Mrs HICKEY - 1997-11-27
In an extraordinary attack on the legal profession, the first law officer had this to say:
You're kidding yourself if you believe that there are people who hold high office, whether it is at magistrate's
level or judge's level or as a Queen's Counsel, that have not had a brush with their professional organisations
at some stage. You would just be deluding yourself if you thought that was the case.
Will the Attorney-General answer the question he refused to answer yesterday? Is it a fact that, of all the judges, magistrates and QCs in the Territory, he is the only one with a proven charge of unprofessional conduct against his name?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I stand by my comments that members opposite would be kidding themselves if they did not accept that a very large number of practitioners at some stage or another have had a brush with their professional organisation.
Mrs Hickey: Yours was not a brush.
Mr Bailey: Yours was a head-on collision.
Mr STONE: Are you interested in the answer, or are we going to descend to a shouting match back and forth across the Chamber?
Had the Leader of the Opposition or her shadow attorney-general bothered to pick up the phone to the Law Society, they might have been surprised to discover that the number of complaints that are made in any one year run into the hundreds in a small community like the Territory.
Mr Stirling: How many result in proven unprofessional conduct?
Mr STONE: I am aware of people who have found themselves in similar situations to myself, but it is not my role to stand here and disclose their names. Had the shadow attorney-general bothered to read the legislation, he would have discovered that I am prevented by law from naming those persons. I am prevented under the Legal Practitioners Act because it has a confidentiality section. This is the alternative attorney-general. He does not even know or understand the legislation that he would purport to administer one day.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, if the member for Wanguri will be quiet, I will conclude my answer.
I am precluded by law, and I think he probably knows that. He started off fairly well yesterday. As a matter of courtesy, I wonder if he might assist me with something. To assist my understanding, could he provide me with a copy of the syllabus of the course he was talking about?
Mr Stirling: I'll see what I can do.
Mr STONE: You will see what you can do? You know the answer already.
Page 25
You're kidding yourself if you believe that there are people who hold high office, whether it is at magistrate's
level or judge's level or as a Queen's Counsel, that have not had a brush with their professional organisations
at some stage. You would just be deluding yourself if you thought that was the case.
Will the Attorney-General answer the question he refused to answer yesterday? Is it a fact that, of all the judges, magistrates and QCs in the Territory, he is the only one with a proven charge of unprofessional conduct against his name?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I stand by my comments that members opposite would be kidding themselves if they did not accept that a very large number of practitioners at some stage or another have had a brush with their professional organisation.
Mrs Hickey: Yours was not a brush.
Mr Bailey: Yours was a head-on collision.
Mr STONE: Are you interested in the answer, or are we going to descend to a shouting match back and forth across the Chamber?
Had the Leader of the Opposition or her shadow attorney-general bothered to pick up the phone to the Law Society, they might have been surprised to discover that the number of complaints that are made in any one year run into the hundreds in a small community like the Territory.
Mr Stirling: How many result in proven unprofessional conduct?
Mr STONE: I am aware of people who have found themselves in similar situations to myself, but it is not my role to stand here and disclose their names. Had the shadow attorney-general bothered to read the legislation, he would have discovered that I am prevented by law from naming those persons. I am prevented under the Legal Practitioners Act because it has a confidentiality section. This is the alternative attorney-general. He does not even know or understand the legislation that he would purport to administer one day.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr STONE: Madam Speaker, if the member for Wanguri will be quiet, I will conclude my answer.
I am precluded by law, and I think he probably knows that. He started off fairly well yesterday. As a matter of courtesy, I wonder if he might assist me with something. To assist my understanding, could he provide me with a copy of the syllabus of the course he was talking about?
Mr Stirling: I'll see what I can do.
Mr STONE: You will see what you can do? You know the answer already.
Page 25
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016