Much has been made of the Turnbull government’s successes in the last week of sitting in the federal parliament. Malcolm Turnbull is crowing but there is a broad understanding the hot ticket item, the ABCC legislation which passed through the Senate earlier this week, has been rendered a dud and that Derryn Hinch was played by the CFMEU to cough up concessions.
While being tricked by the CFMEU’s office bearers is hardly something anyone would want to put on their political resumes, Hinch would not see it that way. He may have his own explanation for it. I have no doubt he could spout some rationalisation at the drop of a hat. That is a talent he undoubtedly possesses.
More generally, I’d suggest voters should be leery of people like Hinch becoming representative politicians. Perhaps we should adopt a tacit rule that wherever a political party appears with the word ‘justice’ in it, that party is not worth the ballot paper it is written on. Where it appears featuring the name of a media personality before the word ‘justice’ you can put the house (or indeed the Senate) on it being a self-serving exercise in the sort of ‘look at me’ politics we have come to know and despise in this country.
Full column here:
WTF, Mr Insider, we read Mitt Romney may be falling out of favour for the spot of US Secretary of State in the Trump administration. Presentable, well versed in politics, an astute businessman, pillar of the Mormon faith, ex Governor, former Republican Presidential Candidate and the list goes on. Plus he is well known as well to all the World. Time will tell but my money still on Mitt to get the gig.
http://tinyurl.com/hjdr2be
darren 11.00pm 3/12
In your attempted put-down of TBLS’s valuable and well-considered views, you asserted : “The law is not subject to your opinion. It will not change because of your opinion.”
darren, you appear to be not as widely read on the law as you sometimes make out. And you apparently do not understand the close relationship between framing of the law and physics. In physics, momentum often occurs after the influence of a force, namely pressure. Public opinion (including the opinion that blokes like TBLS has) combined with others, most strikingly influences the law in much the same way as physics, through pressure.
An academic article in the Nottingham Law Journal, no less, quite forcefully opined that law in western democracies eg the UK and the US (you can throw Oz into that mix) give relatively high prominence to public opinion when drafting/amending the law
Or perhaps darren, you have no regard for such findings now that you reside in the antipodes.
Interesting but wrong, Carl. There is absolutely no school of jurisprudence that holds that the influence of public opinion is formative of the law (as in judge made law). The closest you get to that is the “Realist” school of jurisprudence that – to oversimplify it massively – holds that a judge’s personal biases are important to the formulation of law. That is a US school of jurisprudence and it is uniquely appropriate to the US. It absolutely is of no use in any other english speaking jurisdiction. The sole exception that I can think of off the top of my head is the jurisprudence of Lionel Murphy, a late, former justice of the High Court, whose decisions were completely out of left field. Needless to say that is a school of thought that has never found any favour with other Australian judges (mostly because if you do that in a lower court you are going to get a very high successful appeal rate – and become extremely unpopular). Justice of the High Court come from a background where the jurisprudence is very tight – and very non-political. And that is reinforced by the fact that because we dont have a bill of rights our highest court doesnt have to involve itself in controversial political issues of the day. Again, contrast that with the US supreme court.
darren – you appear to be straying into the realm of ‘stare decisis’. I don’t think that’s what TBLS was on about.
Re Justice Murphy, (I knew his driver quite well) despite some of his (Murphy’s) alleged faults, I applauded him having a crack at the doctrine of precedence. He was quite right in considering it was only “eminently suitable for a nation overwhelmingly populated by sheep”.
Btw, the HC is not bound to always follow its own past decisions. There was a learner driver accident case determined in 2008 where precedence in a similar case was not used. Quite a different decision was handed down.
Perhaps the justices were swayed by Lionel’s “sheep” analogy after all?
Darren,
As someone who’s been involved in making, reviewing and amending laws – with assistance from the legal sector – I’m still struggling to understand what exactly are “judge made laws”.
While I understand that judges’ decisions can set precedents for future rulings, I’ve yet to see an instance where a judge has made a law, rather than interpreted one.
The Outsider – interpret vs make in the common law system is semantics. The tort of negligence and native title are examples to ponder.
which just goes to show the judges didn’t always get it wrong.
as an old ambulance chaser the law of torts provided sustenance for many years, with a healthy dose of workers comp thrown in, for life’s little luxuries.
yep, what SimonT said. But the issue of whether judges make law or just discover it (presumably resting on the door mat) is a decidedly deep question for here. I think we might have accidentally stumbled into the debate.
