The Labor smear machine
November 1st, 2010 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarIn Australia the Labor smear machine is working at full speed – targeting the Greens as well as the Coalition. The Age reports:
STATE Labor has stepped up its campaign against the surging Greens, targeting the party’s candidate for Melbourne, prominent barrister Brian Walters, and seeking to smear him as anti-Semitic and an unscrupulous lawyer.
Senior Labor figures including former Victorian secretary Stephen Newnham have contacted influential members of the Jewish community seeking to generate a political backlash against the Greens, and Mr Walters in particular.
The Age has obtained a dossier of documents used as part of the dirt campaign that focus on Mr Walters’s representation of alleged Nazi war criminal Konrads Kalejs in the early 2000s.
In a Sunday Herald Sun front page story yesterday the member for Melbourne and Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike, described Mr Walters as a ”hypocrite” for representing a brown-coal mining company while as a Green criticising coal-fired power.
ALP secretary Nick Reece also criticised Mr Walters for seeking ”profit” from a coalmining company.
Having a Nazi as a criminal client, does not make you a Nazi. It makes you a lawyer. Lawyers in criminal practice are obliged to represent clients who seek their services, as explained:
Robert Richter, both Jewish and a high-profile QC, defended Walters as an ”ethical barrister”. ”The attack on him is completely shameful or rather shameless, and discloses not just an ignorance of the working of our legal system but a betrayal of any sense of proper legal ethics.”
Prominent human rights activist Julian Burnside, QC, slammed Labor’s tactics as a ”disgrace”. ”I can only say that I am astonished at the ignorance (or hypocrisy) of the Herald Sun, Bronwyn Pike and Nick Reece.
”The cab-rank rule is fundamental to the independent bar. It exists to protect the community by ensuring that even unpopular clients can get representation in court.
Points well made.
Some criticism over representing a coal mining company could be legitimate, as that is nor criminal representation but again you do not have to approve of a client to do work for them – I do work for plenty of clients I disagree with!
What I found really interesting was this:
Last month The Age revealed that taxpayers are footing the bill for a secretive operation run out of Mr Brumby’s office aimed at discrediting Coalition MPs and Greens candidates in the lead-up to this month’s state election. An informal committee, referred to as ”the dirt unit” among senior Labor figures, has met weekly in the Premier’s private office over the past year, overseeing investigations of the political, business and sometimes personal histories of shadow ministers and, more recently, Greens MPs and candidates.
Maybe Mike Williams could do contract work for them, on the basis of his wonderful H Fee investigation.
November 1st, 2010 at 4:09 pm
And Tasmanian Greens Leader Nick McKim was predicting Labor would “play every dirty trick in the book” just this weekend, so either he knew what was coming or just knows the ALP well enough to know he’d be proved right in the end.
Yet the Tasmanian Greens pledged support for that state’s ALP, allowing it to form a government when the numbers were evenly split. And Andrew Bandt, the Greens members elected to the Federal Parliament, didn’t even wait to see what was on offer – he was pledging support for Julia Gillard even before the election.
The Greens – the only masochists stupid enough to be surprised when the sadist kicks them.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:19 pm
They want to be careful about throwing mud, it has a habit of sticking to those that throw. There is a brewing story about a certain federal government minister in Australia and his shenanigans that could cause problems for PM Jooolia…
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:26 pm
They simply can’t help themselves can they? I find it tragic that the Intellectual Socialists find it acceptable to stoop so very low.
Then they deny that they are ever involved or benefitted personally to fill their own coffers. No policies. No empathy. No commercial Nous.
Just boiled down to the ‘Politics of Envy’ in every single way. It is just so comforting that they find it impossible to do the ‘Right Thing’.
Aw Bless!
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:35 pm
>Lawyers in criminal practice are obliged to represent clients who seek their services, as explained
Is this legislated? What if the prospective client isn’t able to pay the lawyer’s fees? I can’t think of any other industry where someone is legally obligated to work for anyone who asks, and it sounds like it violates fundamental human rights. Like slavery, for instance, and the right of free association.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:42 pm
“Having a Nazi as a criminal client, does not make you a Nazi. It makes you a lawyer. Lawyers in criminal practice are obliged to represent clients who seek their services, as explained:”
Similar situation to the “Rainbow Warrior” case. The French Embassy asked their usual lawyers (a prominent firm) to defend the “Rainbow Warrior” people. No matter what was thought of their actions, in a civilized country they were entitled to competent legal representation. It could have been tempting for the firm to have turned the work away, but this would have been a serious ethical breach. There was no question that the firm was qualified for the work apart from bringing a barrister in as needed which is common practice anyway.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:44 pm
You have to see this in the context of the Australian media, which does not even pretend to be impartial.
The Fairfax media (which includes The Age) strongly supports the Greens and its news articles are blatently slanted in favour of the Greens — it reflects the inner northern suburbs of trendy young professional folk where The Age’s circulation is strongest.
The Murdoch media strongly supports the Liberals and its news and broadcast items (The Herald Sun in Melbourne, Terrorgraph in Sydney, Courier Mail Brisbane. The Australian, Sky TV etc) are strongly slanted in favour of the Coalition, against Labor and hysterically against the Greens.
