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ASIO disrupts 24 'major' espionage operations in three years
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has used a speech to warn foreign espionage is costing the nation at least $12.5 billion a year, while revealing the agency disrupted 24 significant espionage and foreign interference operations in the past three years.
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Stephen Maunsell found in contempt of court after expletive-laden outburst
A Canberra man who refused to apologise for an expletive-laden outburst during a hearing has been found to be in contempt of court. Stephen Maunsell made the comments when he represented himself during protracted legal proceedings in the ACT Magistrates Court in 2023. He was later accused of disrupting the court by insulting the magistrates and lawyers involved in the case, failing to comply with court processes, and refusing to stop when the presiding magistrate ordered him. In an exchange with one magistrate, Maunsell back-chatted until he was told to stop arguing. Maunsell: You're a bunch of corrupt c***s. Magistrate: If you continue to use that language, I will have you removed. Maunsell: Well, if you don't believe evidence that's right in front of you, you're corrupt. I've provided evidence, black-and-f***ing-white evidence. In another exchange, Maunsell called a magistrate a raving feminist. During the contempt proceedings, in front of Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker, Maunsell took up the opportunity to apologise, aiming to have the matter 'purged'. It was put to him that he should have known how to address judicial officers, not to answer telephone calls in the courtroom, and not leave while a decision was being handed down. Maunsell said he did not know enough about legal etiquette at the time, but now regretted his actions. "Looking at what happened, I regret my actions and I can now see that my actions were not acceptable and those people in the courtroom shouldn't have been spoken to in that way," Maunsell said in an affidavit. "I can now look back on it and go, 'Yes, I accept I was wrong. I take responsibility for that and I absolutely apologise to those people that — that I offended during those times." But when he was cross-examined on the matters and invited to take back the claims about the lawyers being liars, he refused, saying the transcripts showed they lied. He also refused to withdraw his accusation that a magistrate was being a "raving feminist". Chief Magistrate Walker was not impressed. "It was clearly intended to support his position that she was corrupt and had made her decision because of a philosophical bias without proper regard to the evidence before her," Chief Magistrate Walker said. Chief Magistrate Walker said Maunsell was on notice at the time of the incident that his behaviour was unacceptable. Maunsell was found to be in contempt of the court, with an order that he should be punished, although what form that will take has not been made clear.
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New NAAJA chief intends to rebuild NT Aboriginal legal service after years of instability
Lobbying against harsher crime laws, boosting staff morale and restoring stability and trust are among the priorities the new head of one of Australia's biggest Aboriginal legal service providers says he plans to tackle in his new role. The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) announced Ben Grimes as its new chief executive in July, following a period of deep internal instability. In the past two years, NAAJA has gone through six acting chief executives and been the subject of a string of highly publicised controversies. They include a costly Federal Court case brought by its former chief executive, resignations of senior leadership and the suspension of core legal services in Alice Springs. The organisation has said it hopes Mr Grimes's appointment will mark a step towards stable leadership. In his first interview since being named chief executive, Mr Grimes — who is the former chief executive of the Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Aboriginal Corporation — said before accepting the role, he questioned how much the organisation had improved, but believed it had now turned a corner. "I've been pleasantly surprised at just how much good work has gone on up to this point," he said. "We've got a new board, a new constitution, so a lot of those issues which were raised in the past have actually largely been addressed. So now we're on the rebound and rebuilding phase, which is really exciting to be part of." At the height of the organisation's staffing woes in 2024, just three lawyers were left to service Alice Springs, leaving vulnerable people without options for legal representation. Mr Grimes said speaking directly with staff on the ground in Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek to understand their needs and concerns would be a priority when he officially started the role in September. He said proving adequate training and boosting the number of local and Aboriginal lawyers were among the steps he planned to take to improve workforce consistency. Mr Grimes conceded that some factors contributing to NAAJA staff burnout were beyond the organisation's control and were unlikely to ease anytime soon. In recent months, the Darwin Local Court has struggled to manage the high number of cases being listed per day, leading to a growing backlog of cases. "The incredible court lists and the huge number of people being processed through … there's not much we can do, our lawyers just have to respond," he said. Having worked at NAAJA as a junior lawyer more than a decade ago, Mr Grimes said the explosion of prisoner numbers in recent years and the growing proportion of people on remand was a sign of a "system at crisis point". "Fifty per cent of people in prison haven't been found guilty … it's a sign of how out-of-kilter our legal system is at the moment," he said. Mr Grimes said government funding commitments and an emphasis on policing and corrections needed to be matched with additional resources for mental health services, courts and lawyers. He said he wanted NAAJA to support and invest in Aboriginal community-led solutions to justice, including community courts and restorative sentencing, particularly for young offenders. "If we can nip it in the bud when people are 11, 12, 13, 14 that's going to save us so much down the track," he said. He said NAAJA would be lobbying the NT government to shift its focus on policing and prisons following a series of changes aimed at increasing police powers, restricting bail and introducing tougher penalties for youth offenders. "What they're doing at the moment is not working, it's costing us a ridiculous amount of money and it's actually just setting us up for failure in future and there are much better ways to do things," he said. Mr Grimes is also a linguist and a senior manager at the Aboriginal Interpreter Service, where he played a key role in shaping the existing court duty interpreting system used across the NT. He said access to interpreters for Indigenous defendants was an area he wanted to see improved in NT courts. "We can unfortunately point to too many examples of people who have ended up in prison and it's later turned out they're innocent and the issue was lack of interpreting," he said. Mr Grimes said understanding court processes and outcomes was an essential and often overlooked part of achieving justice for victims and their families, as well as offenders, and interpreters could assist. "Does the victim feel like their voice is heard? Did the victim feel like they actually got to tell their story in their first language?", he said. "If people don't know why a judge is making their decision, it's hard for anyone to think about that and adjust their behaviour in future."
