Australia: Recent attacks on Victorian judges have eroded confidence in the judiciary, threatening its independence and the rule of law, the Law Council of Australia has said.
The peak law body has issued a statement strongly backing the Law Institute of Victoria over its concerns on judges’ independence after the federal home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, blamed the state’s street crime on the appointment of “civil libertarians” to the courts.
Neither statement explicitly refers to Dutton’s remarks but the Law Council’s warns against “warring words”. Last week, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, criticised Dutton for claiming that Victorians were “scared to go out to restaurants” because of “African gang violence”.
In an interview on January 3, Dutton also claimed Victorians were “bemused” when they looked “at the jokes of sentences being handed down” due to “political correctness that’s taken hold”.
The Law Council of Australia president, Morry Bailes, said recent attacks on Victorian judges were not useful and eroded public confidence in the judiciary.
“There is no place for political attacks on the judiciary undermining the independence of judges and magistrates,” he said. “It is understood that in our free society informed comment on judicial decisions is part of normal discourse, but politicised criticism undermines the foundations of the democratic system which must be closely guarded by all, especially those in government.
“Judges and magistrates are experts in the law and to ensure the separation of powers must be allowed to perform their duty without interference and unwarranted criticism.”
The attorney general, Christian Porter, said meeting with the Law Council was “amongst my early priorities in the portfolio”.
“I look forward to discussing this and a range of issues with the council,” he said.
With a state election due this year, the federal government and the Liberal opposition began 2018 by stepping up rhetoric against the Victorian government, triggering furious debate after claiming the state was suffering from a “gang” problem.
Young South Sudanese men have been particularly singled out, despite Victorian police repeatedly saying the state had problems with youth crime but it was not structured along organised “gang” lines.
The rhetoric and intense media focus has led to fears racial tensions in Australia are rising. Last week a man of South Sudanese origin in Queensland attributed an incident of alleged racial abuse and threats against his family to Malcolm Turnbull and Dutton’s approach to law and order issues.
In 2017 Turnbull government ministers Greg Hunt, Alan Tudge and Michael Sukkar narrowly avoided contempt of court charges by apologising for comments during an active terrorism case calling Victorian court of appeal justices “hard-left activist judges” who engaged in an “ideological experiment” in sentencing.
Victoria’s chief justice, Marilyn Warren, said that but for the apology there was a prima facie case against the three, because their comments appeared to attempt to influence the court.
