Angelic death notices from the bar ... Soapy slips on FOI changes ... Unusual interlocutory costs order for Chris Dale ... Judge ticks off Abbott in letters' page ... Knock About's festive salute to the coppers
Angel of death
Angel distraught at the loss on another member of the Bar Association
IT'S touching that the NSW Bar n' Grill uses a little dinkus of an angel as an accompanying illustration for death notices to members.
The most recent instance of this saintly tribute was attached to the message about the death and funeral arrangements for former Whitlam era minister and Supreme Court judge Kep Enderby.
Kep was an atheist and a former president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Association, and would have been either bemused or horrified that angels were attending his death.
Just prior to shuffling off the mortal coil he was at St Luke's aged care facility, Lulworth, in company with Sir Legover Street, Dame Killer Kramer, Gough Whitlam and more recently Tom Uren.
Enderby was the attorney general who fathered the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Section 18C was inserted 20 years later by the Racial Hatred Act, when Michael Lavarch was the AG.
FOI still wagging
Brandis: still counting
THE end of last year saw more hopelessness from AG Soapy Brandis.
He was supposed to guide through the Senate the Freedom of Information Amendment (New Arrangements) Bill, but failed to do so.
The legislation seeks to abolish the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner from January 1. Under the plan announced in the budget the AG's department is to take over the task of "guiding" FOI policy, while the AAT will handle merits reviews - $861 fee for starters.
The Privacy Commissioner is to be transferred back, as an independent statutory officer, to the government's pet punching bag, the Australian Human Rights Commission.
This jiggery-pokery was to said to save $10 million over four years.
The Bill passed the House in October and was sent to a hurried Senate committee inquiry, which reported on November 25.
There was a strong Labor and Greens minority report opposed to the government's changes, with the Coalition Senators waiving it through.
It never looked as though it was going to get the support of six crossbenchers - consequently it didn't come on for debate.
Since the budget announcement the FOI side of the OAIC shop has been in wind-down mode. The commission had only been funded until December 31, but because the Bill did not pass it still has statutory responsibilities.
Soapy made no effort to sell the proposal, but probably will have a crack at using his magnificent persuasive powers in February to get the legislation through.
In the meantime, the FOI commissioner Dr James Popple as been appointed to the AAT. According to Peter Timmins, the lawyer and blogger who follows these things, that leaves FOI law being overseen by one man working from home.
The whole thing is a frightful mess. The Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan told the senate committee:
"There are practical questions, obviously, about the administrative support that would be needed to discharge functions if the normal budgetary allocation has expired but the legal reality is that the commission still exists, the commissioners still continue in office and the functions conferred upon them by the various acts are still relevantly conferred and are exercisable."
Costs for Dale
I NEARLY forgot to mention that former Clutz partner Christopher Dale was awarded costs by Justice Clyde Croft after the most recent batch of preliminary orders were made in his unlawful dismissal case against the great law shop.
In October the old Crofter in the Vic Supremes acceded to Dale's submissions about the way the forthcoming trial should be conducted.
In November orders were made giving effect to the plaintiff's application for a Protean split of his case.
The judge was of the view that the ordinary course for costs in interlocutory matters "is not appropriate and that costs should be taxed immediately".
PM, a threat to logic, says judge
Abbott: seduced by hindsight reasoning
IT WAS uplifting to see Justice Lucy McCallum of the NSW Supremes getting stuck into Tony Abbott in the letters pages of The Sydney Morning Herald.
She pinged the PM for his comments relating to the Martin Place siege gunman being out on bail while facing a charge of being an accessory to murder. The PM said:
"I certainly want answers to those sorts of questions and there was incredulity around the National Security Committee of the Cabinet yesterday when we were briefed on the details of his record and his life in this country."
Justice McCallum whipped off an epistle to the SMH:
"It ill behoves our Prime Minister, the head of our political decision making process, to lead the charge of divisive recrimination against the administrative decision-makers, police and judicial officers who have determined matters relating to Man Haron Monis."
She suggested the man in the blue tie didn't know what he was talking about:
"To second-guess decisions relating to issues as complex as refugee status, surveillance and bail, knowing little more about those decisions than that something went horrible wrong at some later time is to succumb to the seductive lure of hindsight reasoning, the most insidious threat to logic and the calm analysis of evidence. This is a time for our leaders to encourage healing and cohesion, not blame."
Good to see a politician getting it in the shins from a judge.
It's all here
Knock About wishes the coppers a "productive" New Year
Happy Christmas - to the police
BANANA BENDING CJ Carmody of Errors had his priorities on display at the end-of-year festival of platitudes.
At the CJ's traditional Christmas blessing ceremony he rattled off his season's greetings to all and sundry, including the Boy Attorney General, the government, the legal profession, the police, the staff at the court, and the media.
The BAG and Soapy Bookshelves Brandis were among those in attendance for the glittering festive occasion.
Is it usual for a chief justice to wish the government and the coppers a "safe Christmas and a healthy and productive 2015"?
Judicial independence and separation of powers might suggest that judges spare themselves public displays of effusion to their paymasters and the police both of whom, in one form or another, are frequent parties before the court.
As a former copper himself, Timbo just can't shake off his Lawn Order tendencies.
His outpouring of goodwill can be read here. Mercifully, he forgot to mention Nikki Gemmell.