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The drums roll for Drumgold’s legal career

Posted on Categories Criminal law, Legal profession Tags , , , , , 4 Comments on The drums roll for Drumgold’s legal career

Walter Sofronoff KC’s damning findings against ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold SC could spell the end of Drumgold’s legal career.

This comes after it was reported that Bruce Lehrmann will sue the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions over his prosecution. The Prosecution was dropped after a hung jury.

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Bruce Lehrmann to sue ACT Office of Prosecutions

Posted on Categories Criminal law Tags , , 2 Comments on Bruce Lehrmann to sue ACT Office of Prosecutions

 

It has been reported that former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann will sue the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions over his prosecution.

 

This follows the ACT government receiving the Sofronoff report examining misconduct in the prosecution case which is expected to contain damning findings against Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.

 

The report has not been released to the public, for reasons that have not been fully explained.

 

Lehrmann alleges that Drumgold attempted to withhold police documents from his defence lawyers, read Higgins’ confidential counselling notes and undermined Lehrmann’s presumption of innocence.

 

As we have noted, the politicisation of this case has led to this debacle.

The federal government’s social media big brother bill

Posted on Categories Human rights, Liberty Tags , , , , 4 Comments on The federal government’s social media big brother bill

 

“It is not difficult to deprive the great majority of independent thought. But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced….Public criticism or even expressions of doubt must be suppressed because they tend to weaken pubic support….When the doubt or fear expressed concerns not the success of a particular enterprise but of the whole social plan, it must be treated even more as sabotage.”

― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

“The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule.”

― Friedrich Hayek

“It is one of the saddest spectacles of our time to see a great democratic movement support a policy which must lead to the destruction of democracy and which meanwhile can benefit only a minority of the masses who support it. Yet it is this support from the Left of the tendencies toward monopoly which make them so irresistible and the prospects of the future so dark.”

― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

“Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad.”

― Friedrich A. Hayek

 

Introduction

The Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 (“The Bill“) if passed will allow the government to monitor social media content it disapproves of and to conscript social media companies to do their dirty work of curtailing such content through the Australian Communications and Media Authority (“ACMA”).

As such, the Bill represents a dangerous threat to freedom of online discourse.

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Ben Roberts-Smith appeals defamation defeat

Posted on Categories Defamation Tags , , 2 Comments on Ben Roberts-Smith appeals defamation defeat

 

Highly decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG sued on 16 media stories that collectively alleged among other things that he had murdered civilians in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against a woman in the Federal Court of Australia.
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Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case on contextual truth

Posted on Categories Defamation Tags , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments on Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case on contextual truth

 

THE FACTS

Highly decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG was the subject of 16 media stories that collectively alleged among other things that he had murdered civilians in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against a woman.
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Lying lab boss Cathie Allen belatedly sacked

Posted on Categories Criminal law, Evidence Tags , , 1 Comment on Lying lab boss Cathie Allen belatedly sacked

Cathie Allen led the DNA lab that was plagued by scandal as a result of a decision taken in 2018 to test DNA samples in a way that resulted in low-level DNA samples being deemed as “DNA insufficient for further processing” and often led to inconclusive results.

Last year, Allen had recommended low-level DNA samples should go straight to amplification rather than be micro-concentrated which was widely considered to be best practice in order to cover her tracks.

The whistle was blown at Queensland’s Forensic and Scientific Services lab in 2021 and eventually led to the commission of inquiry headed by Walter Sofronoff KC.
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Jarryd Hayne sentenced to four years and nine months imprisonment for sexual assault

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Former rugby league star Jarryd Hayne has been sentenced to four years and nine months imprisonment for sexually assaulting a woman in Newcastle.

Last month, Hayne was again convicted by a jury for these offences. He was subsequently remanded in custody.

Hayne’s previous conviction was set aside on appeal with a re-trial ordered.

This sentence was lighter than his previous sentence of five years and nine months.
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