Former judge Walter Sofronoff has sent a legal letter to ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr denying any breach of law and inviting the politician to withdraw his criticisms.
Former judge Walter Sofronoff has hit back at claims by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr he breached the Inquiries Act by releasing his report to two journalists before it was published, sending a sharply worded letter that defended his conduct and denied any breach of the law.
journalist Janet Albrechtsen on the basis that they not publish before the government released the report and so they would “be in a position [to] swiftly and promptly ... write and broadcast stories that have as their foundation a true appreciation of the result of the work of the commission”. He had done so on the basis that these conversations were never on the record or for attribution and because “it is possible to identify journalists who are ethical and who understand the importance of their role in the conduct of a public inquiry”.
Former ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold, SC, has launched legal action to overturn Sofronoff’s damning findings about his conduct and argued that the leaking of the report by Sofronoff failed to comply with section 17 of the ACT’s Inquiries Act, denied him natural justice and has given rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias on the part of Sofronoff.
Higgins, a former Liberal staffer, accused Lehrmann, her ex-colleague, of raping her inside a ministerial office at Parliament House after a night out in 2019.
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