Anything you read or see in either organisation’s utterances need to be viewed in this light.
This particular story is an Age beat-up in favour of the Green candidate in what is one of the strongest-circulation areas of The Age (which used to support Labor but has gobe Green as its core readers have).
The ABC claims to be impartial but in reality is soft-left and does have a better range of stories than the Fairfax and Murdoch media.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I think anyone who wants to argue against due process, yes even for Nazis, is either a totalitarian or ignorant of the concept. Wasn’t a major purpose of Nuremburg to demonstrate which side is civilised?
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I think anyone who wants to argue against due process, yes even for Nazis, is either a totalitarian or ignorant of the concept.
I haven’t seen much support around here for due process for the people the Americans have detained at Guantanamo Bay.
[DPF: I support due process for them, but whether that should be criminal or military court is another matter]
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Much like the impartiality of your comment poneke.
Always take with a pinch of salt….
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:56 pm
having a Nazi as a client doesn’t make the Lawyer a Nazi as standing in a garage doesn’t make you are car.
Vote:“In Australia the Labor smear machine is working at full speed” I sense deja vu here. 80% of posts on Redalert are an attempt to smear their opponents .. can’t help themselves
November 1st, 2010 at 4:58 pm
davidp,
The cabrank rule is an important part of legal practice and especially barristerial practice.
It now forms a part of the “Conduct and Client Care rules” for Lawyers.
Rule 4 says;
“A Lawyer as a professional person must be available to the public and must not, without good cause, refuse to accept instructions from any client or prospective client for services within the reserved areas of work that are within the lawyers fields of practice.”
The are some exceptions to the rule, including inablility to pay.
But, not liking a client or the personal attributes of a client, however distasteful they may be, or the merits of a case, are not grounds for refusing instructions.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Victims of terror got no due process from the terrorists in Guantanamo.(sorry off topic)
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 5:01 pm
It is sad that we seem to have lost the art of having a reasoned, civil discussion of issues. Do we blame the party machines, the spin doctors, the PR hacks or the media? Or is it our fault for joining in – as we can see by the distasteful and hostile tone of some of the posts on this site. Or perhaps we Antipodeans are just not very nice people.
Interesting that in the US the Right are the haters where here it is the Left who strive so hard to smear and destroy.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I haven’t seen much support around here for due process for the people the Americans have detained at Guantanamo Bay.
What more than protection under Common Article 3 of the Geneva convention do they need?
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 5:14 pm
There is something common with NZ here. The Labour Party in NZ and Australia thinks they can run a smear machines against everyone and when it comes to talking political support they assume all this can be forgotten. The ALP is fighting for its political life as the Greens take more and more votes from the left. Of course they rely on Green second preferences but not all second preferences go to the ALP – about 80-90% do, the rest go to the Liberals. This figure is critical as ALP first preferences are dropping to the low 30s. Sound familiar. I think we are seeing the long term death of Labour (yippeeeee), as its “coalition” starts breaking up into component parts. The Labour Party in NZ and Australia and UK have lashed themselves closely to the Unions. But the Unions are representing a smaller and smaller part of the workforce. As the Unions decline so does Labour, (fantastic).
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 5:38 pm
In America the ACLU famously defended neo-Nazis’ right to march. I guess the ACLU are Nazis.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 6:15 pm
I’d put this up there with the recent Obama campaign that if you vote Republican, aids research funding would be cut.
This after Bush spent millions on very effective AIDS work in Africa.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 6:38 pm
If you vote Democrat as in for Obama, you are keeping the First Family in Grandeur and akin to the privileged’s linked to the French Aristocracy pre and post Revolution 1.
Michele Obama has drawn a lot of flak for her current demeanour, particularly from European Media.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 8:50 pm
davidp and DPF – the ‘Cab Rank’ rule applies to civil and criminal cases. Like many areas of the law there is no piece of legislation governing this. There are occasions where a lawyer can decline to act which includes conflict of interest or not in area of expertise (eg a criminal barrister can decline a comercial law civil case). Prospective inability to pay is a reason but is a matter for the instructing solicitor, not the barrister who takes the case on. However it works in practice and lawyers (together with people who understand the system, such as most media people) will stick up for lawyers acting for ‘unpopular’ clients.
Having said that, it is unfortunate that criminal barristers tend to be at the bottom of the legal heap – they are vital to ensure defendants get a fair go and they are seriously under-represented in appointments as QC’s (because they do not have drinkies at the Northern Club as a now deceased defence lawyer once said) or judges. Again, it does not seem right that a legally aided defence lawyer earns less for a typical case than the Crown prosecutor – if the system was balanced they would earn similar amounts, even with legal aid.
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Due process for those in gitmo is a bullet in the head
Vote:November 1st, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Socialists behaving true to form. No surprises here then. Often they hate each other more than they hate the ‘right’.
cheers
David Prosser
Vote:November 2nd, 2010 at 7:13 am
So what does it mean if you have Winston Peters as a client?
Vote:November 2nd, 2010 at 8:41 am
thedavincimode @7:13 am Probably that you are a semiretired principal who does pro-bono work in charitable areas like representing unemployed, vertically challenged, geriatric bigots.
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