Statements go beyond legitimate governmental disagreement, organisation's president says
The Australian Bar Association, alongside the Northern Territory Bar Association and the Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory, lamented recent statements by Robyn Cahill, Northern Territory minister, and Lia Finocchiaro, Northern Territory chief minister.
A coronial report by Elisabeth Armitage, judge and territory coroner, concerned an inquest regarding the domestic violence-related deaths of four Aboriginal women: Kumarn Rubuntja, Kumanjayi Haywood, Ngeygo Ragurrk, and Miss Yunupiŋu.
In a media release, the Australian Bar Association noted that Cahill criticised Armitage for delivering lengthy reports “in a manner seeming to lack the humility one might expect from an officer of the court” and focusing more “on the reveal rather than the result.”
Cahill added the “protracted” and “uninspiring” inquest “failed so dismally to hit the mark.”
About a week earlier, after an inquest on Kumanjayi Walker’s death, Armitage’s report found that a Northern Territory police officer’s shooting led to his passing, the police officer was racist, and the organisation showed systemic racism’s hallmarks.
The Australian Bar Association observed that Martin Dole, acting police commissioner, swiftly acknowledged the findings, which the inquest’s evidence supported.
On the other hand, Finocchiaro made comments relating to Armitage’s findings, which the Australian Bar Association also found concerning.
The Australian Bar Association noted that the Northern Territory government had legal representatives at both inquests, and no government agency applied to the Supreme Court to review or appeal Armitage’s findings in either report.
The Australian Bar Association said judicial officers doing coronial investigations were responsible for impartially and carefully examining complex and distressing matters and would thus need to criticise government policy and administration in key areas like policing, health, and criminal justice.
In its media release, the Australian Bar Association stressed that Cahill’s and Finocchiaro’s statements went beyond legitimate governmental disagreement with judicial findings or recommendations and could appear to be coordinated and unfounded personal attacks on an independent judicial officer, who could not publicly respond due to convention.
The Australian Bar Association noted that Andrew Bell, New South Wales chief justice, recently said “unfounded or inaccurate criticism of courts (…) may be actively encouraged and eventually invoked to justify a weakening of the administration of justice, including judicial independence.”
