Barristers' 'self-regulation'
On 31 August the NSW Bar Council admitted in the Supreme Court that it acted illegally in dismissing complaints against a Senior Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi. These complaints will now be reviewed by Legal Services Commissioner Steve Mark, but the admission has serious implications for "self-regulation" by barristers in NSW.
In October 1991 I lodged 17 complaints against Tedeschi, following my June 1991 acquittal in the Hilton bombing trial. In the Court of Criminal Appeal's final judgement on that matter Chief Justice Murray Gleeson strongly criticised Tedeschi's conduct at trial.
However despite this criticism, no disciplinary action was taken against Tedeschi. Neither the Bar Council nor the Supreme Court initiated any action. It was left to me to make a complaint to the NSW Bar Council. When asked to take action under the Crown Prosecutor's Act, the Attorney General said he would wait for the outcome of my complaint. When I petitioned the government for compensation, I was told that its decision would await the outcome of my complaint.
In March and April last year the Bar Council did lodge two complaints against Tedeschi with the Legal Profession Disciplinary Tribunal. However in October 1992 and May 1993 they dismissed another 45 complaints, and because of this I took an action against the Bar Council in the Supreme Court. My complaint was that the Council had acted illegally by privately dismissing complaints which should have been referred to the public Tribunal. I say they were seeking to limit the possible damage to a fellow barrister.
My action was the matter settled on 31 August, the day set for a hearing, with agreed orders that all the Bar Council's dismissals be "set aside", and that the Bar Council pay my costs. The Council clearly decided it couldn't defend its position in court.
That brings me to the question I want to raise in this letter: why does the government continue to allow a powerful professional body like the Bar Council to filter out complaints against its own members? The system has changed with a new Legal Services Commissioner but (unlike the medical profession) the Bar Council still has a central role in the complaints process. My case shows that they can't be trusted.
Tim Anderson
Glebe NSW
Violence against women
I'd like to say, in response to Kath Gelber's letter (GLW #155) responding to my letter re National Strategy on Violence Against Women, that I did not assert that men as a whole have benefited from the Federal Labor Government's redistribution of wealth. It was, however, men who benefited: they were the rich who got richer — and among the poor who got poorer.
The editor chose to cut the information I included in parentheses that the federal Labor government is presently in the process of redistributing some wealth from the wallets of men — the Supporting Spouse Rebate — to the purses of women — the Home Child Care Allowance — to begin October this year. Sixty bucks a fortnight is a lot of money to those of us who have had nothing like it before. Pity there will still be men who take this money from their partners, as there are men who take their partners' Family Allowance, and men who even take the money their partners go out and earn for themselves.
Gelber and the 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ also overlook the fact that the writers of the National Strategy are employed by the government. Reports, policies and strategies commissioned by government which are not approved never see the light of day — two copies are filed, and the writers have neither copyright nor power to do anything about it, and they may not make any use of the material for any reason. It's hardly likely that a document like this would be allowed to criticise Labor's policies in government.
Though it's doubtful that CLP policies were criticised, the long-promised Government Strategy on Women has not passed draft stage in the Northern Territory, and feminists have been powerless to bring it to fruition. In fact, the only power they have had is to refuse to endorse the "corrected" draft.
Paddie Cowburn
Malak NT
National parks
The newly appointed Director of the National Parks & Wildlife Service in NSW is Robin Kruk, who is a psychologist. Robin Kruk replaces Neil Shepherd, who replaced Bill Gilhooley, who went to the Centennial Park Trust. Robin Kruk is the partner of privatization consultant, Robert Newberry. Robert Newberry conducted the consultancy investigation into the NPWS for the NSW Liberal/National party government. The Parks Service in NSW will now undergo intensive economic penetration by private entrepreneurial strategies, including use of the lyre bird logo of the parks.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
Yankees go home!
Clinton is talking of throwing a naval blockade round Cuba. It is quite possible that what he would really like is a UN invasion, for which Haiti might be the dress rehearsal.
The last time the US tried this trick was in Panama to grab one man, Noriega. Block by block they systematically burnt to the ground a large part of the inner city working class neighbourhood. They ferociously bombed civilian quarters causing massive "collateral damage", often using experimental weapons. There were large-scale street executions, and the 20,000 survivors from the poor neighbourhoods were rounded up and placed in camps, where as far as anybody knows, they remain.
