Louis & Ors v Commonwealth of Australia

[1988] HCATrans 277

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Registry No Cl0 of 1985

B e t w e e n -

ROSALINA MELENA LOUIS,

GRAHAM JAMES LOUIS,

FERDINAND GRAHAM LOUIS I by his

next friends ROSALINA MELENA

LOUIS and GRAHAM JAMES LOUIS,

RACHAEL ROSE LOUIS by her next

friends ROSALINA MELENA LOUIS

and GRAHAM JAMES LOUIS,

MURRAY DANIEL LOUIS by his

next friends ROSALINA MELENA

LOUIS and GRAHAM JAMES LOUIS

Plaintiffs

and

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

First-named Defendant

Application to postpone

taxation

DEANE J

Louis
( In	Chambers)

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT CANBERRA ON THURSDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 1988,AT 9.32AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

C3Tl/l/RB 1 17/11/88

MR G.J. LOUIS:  Yes, Your Honour, I appear for the plaintiffs

1n this summons before the Court.

HIS HONOUR:	You are Mr Louis?
MR LOUIS:	Yes, Your Honour.

MR C.M. ERSKINE:  May it please the Court, _

I app·ear for the defendants. ( instructed

by Commonwealth Government Solicitor)

HIS HONOUR:  Mr Louis, I have read the summons and the

accompanying material. I do not see, as I currently

see the matter, a proper legal basis for granting the relief you seek. That being so, if you could just tell me the basis on which you think I should

make an order.

MR LOUIS:	Yes, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR:	You follow what I have said, do you?

MR LOUIS:  I most certainly did. Yes. Your Honour, my family

and I have been in this country originally brought

about by false imprisonment, wrongful arrest in

1982 and every day of the week since that time

the Commonwealth of Australia has perverted the course of justice. I object to the treatment of my family and, as Your Honour has read the contents

of the affidavit and the documents therein, we

have complained to every level of this country.

We were political refugees before we came here,

in so far as Australia is concerned, and that has

worsened since we have been here.

Your Honour, what the Prime Minister of Australia

is actually saying is that he has no responsibility

for his airports, he has no responsibility for

people that are kidnapped, false imprisoned into

Australia an4 as Your Honour has read the affidavit,

we could not get the orders that the Commonwealth

sit down and enter into dialogue about the position

or if Your Honour would not make an order that

the Commonwealth meet us before an international

arbitrator here in Canberra because of the fact

that they are picklihg in their own prejudices,
we pointed out that we challenge the Commonwealth

of Australia to their responsibilities, including

the fact that we did not ask to come to Australia,

we were unlawfully forced into the country and

it is up to the Commonwealth to unlock us and to

take us to where we want to go. We also say,

Your Honour, that the right to the Commonwealth

to claim costs off people that have been false

imprisoned into the country is outrageous and contrary

to every international standard of the law.

C3Tl / 2/ AC	2	17/11/88
Louis

We say it is beyond the constitutional power of

the Commonwealth to penalize us and make us pay

costs and also~ Your Honour, the fact is that the

Commonwealth and QANTAS are the same. The chairman

of QANTAS is a political appointment; the Commonwealth

were involved in this particular matter in the

first instance but when my family entered the airports

in Australia, we entered here illegally and the

Commonwealth have been responsible every day.

However, Your Honour, we complained to the

Prime Minister of Australia - the last government and this government - and since we have been in

this country even when the matter was before the

High Court and the supreme cour½.the Australian

intelligence organizations, the Australian Federal

Police perverted the course of justice and interfered

with the course of justice and, as a matter of

fact, even the counsel here for the Commonwealth,

actin~ as an agent of the Commonwealth, orchestrated

a perJurious unlawful charge against me in 1983

and I would have thought, Your Honour, that since

this is the High Court of Australia and that my family

and I were illegally forced into the country has
been established and if not for anything, for the

sake of a form of good goverrm.:ent that the Prime

Minister should do something, which he has not.

But, then again, the Prime Minister of Australia

employs heroin traffickers to manage his campaign

into power and, in view of all the prejudices and

the unfair treatment that we have received in this

country, I would have thought that it would be

proper to ask Your Honour to adjourn the matter

of costs indefinitely.

(Continued on page 4)

C3Tl/3/AC	3	17/11/88
Louis

MR LOUIS:(continuing):  I would have thought that regardless

of my family's feelings - and I speak for my wife

and six children - toward the Commonwealth and

the Commonwealth's feelings toward us, by nature

I can understand that Australians would object

to my statements and my expression, by nature,

but then again I would have thought that asking
the Commonwealth to sit down and enter into dialogue

about this particular case, where they are·both

responsible directly and indirectly. If

Your Honour cannot see his way clear to do that,

I would have thought the third order sought,

ordering the Commonwealth to sit down before an

international arbitrator to come to grips with

the problem in its entirely - and the Court has

already told me and my family that it cannot entertain

international treaties and that - the treaty

relating to the status of political refugees,

the international covenant on civil and political

rights and a number of other treaties that arise

in our particular case.

