Upending free speech in the Top End ... A terrible Christmas time in The Map
OUR Darwin field agent, Buffalo Bruce, brings us news that the territory's CLP attorney general, former copper John Elferink, has been mightily vexed about an article in the January issue of Balance, the quarterly organ of the NT Law Society.
Alice Springs legal aid lawyer Russell Goldflam, who is also president of the Criminal Law Association of the Northern Territory, penned an article under the fetching headline, Franz Schlegelberger and the concentration of powers.
Russell reported on his holiday in Berlin and a visit to the Topographie des Terrors, a bleak museum on the site of the former headquarters of the SS and its neighbours, the Gestapo and the Concentration Camps Inspectorate.
Goldflam referred to the eminent German jurist Franz Schlegelberger, whose defence at his war crimes trial was that judicial officers were subject to the will of the Supreme Judge i.e. Adolph Schicklgruber, (aka Hitler).
The war crimes tribunal didn't think much of this argument and, in a warning to all toadying judges, slotted Franz to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity.
All of this was a roundabout way of getting to the NT's Serious Sex Offenders Act and its design for indefinite preventative detention.
Goldflam returned to Australia on the very day the NT AG's first application for indefinite detention of a prisoners was refused by the local Supremes.
AG Elferink wanted to amend the legislation so that the court's decisions are "consistent with government expectations".
Goldflam reported that this "sent a chill" down his spine.
His article was vividly illustrated by a photo from the Topographie des Terrors, of a mass of Deutschlanders doing their Nazi salutes, with a lone protester resisting the Heil Hitler routine.
From the Topographie des Terrors archiveElferink was livid, saying the article associated him with the Nazis - despite the fact the Goldflam went to pains to draw a distinction:
"Not, I hasten to add, because I am worried that we are sliding towards fascism. I have no doubt that John Elferink is sincerely committed to securing the peace, order and good government of the Northern Territory, and moreover, I accept that his concerns on this specific issue are both clear and proper: the protection of the community, and the protection of the public purse."
You'd think his carefully constructed work was eminently suitable for an organ called Balance.
Elferink: incandescent Top End AG
The AG didn't think so and word got to Goldflam that the first law officer was incandescent with fury.
Last weekend the lawyer from the Alice published a massive grovel to the thin-skinned attorney.
"I apologise to the Northern Territory Attorney General, John Elferink, for the offence to him caused by my column published in the January 2014 edition of Balance. Mr Elferink has specifically taken umbrage at the superimposition of the article (which included criticism of a comment he had made) on a photograph depicting a crowd of people delivering the Nazi salute."
It was an error of judgment, etc.
Poor wounded Elferink. There is no shortage of glass jaws among pollies notorious for dishing it out in cowards' castle.
Many top enders in the legal caper are incensed that one of their number felt obliged to eat humble pie. It's an outrage, is the frequent refrain around the watering holes.
Being on the government payroll, rather than at the independent bar, may have been a deciding factor for the legal aid man - but for lawyers to have to tip-toe around an attorney general's tiresome sensitivities is absurd.
Elfering issued a statement, saying:
"I'm grateful to him for his courage in being so forthright in apologising."
What a prat.
Read Goldflam's column here
Read his grovel here
* * *
TWO different, but sort-of-related, stories from Van Diemen's Land appeared in the tissues on the same day, in the middle of this month.
Both are connected to Launceston lawyer Adrian John Hall, 38.
At 1am on January 14 the The Advocate from the north west coast of the Apple Isle, reported that a legal aid dispute has delayed the trial of Davenport man Adrian Smillie, accused of a Christmas Day killing.
The Advocate suggested that the Law Society of Tassie was taking legal proceedings against the Legal Aid Commission.
Apparently, the commission has refused to fund Adrian because the accused had already been granted the services of an in-house legal aid lawyer.
Food tragic Justice Stephen Estcourt said he would fast track the review to February 3, to be heard by Alan Blow CJ.
Hall insists he'll do the trial, "even if I have to do it for free".
That is very generous of him, because he may have some pending legal expenses of his own.
At 3.41pm on January 14 the ABC News in Launceston posted a story that Hall had pleaded not guilty to three counts of common assault and 24 charges of breaching police family violence orders.
It related to an alleged Christmas Eve domestic rumble in 2012.
Hall is accused of grabbing his ex-partner by the neck and pushing her against a wall.
There is another startling allegation that he also grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her off the toilet.
The third allegation concerns an assault in the carpark of a Launceston drinking establishment.
Hall: denies dragging ex-partner from the toilet
Hall denies the assault charges, plus the breach of family violence orders, as he does separate charges that he nicked $17,500 from his former law shop.
He was also charged with over-billing a client a brutal $400 in December 2011.
Just as well the Law Society is saddling-up on his behalf against the keepers of the legal aid purse.
Looks like The Map is in for an exciting year of reporting.