What news on the Rialto?

The Tub - a free speech man, after all … Buckled shoes, ruffs and other refinements for Circuit judges? … Martin Bryant's art obsessed lawyer out of the nick … Life after redundancy 

Free speech advocate Ian Callinan (pix: Lyndon Mechielsen The Australian)

I WAS excited to see Ian Callinan enter the free speech fray on behalf of the media.  

Murdoch tissues are leading the charge against the Finkelstein reforms on journalistic standards, and the Convergence Review's proposed public interest test for mergers and acquisitions. 

The Australian flagged a speech Tubby Callinan was about to deliver to the Old Drones Society, quoting him as saying:  

"The struggle for free speech has been long and painfully achieved and I wouldn't want to go back on it." 

Is this the same Ian Callinan who's contribution to free speech was to advocate the winding-back of the implied constitutional right of expression on political and governmental issues? 

In the High Court's ABC v Lenah Game Meats judgment, The Tub was unimpressed with the unanimous decision in Lange, saying the court was wrong to find this implied right. 

"In my respectful opinion, factors currently operating ... strongly argue against a significant addition to the armoury of defences, indeed armadillo-like defences available to the media by way of the discovery of an implied constitutional right." 

These defences are so armadillo-like that the number of successful Lange pleas by the media in defamation cases can be counted on two sponge fingers. 

In the same judgment The Tub added that the time was ripe for a law of privacy to be considered, one of the red rag issues that inflames the galley slaves at the numerous Daily Ruperts that lie on fish-and-chip shop counters across the wide brown land. 

Callinan also had the distinction of suing Your ABC for defamation, in person, even while he was a member of the ABC board. 

It doesn't get more free speechy than that. 

Anyway, according to the Financial Review (Monday, Sept. 17), at least part of The Tub's message seems to have got through to Canberra. 

The government has put Finkelstein onto the backburner, but is likely to proceed with legislation for a statutory cause of action for breach for a "reasonable expectation" of privacy.  

Duchess Kate's breast crisis could not be more timely. 

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Suitable attire for new Circuit Court judges. More respect please

WHY call it the Federal Circuit Court of Australia? It's such an American name for the revamped Federal Magistrates Court. 

Why not something more Mother Countryish - the Federal Assizes? 

After all, attorney general Roxxy in her press announcement pointed to the court's far flung geographical jurisdiction, complete with alliteration: 

"From Bundaberg to Burnie, Alice Springs to Albury, the [Federal Magistrates] Court undertook work in 33 regional locations last year. This amounts to 145 weeks of hearing matters in regional Australia." 

Federal Assizes would have been perfect. 

Then there's the promotion of all 63 federal magistrates to judges. 

Roxxy pointed to the new arrangements when she spoke at the magistrates' big knees-up in April:  

"You are Chapter 111 judicial officers - nomenclature is important, and personally, I accept yours should reflect that fact." 

I'm assured by reliable authorities that this recalibration of status and respect has absolutely nothing to do with the olive branch the AG threw to the federal madges to get them to settle their ill-fated claim for Commonwealth funded judicial pensions. 

The legislation to implement the changes is unlikely to go as far as giving them the full sweep of Chapter 111 perks, such as the non-contributory life pensions. 

Nonetheless, they'll be entitled to have their pay set by the Remuneration Tribunal, so in time there will be pay hikes, and along with that increases in the government's contribution to the federal magistrates super scheme, which is set at 15.4 percent of income. 

Federal magistrates currently are paid $305,070 a year. 

This is also an opportunity for Chief Judge Pascoe to sit down some some costumiers and draw up designs for a spectacular Circuit Court kit. 

Knee breeches, buckled shoes, neck ruffs are due for a comeback. 

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TASMANIA'S most notorious lawyer got paroled at the beginning of the month. 

In 2008 John Avery pleaded guilty to nicking more than $500,000 from clients and his former firm. 

The money was an important lifestyle subsidy and underwrote his extensive art collection. 

In September 2008 John Avery was banged-up for four-and-a-half years with a non-parole period of two years and three months. 

DPP Timsy Ellis appealed on the grounds of "manifest inadequacy" and porridge time was increased to six years, with four on the bottom. 

Rather than being sent across the river to hang-out with the real crims, Avery spent his entire incarceration at the Hobart Reception Prison, the remand pen in the middle of town. 

His safety was deemed at risk, but it rather gives the appearance of special treatment for a former member of the learned profession. 

Reports to hand say he was a model prisoner, helping a group of Indonesian people smugglers who were imprisoned in Hobart, before legal aid lawyer Tam Jago SC got them returned to a detention centre in Darwin - closer to family and a lot warmer. 

Avery, who among other things was lawyer for Port Arthur shooter Martin Bryant, emerged from the reception prison looking a lot sleeker than when he went in. 

No long lunches on the clients' money. 

There is talk of the former thief opening an art gallery at the family seat of St Helens, on the east coast. 

But not, we hope, with any of the paintings his former partner Rob Blissenden claims belong to him. 

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GEESCHE Jacobsen, the Sydney Morning Herald's crack legal affairs reporter, was amount the serried ranks of those who took the paper's redundancy package.

She has now crossed over to the "dark side" as spinner for NSW Attorney General Greg Smith. 

The accomplished Anna Patty is now expected to do more of the law stories for the paper from her eerie in state parliament house. 

The dogged Geesche, whose book on Dianne Brimble's death was a tour de force, is a sad loss to the craft. At least she's found a safe landing after a career in journalism. 

Her skills will be tested as she turns the no-frills Smith into a political celebrity.