Monday 19 August 2024
Labor should scrap the Lawyer X cover-up Bill, before the upper house does
The Allan Labor Government’s attempt to whitewash the damage wreaked by the Lawyer X scandal is doomed to fail.
Liberals, Nationals and members of the crossbench in the Legislative Council, have already flagged their opposition to the State Civil Liability (Police Informants) Bill 2024.
This Bill seeks to extinguish the right of citizens, who have been harmed by the Lawyer X scandal, to sue the State Government and its agencies for the damage caused.
One of these cases involves a person who was wrongly jailed for 12 years due to tainted evidence procured by his own disgraced barrister, Nicola Gobbo, and used by Victoria Police in what the High Court of Australia branded “reprehensible conduct”.
The Allan Labor Government’s legislation seeks to prevent this person from now suing for the harm done to him, along with any others who may have suffered damage.
In so doing, it undermines the principle of equality before the law. Ordinary citizens are responsible for their actions, but this Bill seeks to place the Labor Government above the law.
A Labor Government that torched over $2 billion of taxpayers’ money in compensation for ripping up contracts for the East West Link and the 2026 Commonwealth Games is not acting out of any sense of financial prudence.
Instead, Labor is seeking to use naked political power to kill off inconvenient court cases that may prove politically embarrassing.
Having claimed the Bill was urgent in order to rush it through the Legislative Assembly with only one hour’s debate, Labor is now resisting debating the Bill in the Legislative Council.
There are already reports that litigation before the courts is being stalled due to the spectre of this Bill, interfering with the administration of justice.
Shadow Attorney-General, Michael O’Brien, said: “It’s time for the Allan Labor Government to admit this attempt to kill off the rights of individual citizens to protect their own political interests will fail.
“Premier Allan should withdraw this rotten Bill or put it to a vote without further delay.”