Ex parte Van Haeff

[1989] HCATrans 141

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry

Brisbane	No B17 of 1989
In the matter of -

An ex parte application by

ROBERT WILLIAM FRANKLIN van HAEFF

BRENNAN J

van Haeff

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT BRISBANE ON MONDAY, 26 JUNE 1989, AT 2.53 PM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

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HIS HONOUR:	Are you Mr van Haeff?
MR VAN HAEFF:	I am, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR:	Very well.
MR VAN HAEFF:	Firstly - I take it Your Honour is ready?
HIS HONOUR:	I have read some of the material,

Mr van Haeff - I have not read all of your

material. In particular, I have not read the material which, I think, was forwarded to the

Court on Friday last. But, you tell me what

material you propose to read on this application

and I will then be able to ensure that I have

understood what your application is.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Your Honour, I have here another affidavit

and exhibit which I wish now to file in this

matter.

HIS HONOUR:	Let us start with what we have already.
MR VAN HAEFF:	Which does include last Friday.

HIS HONOUR:  Tell me what you have already. What is the

application which you now wish to make and what are

the documents that I should look at?

MR VAN HAEFF:  Do you want me to point out the - I have got

a new affidavit that I made today, Your Honour,

which is - - -

HIS HONOUR:  Well, Mr van Haeff, there is a surrnnons on the

file here.

MR VAN HAEFF:	Yes, that is correct.
HIS HONOUR:	And then there is an affidavit by you

with a number of exhibits on it.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Yes, that is correct. But, something has

since happened which supersedes all that, Your Honour;
for the time being that is.	And that is that

I have asked for sworn declarations to be made

firstly by the Chief Justice of the High Court and

the Governor-General of Australia, Mr Bill Hayden,

Mr D Campbell, our Governor of Queensland and

also the Principal Registrar, Mr Frank Jones, as to

their constitutionality and their legality and, of

course, this includes Your Honour's

constitutionality and legality as well.

None of these people to date have been able to prove by statutory declaration that they are,

in fact, who they claim they are and in consequence

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I, therefore, seek a callove~ date for this

hearing of these matters to allow me to apply to

the Full High Court to consider the specifics

that has been issued on 26 June 1989 regarding

these matters and concerning the sworn statutory

declaration from these honourable gentlemen which

to date I have not got.

HIS HONOUR:  So, your first application then is for the

fixing of a call over date, is that right?

MR VAN HAEFF:	Yes, that is very much correct.
HIS HONOUR:	Yes, very well, I understand that.
MR VAN HAEFF:	In other words, also-to sort of put it in

these words - in the lower courts it is referred to as a voir dire - but, in this instance, is to have a special case before the Full High Court to

determine your own constitutionality and that of

these gentlemen who up to today have not been able

to prove their constitutionality.

HIS HONOUR:  I do not understand what that means,

Mr van Haeff, would you like to explain it to me?

MR VAN HAEFF:  Well, this is why I was hoping to seek leave

to file these documents because it does clarify it

a lot more, especially on my affidavit and with the

exhibits that go with it.

HIS HONOUR: : All ri_ght, well then, do you wish to file

something?

MR VAN HAEFF:	Yes, I wish to file those in this matter now.
HIS HONOUR:	Now, what you have just handed to me is an

affidavit - or'Wha.tis headed as an affidavit - by

yourself.

MR VAN HAEFF:	Yes, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR:	And it is headed in No. 17 of 1989 and there

is an exhibit, 1, and then there seem to be some

other documents here, the first of which is
headed "Australia Post Intel Post". Is that part

of exhibit l?

MR VAN HAEFF:	That is correct, Your Honour.
MR ..... :	This statement may have come off, Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:  Just a moment. Mr van Haeff, you are making

this application. I do not know who the gentleman

is next to you but, if I am hearing you, I shall

hear you, I will not hear anybody else unless they

are your legal representatives. Now, these

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documents here are all part of exhibit 1, are they,

to your affidavit?

MR VAN HAEFF:  Yes, Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:  All right, well now, I have them here. What

do you say that they show?

