Networked Knowledge - Media Report

This version of the report has been prepared by: Dr Robert N Moles
Underlining where it occurs is for editorial emphasis]

List of Australian, UK and USA miscarriage of justice cases
Article on Australian miscarriage of justice cases
Article on UK miscarriage of justice cases
Article on USA miscarriage of justice cases

On 14 March 2008 Chris Merritt of The Australian reported “A-G plans to help break deadlock.”

FEDERAL Attorney General Robert McClelland is planning to intervene to help break the deadlock keeping South Australia out of the national regulatory system for lawyers. Mr McCleland intends to talk to state Attorney-General Michael Atkinson and outline the benefits for the state of joining the national system. "It is very disappointing that other states were not able to move as fast as NSW and Victoria have done," Mr McClelland said. Model legislation regulating the legal profession had been in place in NSW and Victoria for about three years, Mr McClelland said, "and South Australia has still not delivered". Mr McCleland's remarks will add to the pressure on the SA Government to accommodate opposition demands to pass the Legal Profession Bill. The nation's largest law firms have also expressed concerns about the lack of progress in passing the model bill.

Mr Atkinson has threatened to abandon the Legal Profession Bill unless independents and the Opposition in the Upper House stop insisting on amendments. Those amendments are aimed at ensuring fast compensation for the former clients of defunct law firm Magarey Farlam. They would also provide a more streamlined method of compensating future victims of failed law firms. A deadlock conference this week between the two houses of state parliament failed to reach a compromise.

Mr McClelland told The Australian it was necessary to abandon a parochial view and consider the "bigger picture" benefits that would arise from the passage of the model legislation in all jurisdictions. "Developing a national legal profession is very, very important and it would be a missed opportunity if we did not develop it," Mr McClelland said. Without a national approach, he was concerned that the legal profession's ability to play a full role in the economic development of India and China would be hampered. "I think we need to take people out of any sense of parochialism," he said. "The end prize is the opportunity to be part of a regional centre for commercial services, professional services and,in particular,legal services," he said. Mr McCleland planned to talk to Mr Atkinson at this month's meeting of the standing committee of attorneys-general to explain the benefits of the national system.

"It is clear that to progress these negotiations in some instances you have to look for the WIIFM (what's in it for me) factor and I will be sitting down to explain the bigger picture," Mr McClelland said. He hoped to outline a broad range of "incentives or inducements that would ensure SA and the other states were all singing from the same song sheet". The federal Government, with the support of the Northern Territory, had placed the development of a national electronic conveyancing system on the SCAG agenda, Mr McClelland said. It was "regrettable" that state government officials had met last week to develop their own plans for e-conveyancing without including representatives of business users, he said. "If we are going to bed this down we need everyone on board the ship," he said,"rather than having some feeling they have been left at the wharf."

Mr McClelland said he had already had discussions on e-conveyancing and was considering a number of proposals about the future structure of the system. "A joint enterprise arrangement in which the states and territories, essentially - and possibly the commonwealth - have an interest would be a good thing." To that extent I note there was a similar recommendation coming out of the meeting chaired by Bob Carr last week," he said. "So the reality is that all those involved are thinking in similar and constructive terms." My job is going to have to be to say to everyone: be careful that these discussions do not fragment and little rival blocs develop," Mr McClelland said. This month's meeting with his state counterparts would be an important opportunity to refocus the attention of the states on e-conveyancing, he said.

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