Greg Barns
Barrister and writer
Greg Barns is an Australian barrister, political commentator and WikiLeaks Party national campaign director. He is the author of several books, including “What’s wrong with the Liberal Party”.
Kevin Rudd is a capital O opportunist politician. There is little that he won’t say or do to get elected as Prime Minister later this year, and one has to interpret his and his Party’s cowardliness on the case of Mohammed Haneef over the past few weeks in this context.
Even terror suspects have the same rights as any other individual. So New Ltd journos Lincoln Wright and Paula Doneman should apologise to Dr Haneef after incorrectly claiming he was involved in a plot to blow up a Gold Coast building.
The handling of Mohammed Haneef’s case by the Howard government and the law enforcement agencies grows more problematic everyday, writes Greg Barns.
Yesterday was one of those days in Australian legal history which should be marked on the calendar. Hopefully it is remembered as the day when at last Australia’s justice system began to slowly creep into the 21st century and began to reform its contempt of court laws, writes Greg Barns.
The sentence of 15 months in prison for over $300,000 of tax evasion handed out to rock music entrepreneur Glenn Wheatley should not surprise anyone.
Oh no, not again. A News Limited newspaper – this time The Australian - is the recipient of a juicy leak in a terrorism case. This time it’s an extract from a 142 page transcript of an AFP interview with Mohammed Haneef.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock dragged his office to a new low on ABC TV’s Lateline last night., writes Greg Barns
No matter how The Australian newspaper and the handful of Howard government’s "sir echoes" in the legal profession dress it up, what Kevin Andrews did yesterday was subvert our democratic system. Yet again.
So Dr Mohammed Haneef gets bail this morning in Brisbane. Meanwhile he has no home to go and he has lost his job. Still, at least he’s a free man.
An old friend of mine – a prominent Melbourne barrister and human rights advocate Len Hartnett – told me the other day that he lives in a state of perpetual disappointment when he thinks of the ALP and human rights. And that condition has not been ameliorated when he observes the ALP’s pathetic lips zipped tight reaction to the oppressive and inhumane treatment of Dr Haneef, and the behavior of the law enforcement apparatus of the State over the past two weeks.