MR VAN HAEFF:  They show, amongst other things, that I

sought from the Honourable Mr Bill Hayden,

Governor-General of Australia, to provide how he

was legally appointed when the Queen's

statutory declaration says that he was not, or not

by her at any rate - that, incidentally, is filed

in the first affidavit which Your Honour referred

to earlier. The same applies to the Chief Justice

of the High Court; the same applies to

Mr D Campbell, our Governor of Queensland, and

Mr Frank Jones, the Registrar. None of those

gentlemen have replied; they have not been able to

prove that they are what they claim to be they are.

Now, . af course, I would like to have a special

case before the High Court so that they·can

determine the matter further.

HIS HONOUR:	They can determine what matter further?
MR VAN HAEFF:	To determine the matter before today's event

can actually proceed. That is putting it in a

nutshell.

HIS HONOUR:	Determine what matter? What is the contest?
MR VAN HAEFF:	Well, the summons that brought this into

being - if you were to proceed on that - then you

would be proceeding on the basis that you are

yourself legally and constitutionally a judge -

which I claim you are not and I have given my rhymes

and reasons for that. I have also asked for

clarification of that by the Chief Justice, by the

Governor-General, Mr Bill Hayden, by the

Governor of Queensland and Mr Frank Jones, the

R:gistrar. None of those gentlemen have replied.

Consequently, we now have to take it further and

make a special issue of it and have the High Court

determine what is and what is not.

HIS HONOUR:  Mr van Haeff, I am having difficulty in

understanding this. You come here on the summons.

Now, either you want me to make an order or you

do not. Now, just say, if you would, whether you

wish me to make any order and, if so, what order

do you wish me to make?

MR VAN HAEFF:  If you want to put it in a - do I want an order:

yes, well, as I said before, what we want is to have

it postponed until such time that I can get to the

Full High Court to determine the constitutionality and the

legality of it.

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HIS HONOUR:	Well, you do not wish me to make any order?
MR VAN HAEFF:	Not other than that, no.
HIS HONOUR:	Other than?

MR VAN HAEFF: Not other than to enable me to corrnnence the

action before the Full High Court.

HIS HONOUR:	And, how can I do that?
MR VAN HAEFF:	Well, if you look at the surrnnons - and we

are now talking about the one that brought it

into being - - -

HIS HONOUR:  The original surrnnons, am I looking at?

MR VAN HAEFF:  Yes, there is three pages, Your Honour. The

back page which the top says, "for Registrar

Senior Clerk" and we then go down a few

paragraphs and it says, "please take notice", as

soon as Your Honour has got that section I will

read it out.

HIS HONOUR:  No·, I have got a document here which is

called a 'writ of surrnnons'and then on page 3 it has

got "statement of claim". That is not it?

MR VAN HAEFF:  No, there are three pages of the surrnnons and

that, of course, is the surrnnons that we are on here

for today; it is only three pages, Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:  Just a moment until I see if I can find it.

Yes, I see it.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Well, if you go to page 3 which is directed

to the Registrar, Senior Clerk.

HIS HONOUR:	Page?
MR VAN HAEFF:	The last page, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR:	Yes.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Where it says, "Please take notice. Upon

the hearing of this application, the affidavit

of Robert William Franklin van · :aeff of" - and it says

dates - "of 1989 and any others thereafter may issue on

oral . evidence or any reference to any other

conditions precedence may be laid before the court

and a justice who shall specify that he is a person

duly appointed as a Judge of this High Court

under Her Majesty's oath of 1988 and the

CONSTITUTION ACT of 1900".	So, I have already made
provision - - -

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HIS HONOUR:	Just a moment, please.	I seem to have a large

number of originating surrmmses here and I am not
sure that any one of them is the one that you wish

me to look at. When was this summons filed?

MR VAN HAEFF:	Where was it filed?
HIS HONOUR:	When was it filed?
MR VAN HAEFF:	It was filed on 20 April 1989.
HIS HONOUR:	20 April 1989?
MR VAN HAEFF:	That is when it was filed.
HIS HONOUR:	I think we must be lacking something if it

was filed on 20 April 1989.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Well, to clarify that, of course~ 9y that I

mean that is when it was filed in the ~risbane

registry.

HIS HONOUR:  Well, I have a summons here that was filed on

13 June 1989 and it is later than 20 April 1989.

And that is the document which I gather has g0t

number 17 attributed t0 it. · -· ·

MR VAN HAE.FF : Yes, that is right.

