woods.
The sword still hangs over her head." "Not only does she face the
real prospect of re-entering bankruptcy after she emerges from this period, but
there's also the possibility that the HSU, depending on a cost-benefit
analysis, may examine her under oath in the Federal Court, with the assistance
of the bankruptcy trustee, to ascertain whether she's transferred any assets to
a third party or (her partner, Michael) Lawler." HSU national secretary
Chris Brown said the union was "alive to the possibility" of Ms
Jackson facing a second round of bankruptcy, or interrogation over the transfer
of assets. The union was still determining how it would approach the matter. [The
Australian, 24 December 2015, p.5]
_______________
* NSW
Coalition Premier Mike Baird thought his ability to waste $500,000 of taxpayers' money deserved a tweet or two:
Go to http://www.stonersloth.com.au/ to see the Australian version of Reefer Madness that Baird signed off on.
_______________
There were 222
industrial disputes in Australia during the year ended September 2015, involving
78,000 individuals in a workforce of est. 11.7 million people. The majority of these ‘strikes’ appear to have lasted 2 days
or less.
This low
level of disputes does
not please former prime minister Tony Abbott who, living in a time long
past, argued in December 2015 for a tougher approach to breaking up
illegal union pickets, saying police forces “around our country” had to be
prepared to “uphold the law and not simply keep the peace … A lot of police
forces have been traditionally reluctant to break picket lines where picket
lines have been preventing people from going about their ordinary lawful
business”.
_______________
It came as no surprise that Dyson Mr.Apprehended Bias 2015 Heydon decided that Kathy Jackson was really a hero who just happened to embezzle over $1.4 million dollars:
_______________
* The
independent Q&A Review Final Report released
in December 2015 appears to have discovered that this ABC program is skewed in favour of the
government of the day:
Conservative flying monkeys dropped from Australian skies in shock.
_______________
*
WorkChoices Mark 2 appears to be forming on the horizon ahead of this
year’s federal election:
http://www.afr.com/news/politics/scott-morrison-flags-taking-industrial-relations-reform-to-next-election-20151215-gloika
Former
workplace relations minister Eric Abetz says the Fair Work Commission
cannot ignore calls to reduce Sunday penalty rates, if as
expected the Productivity Commission recommends the move on Monday.
Senator Abetz was the
workplace relations minister until the Liberal leadership change and
cabinet reshuffle in September.
Speaking ahead of the
Productivity Commission's release of its final report into the industrial
relations system, he told Fairfax Media the review must be respected
by the Fair Work Commission which sets wages and entitlements. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 21
December 2015]
The recommendations —
laid out in the commission's final
report into workplace relations
released on Monday — would affect workers in the entertainment, hospitality and
retail industries, if adopted.
The commission did not
recommend any changes to overtime penalty rates, night penalty rates or shift
loadings, nor changes to rates for nurses, teachers or emergency services
workers.
"Penalty rates have
a legitimate role in compensating employees for working long hours or at
asocial times," it stated.
"However, Sunday
penalty rates for hospitality, entertainment, retailing, restaurants and cafes
are inconsistent across similar work, anachronistic in the context of changing
consumer preferences, and frustrate the job aspirations of the unemployed and
those who are only available for work on Sunday.
"Rates should be
aligned with those on Saturday, creating a weekend rate for each of the
relevant industries."
Announcing the report's
findings, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the Government would examine
the recommendations and, if the case for sensible and fair changes to workplace
relations were outlined, they would be taken to the next election. [ABC News, 21 December 2015]
ACT Liberal senator Zed
Seselja said the Coalition should argue for a cut in Sunday penalty rates at
next year's election.
"The Productivity
Commission has done some really important work here," Senator Seselja he
said.
"I think that we
should be looking to put some policies to the next election which make
incremental reforms in this area that go down the path the Productivity
Commission is recommending.
"In the hospitality
industry, in particular, that's where I hear the most from business owners,
that's where I think the reforms should be occurring, and I think that's the
sort of thing that we could develop a policy to take to an election." [ABC News, 21
December 2015]
Pharmacists
in Australia have voted to launch industrial action for the first time,
starting Christmas Eve, as a national pharmacy chain moves to slash penalty
rates. It comes amid tense debate over a proposed Australia-wide rollback of
Sunday penalty rates for workers in hospitality, retail and entertainment jobs,
following an inquiry by the Productivity Commission. Pharmacists employed at
dozens of National Pharmacies sites across Victoria and South Australia will
now become the first in their profession to take action against an employer, as
anger rises over threats to their penalty rates. From Thursday, pharmacists
will embark on a campaign against National Pharmacies, authorising strikes of
up to 24 hours that could force the temporary closure of some sites if the
deadlock continues. The campaign this week will begin with pharmacists refusing
to perform a range of work duties. National Pharmacies is attempting to cut
pharmacists' penalty rates by as much as 50 per cent for certain hours on
Saturday shifts. Double-time Sunday rates would remain in place. The company
also wants to lower overtime pay, freeze the wages of existing pharmacists and
introduce a two-tiered pay scheme, according to the union. In a statement,
National Pharmacies said the pressures of a competitive and uncertain
marketplace had forced a need to align with the rest of the industry. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 December
2015, p.4]
* It became obvious that local thoughts had begun to turn to the 2016 election of councillors:
Excerpts from Clarence Valley Rate Payers, Residents and Business Owners Facebook page - featuring Deputy Mayor Cr. Craig Howe & the artwork of a ratepayer.
_______________
* It became obvious that local thoughts had begun to turn to the 2016 election of councillors:
Excerpts from Clarence Valley Rate Payers, Residents and Business Owners Facebook page - featuring Deputy Mayor Cr. Craig Howe & the artwork of a ratepayer.
_______________
_______________
With the national terrorism threat level still fixed as "PROBABLE" by the Turnbull Government, DIBP and presumably many in Border Farce took an eleven day Chrissie holiday:
On 29 December The
Guardian reported that the Turnbull ministry is three and a half months
old and already there are two casualties. One looks fairly straightforward. The
other, not so. In both cases, Malcolm Turnbull is well rid of them under the circumstances….
Jamie Briggs resigned after
he “interacted” with a female public servant in an “informal manner” in a late
night bar on an overseas trip. She complained he had acted inappropriately…..
The other casualty was Mal
Brough, the former special minister of state. This is more opaque and the stink
has a potential to linger given Brough has promised only to step aside, not
resign…..
Background
on Mal Brough “stink” by barrister Ross Bowler.
_______________
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