Hannes v The Queen

[2008] HCATrans 176

[2008] HCATrans 176

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry
  Sydney  No S475 of 2007

B e t w e e n -

SIMON GAUTIER HANNES

Applicant

and

THE QUEEN

Respondent

Directions

GUMMOW J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT SYDNEY ON TUESDAY, 6 MAY 2008, AT 9.38 AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

MR S.G. HANNES appeared in person.

MR R.J. BROMWICH:   May it please the Court, I appear for the Crown.  (instructed by Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions – Sydney)

HIS HONOUR:   Mr Hannes, I have read your affidavit and your submissions.  I think there may be a fairly quick, practical route through this.  The order has not been taken out, has it?

MR BROMWICH:   I think that is correct, your Honour.  I have not specifically checked.

HIS HONOUR:   No, it has not.

MR BROMWICH:   I believe that is right, and we were not going to, once this was brought on, race off and do it.  That would have been improper.

HIS HONOUR:   No.  The treatment of special leave applications is a rather special juridical creature.  It does not give rise to a final appellate determination so special leave sometimes is revoked.  It is a provisional order of a sort.  There is a panel in Sydney on 13 June, in which I am presiding with two Judges from out of the State.  What I propose to do would be simply to direct the reargument of this special leave application on Friday, 13 June.  When I say “reargument”, I mean literally reargument.  We would have the same books that are filed and the written submissions.  Would you be appearing for yourself again?

MR HANNES:   I am not sure at this moment.

HIS HONOUR:   I think it would be best not to, if possible.

MR HANNES:   It would be best, but I am not sure.  It is possible that it might happen ‑ ‑ ‑

HIS HONOUR:   All right.  Is there any opposition to that course, Mr Bromwich?

MR BROMWICH:   Your Honour, the only concern we had, I suppose, that ultimately is a matter for the Court is that there was not any proper application brought or any proper testing of the assertions made and we ‑ ‑ ‑

HIS HONOUR:   Yes, but to test the assertions will unleash a huge procedure ‑ ‑ ‑

MR BROMWICH:   We could see that, your Honour.  The only concern we had really was that from paragraph 9 of Mr Hannes’ affidavit it appears that he had the opportunity in advance of the previous special leave application and chose, apparently, not to advise the Court in circumstances where two out of the five male Judges of the Court – there was a two in five chance of it being his Honour Justice Heydon – but, your Honour, all I can say is that our preference, I suppose, would have been to go through that course, but I can well understand why the Court ‑ ‑ ‑

HIS HONOUR:   Well, it would be a much lengthier course, though.

MR BROMWICH:   I can understand why the Court would take that view.  The only concern I have ‑ ‑ ‑

HIS HONOUR:   If you succeeded in it, that is one thing, and if you did not succeed, we would be back where we are right now.

MR BROMWICH:   Indeed, your Honour.  There are only two things I need to do, if I may, your Honour.  One is to get instruction in relation to that and the second – I just do not know if Mr Game is available on 13 June.

HIS HONOUR:   Right.

MR BROMWICH:   He is the one who has the most detailed knowledge of this matter.

HIS HONOUR:   Yes.  Do you need time to get those instructions?

MR BROMWICH:   I could hopefully make that inquiry right away.

HIS HONOUR:   I can take a short adjournment if you wish.

MR BROMWICH:   It will only take me a few minutes, your Honour, if we could do that.

HIS HONOUR:   Yes, all right.  The difficult thing is to lasso Mr Game.  Do you know where he is?

MR BROMWICH:   I believe he can be contacted.  He was not available for this, but ‑ ‑ ‑

HIS HONOUR:   All right.  I will take a short adjournment and you let Ms Carlsund know when you are ready.

MR BROMWICH:   Thank you, your Honour.

AT 9.42 AM SHORT ADJOURNMENT

UPON RESUMING AT 9.47 AM:

HIS HONOUR:   Yes, Mr Bromwich.

MR BROMWICH:   Thank you for that indulgence, your Honour.  We do not object to that course and 13 June is suitable.

HIS HONOUR:   Very well.  All I need to do this morning then is simply direct that the special leave application instituted by the application filed on 12 September 2007 be reheard and entered in the list in Sydney in the panel in which I am presiding on Friday, 13 June 2008.  There is no need to file any further documents, I think.  The written submissions already filed can be ‑ ‑ ‑

MR BROMWICH:   They are in the application book, your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:   I have not looked at the matter in any substantive sense, but I assume everything is in order.

MR BROMWICH:   The applicant’s submissions, our response and his reply submissions are all in the application book.

HIS HONOUR:   All right.  They will be distributed to the three Judges involved and it will proceed.  Is there anything else?

MR BROMWICH:   Nothing, your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:   I will now adjourn.

AT 9.49 AM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED