Pillars of justice

Top End synchronicity as magistrate hands out how-to-vote cards for the Country Liberals and serves as a director of the party's slush fund ... Guide to Judicial Conduct is only a guide ... Who's up who for the rent? ... Buffalo Bruce probes

SLUSH ... slush ... slush. The sound of money being funnelled by business interests and log-rollers through shadowy Liberal Party foundations. 

The NSW slush funds are being busted open by ICAC and because of the state-based nature of the Liberal Party there's foreboding that slush has headed the way of senior federal MPs from NSW. 

In Queensland we see the wholesale attempts by the Can-Do government to subvert the judiciary and the independence of the Crime and Misconduct Commission. 

The chief magistrate of Pineappleland gives the appearance of being a flag-waver for the Liberal National cause. 

In Darwin all these strands have coalesced into a triumph of synergy, where we have a magistrate who managed to combine his devotion to the ruling Country Liberal Party as well as being a director of its slush fund, Foundation 51 Pty Ltd. 

Madge Maley: in the finest traditions of Top End law and politicsPeter Maley has been a Top End practitioner, member of parliament and now magistrate. 

When he was a MLA he kept his legal practice alive. He supervised John Elferink in his law firm while the future attorney general plodded through his graduate diploma in legal practice.

For good measure he also tossed $5,000 into the Elf's election campaign. 

Surprise, surprise Attorney General Elferink subsequently put Maley, along with two other appointees, onto the local court, saying: 

"I look forward to working with the appointees to deliver the Country Liberals Government 'Pillars of Justice' reforms in the Northern Territory." 

In April, seven months after he joined the bench, Maley was handing out how-to-vote cards at a NT by-election.  

Blithely unaware of the guide to judicial conduct, promulgated by Smiler Gleeson and the Judicial Conference of Australia, Maley not only maintained his membership of the Country Liberals after joining the bench, but three months after his appointment as a Madge he landed a job as a director of good old slushy Foundation 51.  

When light dawned, a few questions were asked last week in the Top End parliament. 

Shadow AG, Michael Gunner, on May 7, asked Chief Minister Adam Giles about Maley's role with the slush fund and what message that sent about the administration of justice.  

The answer shows a boldness that Can-Do and the Conveyancer General in Qld could do well to study: 

"A magistrate in the Northern Territory is allowed to have a political opinion. What sort of society are we living in? It is a fantastic society where a magistrate can have a political opinion, where he can be a member of a political party. 

[snip] 

Good on him if he wants to make a donation to the [attorney general], who has declared it in his register of interests ... 

Thank you very much, Peter Maley, the magistrate who has shown an interest in the Country Liberals." 

Madge Maley, rear, holding how-to-vote cards. Chief Minister Giles, leftYou'd think it doesn't come much balmier than that, until next day attorney general Elferink was on his feet in the house, batting away Gunner's impudent questions about Maley and the judicial conduct guide. 

Well, the former copper said, if it was alright for Gough Whitlam to put Lionel Murphy on the High Court, it's OK to put Maley on the NT Court of Summary Jurisdiction. 

He added, that the NT is a small community, so, you know, these things happen. 

Anyway, the guide to judicial conduct is not law, it's only a guide. 

By the next day, it was all too much. Maley must have checked the guide and found the sections dealing with the appearance of impartiality and political activity. 

On May 8, he handed in his CLP member's ticket and resigned as a director of the slush fund. 

Top End justice has been restored, with a few tubes of Spakfilla sealing the cracks in the "Pillars of Justice" policy.  

See Hansard

See Justinian's earlier report on AG Elferink 

See NT Disciplinary tribunal findings on practitioner Ian Rowbottam, from law shop Withnall Maley