Menzies House

Too many laws, too many lawyers

Unlike who came first - the chicken or the egg – lawyers came first and laws followed – lots of laws.

Via the Australian

 

IMAGINE reality were inverted and economists outnumbered lawyers 10 to one. Alas this nirvana of rationality, trade, freedom and prosperity is increasingly unlikely, as long as student and vocational interest in economics continues to wane, and the law maintains its bizarre, insidious appeal.

In the nine years from June 1999, the number of people employed in the legal services industry in Australia ballooned more than 25 per cent to 99,000.

The number of practising solicitors in NSW, about 40 per cent of the total legal market, surged 51 per cent over the same period to 22,105.

Does anyone seriously think that their rights (forget responsibilities) are better understood or protected now than they were then?

Australia is home to more than 60,000 practising solicitors, and only 12 per cent of those are working on criminal matters. The rest are occupied with swaths of federal and state legislation that stifle commerce and clog the arteries of business, to everyone's great, ultimate cost.

 

Feel free to post Lawyer jokes in the comments section

 

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And on it goes

EXCLUSIVE:

by Perkin-Warbeck 

T here is only one person standing between open warfare between Queensland’s judiciary and the Newman Government on the matter of the new laws to control bikie gangs – the Chief Justice, Paul de Jersey.

CJ de Jersey, both wily and wise, has been a Supreme Court justice since 1985 and got the top job in 1998. He has seen a succession of Premiers and Attorneys-General in his time and will undoubtedly see more before his scheduled retirement aged 70 in September, 2018.

Last weekend he did make some guarded comments about the controversy saying, “The public commentary bears a highly political flavour and thereby the courts should remain detached from that,” he said.

“(And) a challenge to the validity of the new (bikie) legislation could proceed in the Supreme Court, and that’s where challenges to grants of bail will be heard. (I) cannot by any public comment risk compromising the perceptions of the way in which the court discharges its duty in those situations,” he said.

The Chief Justice is first among equals and is not inclined to tell his fellow jurists what they can and cannot say even if he could but, clearly, his measured comments were aimed at them – in effect, he was telling Queensland judicial officers to pull their heads in.

MONKEY LAW

EXCLUSIVE:

by William Puisne

England soccer manager, Roy Hodgson, had a PC poison dart shot at him for telling this joke;

After using only monkeys in space capsules, NASA decided to send a man into space with a monkey.
Following launch, the intercom crackled, “Monkey, fire the retros.”
A little later, “Monkey, check the solid fuel supply.”
Later still, “Monkey, check the life support systems.”
The astronaut is annoyed and testily radios NASA, “When do I get something to do?”
NASA replied, “Feed the monkey in half an hour.”

Raceophobic, islamophobic, homophobic, lesbophobic, fatophobic, transgenderophobic, youthophobic??
Come off the grass.

Nevertheless, a complaint was made. The remark was capable of offence. And he had to apologise – to the universe at large – saying he hadn’t intended any hurt.

Just one more success for the PC brigade.

Prosecuting people in the news in these mushrooming hurt feelings courts is great fun.

The William Bugmy Case

High Court's William Bugmy ruling 'a good call?

It is always sad when a person's self-worth diminishes into a life of criminal activity or poor mental health but it is somewhat reassuring that the High Court has set a precedent and disagrees with the Criminal Court in that suffering does not diminish in time. Suicide and self harm rates show that mental illnesses which manifest later in life stem from entrenched personal issues—or negative mental tapes. 

In the William Bugmy case before the High Court where lawyers for the defence argued that Mr Bugmy's cultural history should be considered in sentencing him for an assault on a Police Officer, such a conclusive defence was disregarded. The High Court did however agree to take into account Mr Bugmy's ill mental health in the decision making which, and like Mr Bellear (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-10/bellear-aboriginal-disadvantage-and-the-law/5011950) said to the ABC's Drum blog, the outcome is nothing new in determining sentences as many courts will consider mental illness, however to have the precedent set by a High Court judge means that in all courts the mental health and background of a person should be considered in the present. In respectful contrast to Mr Bellear I believe that this aspect of the case's outcome should indeed be celebrated.

The watery grave that Labor dug

Writers of political weeklies can’t possibly be topical given the rapid change in Labor’s pandemonium as the noose of electoral execution tightens by the day, if not hour.

Political chess moves of Rudd, Shorten and Tony Sheldon seem unlikely to cause any stay of the hangman’s scaffold. A two-party-preferred result according to surveys, have remained rather stable for more than a year. Any re-arrangement of deck chairs might save a handful of seats but won’t affect the outcome. To put it nicely—Labor is stuffed—in a manner unprecedented.

For the past 18 months voter concern about the nation’s porous borders has been marching toward top billing. And now, with the latest drowning of more than 50 off Western Australia’s coast, any hope and all spin Labor might use to camouflage reality perished with that craft and those poor souls on it.

IPA's James Paterson hits a goal

This short video clip is worth watching. It exemplifies the calibre of Labor politicians and their understanding of laws they make. GC.Ed.

Big back down on Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 - but the fight is still far from over.

This week on the ABC's Q&A program the IPA's James Paterson forcefully summed up the case the IPA has been making against the Gillard government's draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 since the day the draft Bill was released: the draft Bill is a threat to Australians' freedom of speech and fundamental legal rights. Watch James here:

 freedomwatch.ipa.org.au

The draft Bill that can’t be cured

Simon Breheny at IPA's FreedomWatch offers insight to Nocola Roxon's dangerourous and now totally screwed up mess with her anti-discrimination proposal. GC.Ed.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon’s back down is a welcome development in the debate over the government’s anti-discrimination proposal. But it falls well short of what is needed – the complete abandonment of this ill-conceived consolidation project.

Roxon has announced that the phrase “offends, insults or intimidates” may be removed from the definition of discrimination under the exposure draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012.

But these changes don’t come close to going far enough. Merely taking out a few words from a fundamentally flawed proposal will not cure the deep deficiencies contained in the draft Bill.

Read More:http://freedomwatch.ipa.org.au/the-draft-bill-that-cant-be-cured/

The tyranny of tender feelings and the war on free speech

The ramifications of Labor's proposed anti-discrimination laws are being exposed as the fine print is examined. First cab off the rank to sue could be Trish Crossin who was dumped in Gillard's "captain's pick" to push Nova Peris into parliament because she is Aboriginal. Is this a race based decision? GC.Ed

Put it all together, and Labor is presiding over the greatest assault on Australians’ free speech in our lives:

- it has held an inquiry into what the Greens dubbed the “hate media” - particularly critics of the government

- it is promising new privacy rules affecting the media

- it is threatening new laws to control who owns the media - a response to conservatives such as Gina Rinehart buying into media assets

- it is considering tough new laws to regulate “bias” and reporting, applying tougher controls - back by threats of jail - on everything from big newspapers to even small blogs.

- it has punished News Ltd for its critical coverage by twice over-ruling the decision of an independent panel to award News the tender for the Australia Network.

Read more:http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/

the_tyranny_of_tender_feelings/