From the wording in the legislation, I don’t see how this ‘power’ is any more special than Dutton’s was when he granted his mate’s au pair a tourist visa despite her intentions to work unlawfully.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Attorney-General keeps repeating that the powers he’s being asked to use to drop the prosecutions of David McBride and Richard Boyle can only be used in “exceptional circumstances,” committing a deceit on both the Parliament and the public.
Freeman’s script could easy be adapted to the phrase “exceptional circumstance” being touted by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in his attempts to justify his refusal to use powers granted to him under the Judiciary Act to drop a prosecution.
Australia’s Judiciary Act 1903 is among the oldest pieces of federal legislation still in force; one of only six laws passed during the first Commonwealth Parliament that are current still in the statute books.
In the last sitting of Parliament, independent MPs Andrew Wilkie and Kylea Tink pressed the Attorney-General to explain why he wasn’t exercising his powers under the Judiciary Act in the poorly thought through prosecutions of David McBride and Richard Boyle.
In effect, he was suggesting the Parliament ought not to be talking about the exercise of this power as Attorney-General to save McBride and Boyle because the Courts should be left to do their job without political influence.
After attempting to blow the whistle internally on the egregious use of garnishee notices by the Australian Tax Office, and after they botched the investigation into his claim, Richard Boyle exposed the ATO’s misbehaviour externally.
The original article contains 1,247 words, the summary contains 224 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Section 71 of the Act says.
“When any person is under commitment upon a charge of an indictable offence against the laws of the Commonwealth, the Attorney-General or such other person as the Governor-General appoints in that behalf may decline to proceed further in the prosecution, and may, if the person is in custody, by warrant under his or her hand direct the discharge of the person from custody, and he or she shall be discharged accordingly.”
The power to drop the unjust prosecutions of David McBride and Richard Boyle lies with you, Mark.