TO my proudest two (yes, count em, two) moments in the legal profession occurred when 2 (separate) courts accepted my interpretation of law verbatim and effectively wrote my thoughts into law. Small things please small minds I guess but that pleased me. The reward return is rather low though.
good lord Darren, did you write something succinct?
we will just have to hope it wasn’t about defamation law.
Looks like Smithy has got his mojo back.
Shame, Shame , Shame, frydenberg continues to mislead the nation. What happened to Innovative and agile? The coalition is as innovative and agile as a lump of coal. No Surprises.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/coal-industry-coalition-take-aim-at-household-solar-73930/
Are you trying to sound like Hinch? Is he your new hero Dismayed?
No. Just highlighting how ridiculous and shameful your coalition is. I see today your coalition want to give Adani $1 billion for a train line to nowhere for a coal mine no bank on the planet will finance. Don’t we have a Debt and Deficit disaster? Wake up!
Well you reckon it ain’t going to happen so no need to worry. Of course if you were sitting in my seat and watching how this is unfolding you’d say it’s definitely a goer and some young Nth Qld people are about to get a job!
Why do you call them “your Coalition” Dismayed? I don’t run the Coalition. You make an assumption here that might not necessarily be accurate, chum. So stick to your point and don’t make silly assumptions about my views thanks
Shame, Shame, shame, coalition still being led by the nose by the myth factory that is the IPA. No Surprises.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/coalition-still-led-nose-institute-public-affairs-59265/
That looks like Facebook news, Dismayed.
Giles Parkinson is a journalist of 30 years experience, a former Business Editor and Deputy Editor of the Financial Review, a columnist for The Bulletin magazine and The Australian, and the former editor of Climate Spectator.
There you go again dismal
Is it any wonder that two of those rags you mentioned the Bulletin and Climate Spectator no longer exist. Wonder why?
Not really sure which blog is running.
But:
JB: Yep, rabid, but not Green. How boring it would be to he simply normal? I mean, you should know! love your work
Bella: just off down the hill for a stroll to check out the new you beaut $12million Sea Shepherd vessel. She sails at lunchtime
Good on you mate.
If I’m not too late could you do me a favour mate?
If you happen to see Ms Julia Jabour from Hobart’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies down at Constitution, would you be so kind as to ever so cleverly just push her into the drink for me. This pro-whaling idiot supports grenade tipped harpooning by the Japanese & therefore wants Sea Shepherd ships banned from Hobart & other Australian ports because WE are the “aggressive and dangerous” ones.
Just shows how little she knows about the Southern Ocean, the entire Antarctic marine system and the truth about who have been the target of countless ramming incidents on the high seas, the Ady Gil being one historical case in point. My guess is she was very well compensated because Japan have been increasingly nervous about our new faster ship.
Hope you enjoyed the tour Yvonne.
Regards, Bella
Impressive vessel Bella. Mean machine for sure. Plenty of grunt. Interesting that it was funded by Dutch lotteries!
Which got me thinking – maybe we could fix the budget woes with lotteries. Much more fun.!
Didn’t see your lady I’m afraid.
Back on Hinch, one could say he Weaver’d his way into celebrity in the first place.
Jean Baptiste
I say JB, your earlier reference about “disasters confronting humanity” reminded me of Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s wise advice. He often appears on the ABC and encourages everyone to always question ‘the science’.
He’s a smart fellow alright; talk about ‘an answer looking for a question’, eh?
The 45th Parliament under “Tangles” Turnbull, Mr Insider, God bless Australia zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz shocker!
Henry Blofeld 2:47PM
Crikey Henry, when you say we can expect a big “showing” from George (the sugar plum fairy) Christensen in ’17, immediately following your assessment of his effort in presenting for the camera in an arguably homo erotic pose as “ballsy”, are you hinting that George might present the wedding bells for public appraisal?
North Queenslanders might still have some surprises in store for us., as unlikely as that may seem.
I may be off beam but a persistent theme in your recommendations is related to the balls attached to the objects of your admiration. Take Abbott’s “balls to the wind” as well and one suspects it’s not so much the politics as the lycra and whips Henry.
Was your earlier request to be “shagged silly” simply a figure of speech Henry? It’s just that although I don’t have any lycra, I do have an old Piping Hot wetsuit that I could probably still squeeze into. ?
Best wishes.
As they say in NQ. “Whop it up ’em, make ’em take it!”
3 Stars to look out for in 2017 Mr Baptiste and of course George is already glowing brightly plus Barnaby Joyce a mans man and a straight talker and lastly but not least Ms Jacqui Lambie one feisty lady who is not afraid to kick the big boys in the balls! We despair of anything good ever happening under “Tangles” Turnbull a bag of wind if ever there was one.