Last year I was found guilty of contempt of court for breaching Kerry Stokes’ Super Injunction. I was fined $2000 and ordered to pay costs on an indemnity basis for power couple Kerry Stokes and Channel 7’s lawyer Justine Munsie.
The whole thing was so corrupted that Stokes and Munsie could not enforce the costs order against me and, as of a few weeks ago, the NSW Justice Department has told me they will no longer be seeking to enforce the $2000 fine. (Click here to read the background posts)
The NSW Government did try hard to collect the money. Their attempts included threatening lawyer’s letters and even one of Premier Baird’s staff members told me in March I had to pay the fine which was a few weeks before the State Election. I knew at the time that the staff member’s advice was dodgy and the proof is that the Justice Department are longer trying to collect the $2000. (Click here to read more)
The Justice Department never gave a specific reason why they are no longer trying to enforce the $2000 fine. They sent me an email in April which said “the Department of Justice will not be pursuing the debt”. (Click here to read the email chain)
I have no doubt the real reason was because of my refusal to pay the fine and go to jail which I outlined last year. (Click here to read the post) Combine that with me putting them on notice that I would complain to ICAC and I think they started to worry that the truth would come out.
It was not the court or any other authority that charged me with contempt it was Kerry Stokes and Channel 7’s lawyers Justine Munsie.
When I breached the Super-Injunction last year what I did would be classified as whistleblowing. I wrote a post outing the Super-Injunction as being unlawful which is was (it only lasted 2 days) and also sent an email complaining to the Premier, Attorney-General and Chief Justice. In NSW there are laws protecting whistleblowers which I did not know at the time but do now. I learnt this recently and wrote the post “Whistleblower turns the tables: Former SES Commissioner Murray Kear looking at 2 years jail” (Click here to read the post)
PUBLIC INTEREST DISCLOSURES ACT 1994 (Click here to read the act)
The key part would be Section 20
20 Protection against reprisals (Click here to read the whole section)
(1) A person who takes detrimental action against another person that is substantially in reprisal for the other person making a public interest disclosure is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years, or both.
I have no doubt that Section 20 would also have been given serious consideration by staff at the NSW Justice Department when they decided to not pursue the $2000 fine any further. Otherwise they also would have been guilty of breaching it which can carry a 2 year jail sentence.
Update: The PUBLIC INTEREST DISCLOSURES ACT 1994 only protects Public Officials.
If you run up $2000 worth of traffic fines or parking fines you will have to pay the fines or the government will use other options to try to recover the debt. Some of those options include taking your assets, cancelling your license or community service as punishment. So the fact that the NSW Justice Department is not enforcing the fine is really admission by them that the fine was corrupt in the first place.
This is not a long post but an important one for whistleblowers who follow this site as they might learn something that helps them now or later. It is also an important for future posts as it sets part of the foundation as we continue the battle with Stokes. Kerry Stokes, by his corrupt actions, has achieved nothing but to expose corruption in the Supreme Court of NSW which I suppose we should thank him for.
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Categories: Channel 7, Kerry Stokes, Supreme Court of New South Wales
When I allegedly was speeding by 5 km I immediately challenged the validity of the legislation, etc. that was in February 2011. They issued warrant, ignoring my objections, etc. But since then have done nothing, this even so I often wrote about challenging the validity of it all. the problem is that one take a risk of huge court cost to stand up for your rights. that is why so often people cave in as they do not want to risk everything they worked hard for. While they so to say may have back peddled with you others may not be that lucky.
Shane, could you please clarify something: does the email from the NSW Dept Justice to you, mean that they are not going to execute the NSW Supreme Court’s decision to fine you $2000?
If so, does that mean that our state executive branch of government has overriden the judiciary branch of government by refusing to carry out it’s instructions, or has the judiciary branch (Supreme Court) changed its mind on the issue of “it’s decision to hand out the fine” ? Surely it’s either one or the other….?
The Justice Department has overridden the judiciary.
Shane: is it now in the hands of the Chief of Supreme Court of NSW to decide if he or she wants to summons the NSW Minister for Justice to explain (what looks like) “Contempt of the NSW Supreme Court” ??????
It’s not in court’s hands anymore so it no longer has anything to do with the Chief Justice.
The Justice Department preferred to override the judiciary rather than involve ICAC in this matter.
Hi Shane Thanks for the info. I’ll use our WA Public Interest Disclosure against the Police who have charged me under S121 Criminal Investigations Act for uploading an illegal Police Interview to Youtube.
Huzzah!!!
Congratulations Shane. Keep after the bastards, you have them on the run now.
Good one Shane, but I must say that their ‘clarification’ looks like it was written by a politician’s speechwriter and avoided any admission of wrongdoing on their part.
your perseverance is remarkable
Well Shane, at least you have saved yourself the two thousand dollars, but I find it incredible, that you were advised of this change of procedure in that email.
Indeed, there is something very smelly happening, otherwise this course of action would have been carried through correctly and as you say, it is obvious they are protecting somebody here.
It is also obvious that the corruption in this country is well-established in the Judiciary.
Go Shane! You stood your ground and won. Keep up the great work which also helps us in “everyday land” understand what is truly going on in our “justice” system.
Well done, Shane !
Shane this is a truly remarkable little insight into how systems really work as opposed to how we are always told they work.
Shane, why not make a complaint to ICAC anyway? And then perhaps expose ICAC for THEIR corruption?!?! These thugs abuse their power and and cause great harm to both individuals and our so called “democracy”… so when there is an opportunity like this to fully expose their acts and perhaps (to an extent) hold them accountable then we should not stop.
Personally I think that in my lifetime I will see a revolution in many places in the world… I think we have reached a critical point where enough of the crime has been exposed and the masses will not tolerate it any longer (keep an eye on the USA).
Can you tell the public who these fools in the Department of Justice and others are so they can be ridiculed and exposed for what they are, things like super injunctions and other illegal practices.