This invasion, a gross and deliberate violation of international law and human rights was overwhelmingly approved by the UN. At this point Cuba has every reason to be aware of this precedent.
The US has two major problems however. The first is Castro's overwhelming popular support, and the second is finding anything bad to say about him and his government. It is hard for Clinton to criticise Cuba as undemocratic, when in voting overseen by UN and Canadian observers, Castro's government was given more than 93% of the votes. Clinton himself received the support of only 24% of American voters.
Having nothing bad to say about Cuba would not necessarily slow the US down, but again it is awkward. TV documentaries made in the US to criticise the Cuban government are always farcically short of material.
Cuba used to send more doctors overseas than the World Health Organisation; it has free medical care; it has never used its army or police force against its own population. In prisons, warders are unarmed, and prisoners receive the going rate for their work. When the rest of the world was unconcerned, Cuba was fighting South Africa's bloodcurdling "destabilisation" of Angola and Mozambique. Literacy used to be 5%, it is now 94%. In all of these categories and many more besides, the US comes off very badly by comparison.
Since all this is perfectly verifiable, and Cuba is much in the news, it makes one wonder why the ABC, SBS and the other media are not mentioning it. Is Cuba the only one being stood over here?
Unfortunately might makes right, and the US would have no compunction in invading Cuba if it thought it could get away with it. Somalia has made it cautious, but we are by no means safe from another Panama.
John Braby
Conondale Qld
[Edited for length.]
On ya Cathy!
I knew it. I just knew when I saw it. No sooner had the strains of "Advance Australia Fair" faded on Cathy Freeman's brilliant gold medal win for Australia and her prideful donning of (Oh, shock, horror!) that flag and the national flag, in her deserved moment of personal (not just the state's) excellence and triumph, than were the rigidly righteous nitpickers of the "right and proper" brigade out of their holes and hard at it, trying to weave scandal and disgrace around her!
I felt so proud for her in her win and, even as a Balanda (white) Australian of Scottish/Irish extraction, I felt even more pride for her and our country when she aired the flag of indigenous Australia.
To me, the ensign of indigenous Australia represents the reality of an Australian population, culture and history in excess of forty thousand years.
I think Cathy Freeman has every right to wave the flag for her Aboriginal Australia, in her moment of glory and I hope that she, or any other Aboriginal Australian achieving excellence for themselves and their country, continue to do so if they so wish.
The disgraceful bigots who try to detract from their hard-won achievements should all wriggle back to their holes!
Peter McVean
Howard Springs NT
[Edited for length.]
Abortion and contraception
It is good to see that Kath Gelber in her GLW #155 "and ain't i a woman?" column smashes the stereotype of 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly of all those opposed to abortion on demand as being male religious fanatics.
Kath, of course, couldn't resist an initial paragraph attacking "the Vatican and Islamic fundamentalist groups from Iran" who she claims have formed an alliance to oppose abortion.
The bulk of the article, however, deals with Third World feminists who are also strongly opposing the "contraception/abortion" "option" being forced upon them by Bill Clinton and the rest of the rich and exploitative first world.
Kath cites opposition to Western contraceptives being imposed on the Third World as being "racist, eugenic and interventionist".
Sadly, Kath did not explore the same women's strong opposition to abortion, or expose (the seemingly taboo fact to the West) that over 90% of babies aborted in India are female!
Also, she didn't say whether or not she agreed with or supported her Third World sisters in their struggle against first world genocide of the poor.
I hope this was not from a fear of being part of a group opposing abortion and contraceptive programs being implemented to ensure the continued wealth of the West.
UBINIG, a Bangladesh women's development movement, has posters depicting a woman with child being dished up a plate of contraceptives: "No food, no health service, no information, no education. But contraceptives, contraceptives and contraceptives with misinformation."
Chicano civil rights and anti-poverty activist, Graciela Olivarez said, "The poor cry out for justice and equality and we respond with legalised abortion".
We should at least recognise and advertise that contraception/abortion are no "liberation" for our Third World sisters, let alone ourselves.
Anne Rampa
Brisbane