Ticket clipping

The threat to the Queensland bar's power to issue tickets ... Did Bleijie give a nod or wink to this threat? ... The Fiji option looms ... Carmody fallout ... From Queensland barrister Alex McKean 

Freshly configured BAQ practising certificate

The former President of the Bar Association of Queensland, Peter Davis QC, has raised important issues about the role of Brisbane barrister Ryan Haddrick in endeavouring to garner support for the appointment of Tim Carmody as chief justice. 

Haddrick is a former chief-of-staff to the attorney general Jarrod Bleijie. 

Davis said that Haddrick contacted a member of the bar council, on a number of occasions, saying the association should support the appointment of Judge Carmody QC.

Haddrick apparently indicated that a lack of support might well lead to the next 10 judicial appointments not being made from the ranks of barristers. 

Of more serious concern, it is claimed by Davis that Haddrick issued an implied threat that the association could lose the statutory power to issue practising certificates, if it did not back Carmody's appointment.

This is a threat that bears closer examination.

In October 2012, Bleijie decided that Queensland would not join the national regulatory scheme for the legal profession. 

He defended the decision on the basis that the national scheme would create a layer of bureaucracy, "run out of another jurisdiction [and was] not in the interest of the majority of Queensland practitioners".

Mr Bleijie claimed that 85 percent of Queensland solicitors were sole practitioners who had nothing to gain from the changes.

Queensland Law Society data shows the figure was closer to 11 percent.  

The refusal to participate in a national regulatory regime, effectively, excluded oversight of professional regulation of Queensland lawyers from anywhere outside the State.

Arguably, it left Queensland lawyers vulnerable to a "shake-up" of the regulatory system by the government, at some time in the future. 

We need only turn our gaze 5,000 km to the east, to Fiji, to see the consequences of the executive removing control of professional regulation from lawyers.

In 2008, a delegation of the International Bar Association, including Queensland Supreme Court Justice Roslyn Atkinson, looked into the deterioration of the legal system in Fiji.

The report produced by the IBA in March 2009 noted that principle 28 of the UN Basic Principles of the Role of Lawyers provides for disciplinary bodies established by lawyers, an independent statutory authority or a court, with a mechanism for independent judicial review.

The IBA report concluded it was inappropriate for an illegitimate regime, which had threatened lawyers, to be involved in setting up a discipline regime for the legal profession.

In May 2009, ignoring the IBA's recommendations, the Fijian government issued a decree that the Fiji Law Society would no longer have the power to issue practising certificates.

Fijian Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khalum, announced that lawyers in the jurisdiction would have to reapply for their certificates to the Chief Registrar of the Fijian High Court.

The Law Council of Australia expressed concerns about the decision, citing fears for the independence of the legal profession in Fiji. Law Council President John Corcoran said:

"I am concerned that this could be the first step in the Fiji Government's attempts to control the country's legal profession by not allowing lawyers who oppose the regime to practise law."  

Major Ana Rokomokoti (right): issued Fiji practising certificates

It was noted the decree had been issued without any consultation with the Fiji Law Society or the legal profession.

An email sent in May 2009 by the vice-president of the Fiji Law Society to the society's members said that the Chief Registrar had attended the office of the society with six administrative staff and forcibly removed all of the files relating to complaints about legal practitioners.

The Chief Registrar appointed by the military regime was lawyer, Ana Rokomokoti, who was also a major in the Fiji military - the same rank Premier Newman achieved in the ADF.

Major Rokomokoti was "recalled to barracks", leaving her dual jobs as Chief Registrar and Chief Magistrate, in June 2010.

Concerns about placing the power to issue practising certificates in the hands of a government appointee appear to be founded.

A prominent Fijian lawyer, Dr Muhammed Sahu Khan, was in April this year granted a practising certificate in New Zealand after Fijian authorities prohibited him from practicing in that country.

Dr Khan was an opponent of the government of military strongman, Frank Bainimarama.

There have been other examples apparently politically motivated prosecutions, by Chief Registrar Rokomokoti, including that of human rights lawyer Imrana Jalal and Dorsami Naidu, President of the Fiji Law Society and a vocal critic of the government.

The situation in Fiji illustrates the danger inherent to the rule of law from a government assuming control over who is able to practise as a lawyer. 

Bleijie: secret signals to Haddrick?

The allegation in Davis's resignation letter is that the threat to the Bar Association about removal of the right to issue practising certificates was made by none other than Bleijie's former chief-of-staff, Ryan Haddrick.

Bleijie should be pressed on whether he had any involvement in those threats. 

So far the attorney general had been silent about his links to Haddrick and, tellingly, he has refused to respond to the allegations of leaking about the judicial appointment process. 

The question arises as to how Haddrick could think it appropriate to even raise the possibility that the government would remove the right to issue practising certificates without some form of nod or a wink from the attorney.

Bleijie should give a firm assurance that there was neither nod nor wink. 

While he's about it, he should an explanation of the extent of his current relationship with Haddrick, including any recent discussions the pair may have had about judicial appointments. 

But then again, this is Queensland.