HIS HONOUR; .And that is the surrmms in. respect to which - no, I do not

think that can be right. There is an order here of Justice

Wilson's rrade on 7 February 1989.

MR VAN HAEFF: - No, that is not part of this. Well, it is part of· it but

· we are not dealing-with that now;

HIS HONOUR:  And there is an affidavit on 13 June f989. There does not seem

to be anything here betv;reen - any docummt filed until we get to

13 June 1989. '-·

MR VAN HAEFF:  Your Honour, \vhen I· walk into . the Brisbane registry and file it

HIS HONOUR:  Perhaps I will ask the Registrar to see if he

can find for me any document that is dated

April of 1989.

MR VAN HAEFF:	While, we have got a minute, Your Honour - - -
HIS HONOUR:	You tell me what the application is and whether

you want me to make any order at all.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Well, I cannot allow you to make an order,

Your Honour, not under those conditions.

HIS HONOUR:  All ri6ht, well you do not wish me to make an

order.

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MR VAN HAEFF:	. No, except for· staying- ·it. over.
HIS HONOUR:	There is one here dated 20 April 1989 as the

·egistrar tells me. And it starts off by saying:

Let Mr Justice Wilson and Deputy

Registrar A.P.S. Thew of Canberra -

Is that the one?

MR VAN HAEFF:  I only know the one that we are dealing with

now, the stamped copy. I assume the one you have

is stamped, is it, Your Honour?

HIS HONOUR:  Well, it is one that has been on the file by

the looks of it. But, perhaps if you just show me

your copy for a moment and I will see if I can find

a corresponding one here.

MR VAN HAEFF:  That may be kept by the Court, Your Honour,

if it pleases Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:	Is this a spare copy, is it?
MR VAN HAEFF:	It is a spare one, yes. That is the one I

am referring to and dealing with - - -

HIS HONOUR:	That is the one you are speaking about?
MR VAN HAEFF:	Yes.
HIS HONOUR:	And, this is the application you are now making?

Is that right?

MR VAN HAEFF:	Exactly. Yes, that is right.
HIS HONOUR:	Well, then let me read it for a moment, while I see.

Yes, well I see that the date - 8 April - has been

struck out and 8 June seems to have been written in

in place there.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Yes, but that has been done not by me; that

has been done by the Registrar either	of the
Brisbane registry or the High Court.	We have got
no control over them.

HIS HONOUR:	Yes, well now, I have read that.
MR VAN HAEFF:	That and the matter that I have just handed up

to Your Honour is essentially what we are here for

today.

HIS HONOUR:	This matter here?
MR VAN HAEFF:	I am not challenging your jurisdiction, I am

just questioning whether you have got any. That is

basically what it amounts to.

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HIS HONOUR:  Well, if I have not got any jurisdiction

then there is no purpose in you applying to me for

anything.

MR VAN HAEFF:  Yes, but that is to be determined by a higher

tribunal, by the Full High ~ourt. That is what I

wish to find out from the higher cou~t.

HIS HONOUR:  Yes, well, so be it, if you wish to find it out

from the High Court.

MR VAN HAEFF:  So, if it pleases Your Honour, if you could

extend this to that date and make that a court

case within a court case - if I could put it that way -

as I said in the lower courts it is usually
ref erred to as a voir dire.· Whether that applies to

federal law, or not, I do not know but it is

basically that type of a special case to be heard

by the High Court and if they rule that the

Queen told lies in her statutory declaration,

well then, we can come back here and then you would

have full jurisdiction over the whole matter.

HIS HONOUR:	Very well, do you wish to say anything else?
MR VAN HAEFF:	No.

HIS HONOUR:  Yes, very well, thank you, Mr Van Haeff. If

you do not wish to say anything else you may sit

down.

The nature of this application, so far as it

is capable of being divined, is evidently to be

extracted from the document called a summons and

bearing the amended date of 8 June 1989 under the

seal of this Court. 'Ihe nature of relief

expressed in that surrnnons is such as to indicate

that is not an appropriate document to found any

proceedings in this Court.

As I do not understand the application that

is otherwise being made by Mr van Haeff, that is to

say, any application outside the terms of that

me to make any further order. In the circumstances,	document, I do not think that it is necessary for summons or on the oral application that Mr van Haeff
has made.

AT 3.12 PM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED SINE DIE

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