Australian judges go on trial

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 21

Australian judges go on trial

From

LINDSAY MURDOCH

in Melbourne

Remarkable court cases being held in Australia this year hold some immense political ramifications.

On trial will be two judges, a former New South Wales Government Minister, and a retired senior magistrate. The trial soon of High Court judge, Mr Justice Lionel Murphy, aged 62, is without precedent. It will remain a political timebomb for the Hawke Government, no matter whether a jury finds him guilty or innocent of having tried to pervert the course of justice. Opposition leaders have made it clear that they will attempt to use the case to embarrass the Government. They say they will move in both houses of the Federal Parliament to remove Mr Justice Murphy from office, no matter what the jury verdict.

Mr Justice Murphy is a former Labour Attorney-General. Few within the Labour Party have the sort of personal support and reputation as a radical social reformer that he enjoys. Since joining the seven-member Federal High Court amid much controversy in 1975, Mr Justice Murphy has led the court, often singlehandedly, towards more liberal interpretations of the federal constitution.

The Murphy affair has already damaged the Hawke Government. The controversy surrounding it was a major factor in the decision of Rfime Minister BojU Hawke, in December, to shift Senator Gareth Evans from the post of Attorney-

General. That change means, in effect, that Labour’s commitments to human rights legislation and constitutional reform seem certain to be put on a very slow backburner.

Responsibility for the case is now in the hands of Senator Evans’s replacement, Lionel Bowen, who some 50 years ago as a boy in Sydney, each night used to “dink” his best friend, Lionel Murphy, home from school on his pushbike. Things are going to be extremely difficult for Mr Bowen, whether Lionel Murphy is convicted or acquitted. Mr Justice Murphy has so far resisted pressures to resign.

If he is convicted after the trial in the Ausralian Capital Territory Supreme Court, Bowen would have little choice but to recommend his dismissal to Parliament, the only way a High Court judge can be sacked.

There would still be agonising personal decisions to be taken about the personal treatment of his old friend.

If Mr Justice Murphy is acquitted, Mr Bowen’s problems would be even more acute. Would the judge be so marked by the controversy, that ways would have to be found to remove him from the highest court ifr the country, in the interests of the court itself? Or

should he be treated with the same consideration as anyone else found not guilty of a crime and be allowed to resume his undoubtedly distinguished judicial career in good standing? The opposition parties believe they are justified in seeking to remove Mr Justice Murphy from office, no matter what the verdict. This is because the majority of members on a Senate committee, last year found that, at least on the balance of probabilities, Mr Justice Murphy had sought to pervert the course of justice in a case involving a Sydney solicitor, Morgan Ryan, who had been charged with conspiracy over immigration matters.

The Murphy affair started in February, 1984, when “The Age” newspaper, in Melbourne, published police transcripts of secretly, recorded telephone conversations between Mr Justice Murphy and Mr Ryan. Mr Justice Murphy maintains he has not committed any offence. He claims he has been tried by the media. The other remarkable court cases follow numerous inquiries held in New South Wales, where Premier Neville Wran’s Labour Government has been dogged by continuing allegations of crime and corruption in Sydnay. The former N.S.W. Minister for

Corrective Services, Rex Jackson, will soon face trial on conspiracy charges laid after a judicial inquiry into the early release of prisoners in jails, for which Jackson was the Minister in charge. The retired Chief Stipendiary Magistrate of N.S.W., Murray Farquhar, faces trial soon on charges of having attempted to pervert the course of justice. The charges were laid following a Royal Commission that started in 1983, which examined the acquittal of a rugby -league chief on charges of misappropriating funds. The Royal Commission exonerated Premier Wran, against whom allegations had also been made.

Standing in the same dock as Mr Justice Murphy will be a N.S.W. District Court judge, Mr Justice John Foord, who is charged, like Murphy, with having attempted to pervert the course of justice in a case. One of his accusers is another judge.

Labour Party leaders, including Messrs Wran and Hawke, are saying publicly and privately that a disturbing pattern of McCarthyism has developed in Australia. Wran described the publication by “The Age” of the secret police transcripts as a “campaign which has followed the classic pattern of McCarthyism — the catch-all innuendo, the repetition of proven falsehoods, the fabrication of evidence, the onus of proof on the innocent, and guilt by association a dozen times removed.” — (Copyright. London Observer Service.)