Bar Politics 2011

Bar Association politics are never dull. November 2011 however will be forever remembered as a truly remarkable time. As one senior barrister who spoke to Hearsay on the promise of anonymity, David Jackson QC, said “Like, we went to bed with one President (Douglas S.C.) and like woke up in the morning with a new President (Traves S.C.)”.

The events which led to this changing of the guard in the leadership of the Association are most intriguing, as are some of the events which have followed it. 

The presidency of Richard Douglas S.C. passed quickly before its sudden ending. So much promise was offered at the outset and so much hope was invested in him. The voting members of the Association had become increasingly cynical. The presidency of Stewart S.C., in hindsight, was viewed as a successful if not controversial period of time, though his promise to the members that “No pupil would live in poverty beyond the year 2011” always seemed to have been foolishly ambitious. 

Douglas S.C. on the other hand seemed to have tapped into the current psyche of the members. His claim that “garbage submissions” were the greatest moral challenge of our time attracted much support. He promised the introduction of a “submissions trading scheme” to allow the free market to save us from judicial warming.¹  

Douglas’ bold plan however effectively collapsed when it came to be realised that some of the biggest producers of garbage submissions were from interstate bars which refused to commit to the establishment of such a scheme. Others cynically thought a garbage submissions trading scheme represented no change at all.

Suddenly Douglas’ Council was in crisis. His Deputy, Traves S.C., assumed the leadership, saying that the Council on which he had served as deputy leader was a good Council which had lost its way. Following this sudden change of leadership, Traves was lobbied by Council Member Sue Brown, to adopt Brown’s policy of a garbage submissions tax. Traves defiantly declared that no Council of which he was leader would introduce a garbage submissions tax.

Now, five minutes after being elected, Traves, needing the support of Brown in Council, has announced that a garbage submissions tax will be introduced. In a vain attempt to try to arrest the slide in member sentiment caused by this sudden change of position, Traves S.C. is promising to gain increased social security benefits such as Legal Aid rates, Crown Law and DPP fees to allow poorer members of the Bar to be able to afford the impost of the garbage submissions tax. Some specialist barristers claim that the jurisdictions that they work in inherently involve the generation of garbage submissions and so should receive special dispensation from the tax to enable them to provide their vital service. Those negotiations continue.

The issue is highly divisive. Some favour capture and storage where garbage submissions are collected before they are released into the atmosphere of the court room and buried deep underground. Others prefer the use of renewables, a practice where submissions are repeated over and over.

Traves S.C. will have some other ghosts from the past to deal with. There is still some member discontent over the Douglas led Council’s Building the Administration Revolution, brought in in response to the GFC. While generally popular, the scheme received criticism in some right wing publications as being wasteful. Anecdotal stories of administration offices being torn down and replaced with new offices continue to dog the Traves Council, which defends the program on the basis of the need to stimulate the economy.

More positively, the reforms surrounding mandatory pre-commitment, in the form of fee disclosure letters, continue to be popular. Under the scheme problem litigants must pre-commit to spending a certain amount of the money that would otherwise feed their children  on their barristers before being allowed to “pull the lever” of litigation.

News of the country moving a step closer to recognising gay marriage has been well received by the Association. Its Gender Equity Spokesperson, Syd Williams QC, told Hearsay “For too long gay and lesbian people have had their opportunities to participate in Family Court litigation severely limited. The more the merrier we say.”

What will happen from here only time will tell. Bar Association politics however will no doubt continue to dominate the news in 2012. 
  

Geoffrey Diehm S.C.

Footnotes

1. It is increasingly accepted science that garbage submissions raise Court room temperatures leading to more frequent stormy events and droughts of briefs.