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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