SEARCH
Justinian News

Lehrmann v The Commonwealth and Corruption Concealment Commission ... Here's Brucie's Originating Application seeking legai aid funding for the investigation into "frivolous, 'James Bond' like allegations that the Applicant used 'official' information (being French submarine secrets) gathered on the night of 26 March 2019 for financial, professional and personal purposes, among other things ... More >> 

Politics Media Law Society

My Role in Gough's Downfall ... Reporter-at-Large … Scoops that flushed out the deceit behind the Dismissal … Big anniversary chinwag in Canberra on November 11 … The combined forces of Kerr, Ellicott and cousin Garfield … Constitutional manipulation … Maurice Byers to the rescue ... Read more >> 

Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Know one, purl one ... Iron Lady of legal rectitude endorses Gageler ... The chief justice wants judges on the straight and narrow ... The cardboard cutout model of legislative supremacy ... The evils of judicial activism ... Procrustes on the dance floor with the Legislative-Judicial Foxtrot ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


AI at work ... The Epstein Files ... What a resurrected Christopher Hitchens says about Trump and Epstein ... Video >> 

 

Justinian's Bloggers

Berlusconi's dream world ... Revenge politics in Italy ... Independence of prosecutors under attack ... Constitutional assault ... The years of lead ... Investigations reopened into old murders ... High drama at Milan's Leoncavallo ... Rome correspondent Silvana Olivetti reports ... Read more >> 

"If we’re only picking people who have got completely lily-white records then we’ll be missing out on a lot of people that can contribute to public life.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, endorsing Mal Lanyon, his pick for Police Commissioner, whose contributions to public life include shouting drunken obsenities at a paramedic who came to his aid, and commandeering a police launch for private entertainment on New Year's eve ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Schmoozing and betrayal ... Judge Water Softener rides into Integrityville mounted high on his horse ... Judicial review of corruption finding ... Intriguing submissions ... Unprecedented assistance to morals monitor ... The scale of the sub-rosa intrigue ... Plenty to think about ... Ginger Snatch reports ... Read more >> 

Justinian's archive

News Desk Special ... 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 ... Read more >> 


 

 

« Federal Court standoff | Main | Watergate »
Monday
May122014

Pillars of justice

Top End synchronicity as magistrate hands out how-to-vote cards for the Country Liberals and serves as a director of the party's slush fund ... Guide to Judicial Conduct is only a guide ... Who's up who for the rent? ... Buffalo Bruce probes

SLUSH ... slush ... slush. The sound of money being funnelled by business interests and log-rollers through shadowy Liberal Party foundations. 

The NSW slush funds are being busted open by ICAC and because of the state-based nature of the Liberal Party there's foreboding that slush has headed the way of senior federal MPs from NSW. 

In Queensland we see the wholesale attempts by the Can-Do government to subvert the judiciary and the independence of the Crime and Misconduct Commission. 

The chief magistrate of Pineappleland gives the appearance of being a flag-waver for the Liberal National cause. 

In Darwin all these strands have coalesced into a triumph of synergy, where we have a magistrate who managed to combine his devotion to the ruling Country Liberal Party as well as being a director of its slush fund, Foundation 51 Pty Ltd. 

Madge Maley: in the finest traditions of Top End law and politicsPeter Maley has been a Top End practitioner, member of parliament and now magistrate. 

When he was a MLA he kept his legal practice alive. He supervised John Elferink in his law firm while the future attorney general plodded through his graduate diploma in legal practice.

For good measure he also tossed $5,000 into the Elf's election campaign. 

Surprise, surprise Attorney General Elferink subsequently put Maley, along with two other appointees, onto the local court, saying: 

"I look forward to working with the appointees to deliver the Country Liberals Government 'Pillars of Justice' reforms in the Northern Territory." 

In April, seven months after he joined the bench, Maley was handing out how-to-vote cards at a NT by-election.  

Blithely unaware of the guide to judicial conduct, promulgated by Smiler Gleeson and the Judicial Conference of Australia, Maley not only maintained his membership of the Country Liberals after joining the bench, but three months after his appointment as a Madge he landed a job as a director of good old slushy Foundation 51.  

When light dawned, a few questions were asked last week in the Top End parliament. 

Shadow AG, Michael Gunner, on May 7, asked Chief Minister Adam Giles about Maley's role with the slush fund and what message that sent about the administration of justice.  

The answer shows a boldness that Can-Do and the Conveyancer General in Qld could do well to study: 

"A magistrate in the Northern Territory is allowed to have a political opinion. What sort of society are we living in? It is a fantastic society where a magistrate can have a political opinion, where he can be a member of a political party. 

[snip] 

Good on him if he wants to make a donation to the [attorney general], who has declared it in his register of interests ... 

Thank you very much, Peter Maley, the magistrate who has shown an interest in the Country Liberals." 

Madge Maley, rear, holding how-to-vote cards. Chief Minister Giles, leftYou'd think it doesn't come much balmier than that, until next day attorney general Elferink was on his feet in the house, batting away Gunner's impudent questions about Maley and the judicial conduct guide. 

Well, the former copper said, if it was alright for Gough Whitlam to put Lionel Murphy on the High Court, it's OK to put Maley on the NT Court of Summary Jurisdiction. 

He added, that the NT is a small community, so, you know, these things happen. 

Anyway, the guide to judicial conduct is not law, it's only a guide. 

By the next day, it was all too much. Maley must have checked the guide and found the sections dealing with the appearance of impartiality and political activity. 

On May 8, he handed in his CLP member's ticket and resigned as a director of the slush fund. 

Top End justice has been restored, with a few tubes of Spakfilla sealing the cracks in the "Pillars of Justice" policy.  

See Hansard

See Justinian's earlier report on AG Elferink 

See NT Disciplinary tribunal findings on practitioner Ian Rowbottam, from law shop Withnall Maley 

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Editor Permission Required
You must have editing permission for this entry in order to post comments.