Page 2691 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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There are people who have been injured and disfigured by the fires. Nearly 500 homes were lost, and many people are now without memorabilia and photographs of family members who are now dead. There are people who now have no photographs of their children when they were young. Family heirlooms are lost. People lost important title deeds and business records, making it virtually impossible to do things like chase up debts when they ran businesses from home. If there is one question that people want answered, it is: why were people not warned? It is a question that haunts them.
People are also very angry now because, after the fire swept through settled suburban Canberra, they thought that there would be due process and they would find out the truth. They have, understandably, become very cynical about government. More than ever they want to know the truth and they want Coroner Doogan to get to the bottom of why the fires were allowed to reach Canberra on 18 January 2003. They want to know things like why were the fires not put out when they first stared and why was there no warning given until the first homes in Eucumbene Drive, Duffy, had already burnt.
In everything that the Attorney-General has said, he always conveys the impression that his decision to shut down the coronial inquest by filing this appeal against the coroner, in imitation of the legal actions of his own public servants, was inevitable. But this is not so. You can see that quite clearly by comparing his statements and actions with the statements and actions of the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, in a similar situation when the Bundaberg base hospital district manager, Peter Leck, and suspended director of medical services, Dr Darren Keating, brought an action against the commissioner conducting the inquiry into Jayant Patel.
Premier Beattie declared that the government, far from supporting the public servants, would not fund their legal action. There was never any question of the Queensland government joining the legal action, although there were very serious questions to be answered about the hospital’s employment of Dr Patel, now known as Dr Death and thought to be linked to the deaths of more than 80 patients. Premier Beattie said:
Our preferred position is very simple: we want Tony Morris to finish the inquiry.
The government’s Solicitor-General, Walter Sofronoff, said:
Mr Morris’ style was justified when questioning Dr Keating and Mr Leck.
How refreshing and how different this was from the way in which our Attorney-General responded to charges of perceived bias against the coroner.
Despite the advice from four eminent QCs, the full bench of our Supreme Court found overwhelmingly that Coroner Doogan had no case to answer. The full bench of the Supreme Court dismissed the application, stating:
Whilst we understand the considerations that led to the prosecutors seeking prerogative relief at this stage … we think that the applications have nonetheless been made prematurely. Some of the grounds relied upon plainly provide no basis for any reasonable apprehension of bias.
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