The flight to Brisbane was a disaster. I was locked up in the very uncomfortable seat in a plane for more than an hour because of the lightning. Of course, the subsequent flight was madly shakey I have acrophobia. I nearly died.
Anyway, on 21 December 2017, I went to the Court. I went to the Federal Court Brisbane countless times but this time was the first when I used the secured entrance. It is used only by detainees (with their guards, of course) and judges (without guards, I guess). The VIP entrance was like a loading dock at the back of a department store. Not a fancy facility.
Anyway, on 21 December 2017, I went to the Court. I went to the Federal Court Brisbane countless times but this time was the first when I used the secured entrance. It is used only by detainees (with their guards, of course) and judges (without guards, I guess). The VIP entrance was like a loading dock at the back of a department store. Not a fancy facility.
The hearing started by the judge taking an appearance of parties. I usually found the judge's attitude towards me when he or she calls me. If the judge simply calls my name in the expectation that I will respond by saying, 'I appear on my behalf, your Honour', then the judge will not look after me during the proceeding at all and the chances of me winning are slim. If the judge asked me whether I am appearing on my behalf instead of simply calling my name, then he or she will look after me during the proceeding and I have a good chance to win.
The judge in this proceeding was the latter! Not only that, after taking appearances, he put a question to the other side straight away! He asked the evidence on which the Minister relied upon to invoke his discretion in light of one of the provisions of some Commonwealth criminal code. Actually, the judge was a criminal lawyer. No one else in the courtroom was. I am an administrative lawyer, so as the other side lawyers. Clive is a commercial lawyer, So everyone was stunned. The judge told off the other side by saying, 'Despite that the Minister has such abundant resources including the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, the Australian Government Solicitors and more, yet he did not investigate such a fundamental issue!' blah, blah, blah. Then the judge gave the other side for a time to prepare a response and adjourned the court for an hour.
I think I was not too hasty to think that I won and would be released from detention by an order of the court in one hour. I am sure anyone who knows anything about the Federal Court would have thought exactly the same as I thought.
One hour later, the judge came back in court and he told us the provision he thought would apply was not applicable to my case! My jaw dropped... I appeared more than two dozens of judges in the Federal Court in various other proceedings previously but this judge was the daftest of all by far!!!! Just as much as the Minister, the judge had abundant resources, too and yet did not investigate the fundamental legislation before telling off the Minster!!! Would you believe it?
So after wasting half a day, we started the normal hearing. During the course of the hearing, it became very clear that the judge had not read any documents filed with the court in advance. So he did not know that my written submissions included one of the legal issues which he loves. And that issue was ignored by the other party's submissions either because they either did not understand or could not respond in any way. The judge obviously wanted the legal research from the other side's lawyers. So he gave a time for the other side to file a supplementary submission!!! He was supposed to give me a judgment next day but vacated the plan and decided that the proceedings continue on papers. He said that the judgment will be on 5 February or something but I do not expect this lazy judge will make it in time. Thanks to the combination of the lazy judge and the incompetent lawyers of the Minister, I will have to pay the price for the next one and a half months!
I was infuriated. I cannot see my guinea pig boy until at least February, or maybe till March or April.
Well, one good thing is that I witnessed my judge telling off the Minister. I can tell you that there are not many judges who are prepared to tell off the Minister even though there is a very good reason for doing so. In contrast, my judge is prepared to tell off the Minister even with no good reason whatsoever! Oh, well, that's very promising....