Tuesday 27 June 2023
After a Royal Commission, a two-year special investigation and hundreds of millions of dollars, nobody will be held accountable for the Lawyer X scandal due to today’s decision of the Andrews Government.
The actions of certain members of Victoria Police in the Lawyer X scandal was described by the High Court of Australia as “reprehensible conduct”. Victoria’s Court of Appeal held that “Ms Gobbo’s conduct subverted (the) right to a fair trial, and went to the very foundations of the system of criminal trial. There was, accordingly, a substantial miscarriage of justice”.
However, the appalling decision of the Andrews Government to disband the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) means that those accused of perverting the course of justice in Victoria will escape sanction.
Instead of providing the OSI with the power to bring charges based on two years of painstaking investigation, Labor’s actions will sweep the Lawyer X scandal under the carpet.
Shadow Attorney-General Michael O’Brien said that the Andrews Government’s decision protects rotten lawyers and corrupt cops at the expense of the integrity of the justice system.
“By turning its back on former High Court justice Geoffrey Nettle and closing down the OSI, Labor is giving a free pass to all of those who engaged in what our highest court condemned as ‘reprehensible conduct’,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The worst legal scandal in Victorian history will end with a whimper because a weak Labor government does not want to give the OSI the power to authorise charges.
“It is perhaps fitting that the scandal which shockingly undermined Victoria’s justice system will remain unpunished because of the insipid weakness of the Andrews Government”.
Media contact: Alexander Woff 0434 972 166 alexander.woff@opposition.vic.gov.au