a day ago
Court rejects parliamentary privilege claim in Walter Sofronoff's bid to overturn corruption findings
Claims parliamentary privilege would prevent a report that found the head of an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann engaged in 'serious corrupt conduct' from being tendered in court have been rejected by a court.
Former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff KC led the 2023 board of inquiry into Mr Lehrmann's prosecution.
An investigation into Mr Sofronoff's conduct during that inquiry, in particular his decision to send a copy of the board's report to two journalists from the ABC and The Australian prior to its official release by the ACT government, was launched by the ACT Integrity Commission.
The commission in March found Mr Sofronoff had engaged in 'serious corrupt conduct'; however, he is seeking to have the commission's Operation Juno report overturned in the Federal Court.
Lawyers for the Speaker of the ACT Legislative Assembly in May submitted the proceedings should be dismissed over claims the report was covered by parliamentary privilege, meaning it couldn't be tendered in court.
Therefore, the retired judge couldn't seek judicial review.
Justice Wendy Abraham said she allowed the Speaker to make the submission but ultimately dismissed it on Wednesday morning during a brief case management hearing in the Federal Court.
'I am not satisfied that the conduct of the proceedings on the material on which the applicant seeks to rely involves an infringement of Section 16 of the Parliamentary Privilege Act,' Justice Abraham told the court.
'I'll provide reasons for that in my final judgment.'
The matter is scheduled for a final hearing on July 21 and 22.
Documents filed by his legal team claim that Mr Sofronoff was given the ability to do 'whatever (he) considers necessary or convenient for the fair and prompt conduct of the inquiry' as head of the inquiry, and he considered it necessary or convenient to engage with journalists 'for the fair and prompt conduct of the inquiry'.
The documents also claim Mr Sofronoff's actions were 'incapable of amounting to corrupt conduct' and the findings were 'seriously illogical, irrational and/or unreasonable'.
The Federal Court has found that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities. A criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and a charge against him was dropped.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and is appealing the Federal Court's finding.