So we are denied natural justice and we

are denied facilities that are available in the

international forums. If those three orders fail:

the adjournment, the dialogue, the international

arbitration, it is my intention to continue

international lobbying, protesting, not surrendering

to the evil destructive forces of the Commonwealth

and challenging the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth

to recover costs after my family has been wrongfully

arrested and falsely imprisoned into the country.

And, with all respect to you personally, Your Honour,

the other challenges: the fact that it is beyond

the Commonwealth's power to tax us in any way

shape or form and that it is the Commonwealth's

responsibility to take us to where we want to

go; and the fact that QANTAS is the Commonwealth.

So all those matters and the fact that

the Prime Minister did not take action on our

every part of the Commonwealth - and there has	complaints - we continually have complained to
been a conspiracy by the Commonwealth to bring
about our destruction, physically, mentally and
economically. We will challenge the Commonwealth
on their responsibilities and for damages for
the way they have conducted their defence and
the strong, unethical, vicious defence and the obstruction of justice.

(Continued on page 5)

C3T2/1 /SDL	4	17/11/88
Louis

MR LOUIS (continuing): It took us five and a half years to

even get before a court to be heard in the trial and

the Commonwealth, Your Honour, would not not even sign

a certificate of readiness and, while all this was

going on, they were trying to find ways to compromise

us. Now, I would have thought, Your Honour, being

before the High Court of Australia and before a

competent court, that the Commonwealth, through its

agents and servants, the police and the intelligence organizations and other instrumentalities, would not

have the right to do that.

So, in short, I am asking· Your Honour to consider

those three orders and if not, I have a responsibility

and a legal and human right not to be intimidated by

any member of the Commonwealth and to fight for the

rights of my family and that, of course, Your Honour, is -

with are prejudiced and that, of course - I treat	unfo.rtunately the majority of people we come in touch
people as I find them and that does not reflect
upon anybody who is in good faith with us, and I
am very sorry to say there is not too many.

HIS HONOUR:  Thank you, Mr Louis ..

MR LOUIS: Right, thank you.

HIS HONOUR:  Mr Erskine, is there any particular matter that

you want to put before me?

MR ERSKINE:  Only this, Your Honour, that the matters

principally raised by Mr Louis are matters that have,

with respect, been litigated in this Court and in the

supreme court on precisely those issues and they have

been resolved. Mr Louis presents no evidence of what

legal challenges he refers to in the first order that

he seeks and the Commonwealth is certainly not aware

of any that are either on foot or anticipated and, as

to the second and third orders, with respect,

Your Honour, they are something beyond the power of any court to order.

T2 HIS HONOUR: Thank you, Mr Erskine. Mr Louis, is there

anything you would like to say in response to what

Mr Erskine has just said?

MR LOUIS:  Yes, please, Your Honour. Because of the resistance

by the Commonwealth in its entirety, the only actual

thing that has been for trial so far, Your Honour, was

th~ wrongful arrest, the false imprisonment of the

plaintiffs, deported from Hong Kong to Australia at

the request, not direction, of the Hong Kong

authorities. Relevant legislation specified directions

where i:the forced carriage of plaintiffs on aircraft

are wrongful arrest and false inprisonment.

C3T4/l/VH	5	17/11/88
Louis

HIS HONOUR:  Mr Louis, you can assume that I have read the

documents and I am acquainted with them - the

proceedings before Justice Kelly that you were

referring to.

MR LOUIS:  Yes, Your Honour. The only matter that has been

for trial was the wrongful arrest and the false

imprisonment which went for trial five and a half

years down the track, Your Honour.	The matters have
not been resolved.	The orders that we sought in the

High Court originally - the supreme court did not

have the jurisdiction to order, like, for example, the restraining orders against the Commonwealth's

unlawful interference in my family's privacy,

correspondence, business and life. It has come up

since,the fact that we were not given discovery

of particular documents, that there was interference

in our life in Hong Kong by agents and servants of

the Commonwealth. They repudiated that all the way

through, Your Honour, and the matter has not been

resolved. The only matter that has been for trial

so far, Your Honour, was the wrongful arrest and

the false imprisonment at Hong Kong airport into

Australia. The other matters that I have mentioned

in my submissions to Your Honour have not been entertained.

HIS HONOUR:	Thank you, Mr Louis· ..
MR LOUIS:	Thank you, Your Honour.

(continued on page 7)

C3T4/2/VH	6	17/11/88
Louis

HIS HONOUR:  I have read the papers in this matter

and listened with care to everything that

Mr Louis has said on behalf of himself and

his family. Needless to say, I must deal

with the matter purely in accordance with

the legal rights of the applicants.

I have come to the conclusion that there

is no proper basis upon which I could make

the orders which are sought in the summons.

That being so, the summons is dismissed with

costs.

The Court will now adjourn.

AT 9.46 AM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED SINE DIE

C3T5/l/JM	7
Louis	17/11/88