CJC v Dick

[2000] QSC 272

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

CJC & Ors v. Dick [2000] QSC 272

PARTIES:        (1)

  (2)     

CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSION
(Applicant)
v.
JULIE MAREE DICK
(Respondent)

MICHAEL ALLAN BARNES
(Applicant)
and
JOHN JOSEPH BARTON
(Applicant)
and
PIERRE MARK LE GRAND
(Applicant)
and
GEORGE ANTHONY NOLAN
(Applicant)
and
GAVIN JAMES RADFORD
v.
JULIE MAREE DICK
(Respondent)

FILE Nos:      (1)
  (2)

11504/99
6073/00

DIVISION:

Trial  Division

DELIVERED ON:

25 July 2000

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

17, 18 July 2000

JUDGE:

Helman J.

ORDER:

Applications dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW – THE NON-JUDICIAL ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT – THE CROWN – ROYAL COMMISSION, BOARDS OF INQUIRY AND LIKE INVESTIGATIONS – POWERS AND PRIVILEGES – GENERALLY – whether potential breach of parliamentary privilege – whether applications seeking to question parliamentary proceedings are justiciable

Bill of Rights 1689
Commissions of Inquiry Act 1950
Constitution Act 1867
Criminal Justice Act 1989
Imperial Acts Application Act 1984
Parliamentary Papers Act 1992

Ainsworth & Anor v. Criminal Justice Commission (1992) 175 C.L.R. 564

Bradlaugh v. Gossett (1884) 12 Q.B.D. 271
Criminal Justice Commission v. Nationwide News Pty Ltd [1996] 2 Qd. R. 444
Hamilton v. Al Fayed [2000] 2 W.L.R. 609
Laurance v. Katter [2000] 1 Qd. R. 147
R. v. Jackson (1987) 8 N.S.W.L.R. 116
R. v. Smith, ex parte Cooper [1992] 1 Qd. R. 423

COUNSEL:

W. Sofronoff Q.C. and G.C. Newton for the Applicants
A.J.H. Morris Q.C. and D.C. Rangiah for the Respondent
H.B. Fraser Q.C. amicus curiae at the request of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

SOLICITORS:

R.A. Evans

Official Solicitor, Criminal Justice Commission, for the Applicants

1. HELMAN J: These applications, which were heard together, arise out of a report dated 30 August 1999 by the respondent, the Parliamentary Criminal Justice Commissioner, to the Criminal Justice Committee of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. The parliamentary commissioner is an officer of Parliament, as s. 118G(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1989 provides, and the committee is a committee of the Legislative Assembly established under s. 115 of that Act. Among the functions of the parliamentary committee are those provided for in paragraphs (a) and (b) of s. 118(1):

(a)to monitor and review the discharge of the functions of the commission as a whole and of the official misconduct division in particular;

(b)to report to the Legislative Assembly, with such comments as it thinks fit, on any matters pertinent to the commission, the discharge of the commission’s functions or the exercise of the powers of the commission, a commissioner, or of officers of the commission, to which the attention of the Assembly should, in the committee’s opinion, be directed;

The ‘commission’ referred to is the applicant Criminal Justice Commission constituted by the Act, and ‘the official misconduct division’ is a division within the commission established under s. 19(1). Section 118R in part 4A (PARLIAMENTARY CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSIONER, ss. 118G to 118ZA) provides for the functions of the parliamentary commissioner. Subsection (2) of that section provides that the commissioner has the functions, as required by the parliamentary committee, to…