Judge's pensions may be impacted by changes to superannuation laws

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Daily wrap  

• Retired judges demand $3m super tax exemption [AFR paywall]
   

  • links to download relevant submissions below:
     

    • Submissions - Retired Judges of Federal Court (Susan Kenny KC, Peter Jacobson KC, Steven Rares KC, Julie Dodds-Streeton KC and Jennifer Davies KC)
       

    • Submissions - The Australian Judicial Officers Association
       

• Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial: Channel Ten wins bid to present fresh evidence | Defamation law (Australia) | The Guardian
   

  • Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial: Channel Seven reimbursed Lehrmann for drugs and sex workers, court documents allege | Defamation law (Australia) | The Guardian
     

  • What does Network Ten's successful bid to reopen Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case mean for a judgment? - ABC News
     

• Australian international court judge calls for Israel to suspend Gaza military operation | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian
   

• Uber ‘tech bros’ sought to destroy Australian taxi app using corporate espionage, court hears | Law (Australia) | The Guardian
   

• Federal Court dismisses application to stop planned burns in Strathbogie State Forest - ABC News
   

  • Save Our Strathbogie Forest Inc v Secretary to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action [2024] FCA 317
     

• Labor’s proposed changes to water trigger laws could have ‘centuries-long consequences’, environment groups say | Australia news | The Guardian
   

• Snowtown bodies-in-the-barrels accomplice Mark Haydon still in custody despite being granted parole - ABC News
   

• NT Police Association receives legal advice that Alice Springs youth curfew is unlawful - ABC News
   

• Young lawyers win changes to ‘unfair’ barrister exam [AFR paywall] 

  “The exam will now be offered twice annually and split into three papers, after the five-year review found it was needlessly difficult, tested skills in a way “contrary to its stated and legitimate purpose”, and, unless it improved, may need to be abolished.”
   

Editor’s picks

• The Federal Court has released the first two of a number of oral history podcasts entitled "Lives and Times of Judges of the Federal Court of Australia". The podcasts are the work of noted writer, arts journalist and podcaster Fiona Gruber who has conducted interviews with prominent former judges of the Federal Court. Ms Gruber has so far completed interviews with the Honourable MEJ Black AC KC and the Honourable WMC Gummow AC KC and will shortly interview the Honourable Robert French AC, the Honourable James Allsop AC SC and the Honourable Susan Kenny AM KC. All ten podcasts – of 30-to-40-minute duration – are planned over the next year.
   

• Book Launch Livestream - Constant Guardian - NSWSC - Wednesday 3 April - 5:15pm - YouTube

  A 450-page illustrated history of the Supreme Court “Constant Guardian: Changing Times – The Supreme Court of New South Wales 1824-2024” will be launched by the Hon. James Spigelman AC KC in the Banco Court on Wednesday 3 April at 5.15pm. On the same occasion, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales will officially open the Supreme Court History Wall and Gallery.
   

  • Constant Guardian: Changing Times - The Supreme Court of NSW 1824 - 2024 (Edited by The Hon. Keith Mason AC KC and Larissa Reid)
     

• Two hundred years of the NSW Supreme Court - ABC listen 

  In his first extensive interview since his appointment in 2022, NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell tells Damien Carrick about some of the significant trials discussed in the book Constant Guardian: Changing Times – The Supreme Court of New South Wales 1824-2024
   

• A remarkable career of firsts: Governor Margaret Beazley - Law Society Journal

  “To mark the two-year extension of Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC as Governor of NSW, we revisit this profile the Journal published in 2019, when the Governor was first appointed.”
   

• Podcast - The Callover: Insights into the Queensland Law Reform Commission with Chair Fleur Kingham on Apple Podcasts
   

• Andrew Giles faces years of litigation as he fights to prevent another disastrous defeat on immigration | Paul Karp | The Guardian
   

• The doxxing dilemma - avoiding unintended consequences - Anne Twomey - YouTube
   

• Juvenile offending, convictions and visa cancellation: Thornton and Lesianawai — Australian Public Law
   

• Stergiou v Citibank Savings Ltd [2005] ACTCA 15 (3 May 2005)

  “[1] This is the latest chapter in a saga that has been unfolding for more than a decade as repeated attempts have been made to take possession of a house owned by the appellants for failure to comply with their obligations under a mortgage. The proceedings have been protracted, tortuous and attended by a comedy of errors sufficient to inspire the producers of "The Castle" to consider making a sequel.”
   

• Wells v Queensland Police Service [2024] QDC 38 - District Court of Queensland Caselaw

  • “[4] Instead, when being called upon to present her defence, the appellant proceeded to make submissions in terms which have been recognised as typical of a particular type of pseudolaw commonly presented to the courts by unqualified persons, often identifying as adherents to “sovereign citizen” ideas: see Young, Hobbs and McIntyre, “The growth of pseudolaw and sovereign citizens in Aotearoa New Zealand courts” [2023] NZLJ 6; “A Kind of Magic: The Origins and Culture of ‘Pseudolaw’”, a paper delivered to the Queensland Magistrates’ State Conference 2022 on 26 May 2022 by His Honour Cash KC; R v Sweet [2021] QDC 216. They included assertions along the lines of the “strawman” argument often presented by such litigants.

  • [5] A particular focus was put upon something which was referred to as the “12 presumptions of Roman law.” The appellant challenged the Magistrate that she openly rebuked, rejected and rebutted all 12 presumptions of Roman law and provided further detailed submissions as to those so-called presumptions of “Roman law Canon 3228”. The submissions were, I expect, to the Magistrate, and remain so to me, baffling. I know of no “Roman law Canon 3228” which is part of the law of Queensland. The asserted rebuttal, in its terms, did not seem to, in any way, go towards the merits of the charge before the Court. At the end of the day, I am left wondering what it all meant.”
     

• Google to destroy billions of private browsing records to settle lawsuit | Google | The Guardian [US]

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