❓ WA Planning and Infrastructure Minister updates parliament on the Albany port bombs case, criticising the Commonwealth government's handling of the matter and associated costs, urging them to take responsibility.
AnsweredQoN 342Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ALBANY HARBOUR - BOMBS
Can the minister please advise on the progress of the Albany port bombs case and how the federal government is continuing to avoid taking responsibility for the bombs in Albany harbour? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
Can the minister please advise on the progress of the Albany port bombs case and how the federal government is continuing to avoid taking responsibility for the bombs in Albany harbour? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. I note that we have National Party support on this matter. I will provide the house with an update. A further directions hearing was held today. The matter has now been before the courts for some three and half years. We put it to the judge that it was time that a trial date was set to try to get some finality on this matter. As I have explained in this house from time to time, the commonwealth has behaved as a vexatious defendant. Indeed, that is not just our conclusion. Justice Templeman expressed horror last month at the conduct of the commonwealth. He said that, in all his years, he had never seen such an abuse of process as he had seen from the commonwealth. The commonwealth’s latest tactic today was to say that it required a four-week trial for this matter. It is very hard to get a four-week block of time. It means that the matter will go to trial some time in March 2007. We have another day in court tomorrow because the commonwealth is actually appealing the interim orders that were made by Justice Templeman, in which he described its conduct as an abuse of process. So, we are back in court again tomorrow on an interim measure. I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I note that we have National Party support on this matter. I will provide the house with an update. A further directions hearing was held today. The matter has now been before the courts for some three and half years. We put it to the judge that it was time that a trial date was set to try to get some finality on this matter. As I have explained in this house from time to time, the commonwealth has behaved as a vexatious defendant. Indeed, that is not just our conclusion. Justice Templeman expressed horror last month at the conduct of the commonwealth. He said that, in all his years, he had never seen such an abuse of process as he had seen from the commonwealth. The commonwealth’s latest tactic today was to say that it required a four-week trial for this matter. It is very hard to get a four-week block of time. It means that the matter will go to trial some time in March 2007. We have another day in court tomorrow because the commonwealth is actually appealing the interim orders that were made by Justice Templeman, in which he described its conduct as an abuse of process. So, we are back in court again tomorrow on an interim measure. I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. I note that we have National Party support on this matter. I will provide the house with an update. A further directions hearing was held today. The matter has now been before the courts for some three and half years. We put it to the judge that it was time that a trial date was set to try to get some finality on this matter. As I have explained in this house from time to time, the commonwealth has behaved as a vexatious defendant. Indeed, that is not just our conclusion. Justice Templeman expressed horror last month at the conduct of the commonwealth. He said that, in all his years, he had never seen such an abuse of process as he had seen from the commonwealth. The commonwealth’s latest tactic today was to say that it required a four-week trial for this matter. It is very hard to get a four-week block of time. It means that the matter will go to trial some time in March 2007. We have another day in court tomorrow because the commonwealth is actually appealing the interim orders that were made by Justice Templeman, in which he described its conduct as an abuse of process. So, we are back in court again tomorrow on an interim measure. I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I note that we have National Party support on this matter. I will provide the house with an update. A further directions hearing was held today. The matter has now been before the courts for some three and half years. We put it to the judge that it was time that a trial date was set to try to get some finality on this matter. As I have explained in this house from time to time, the commonwealth has behaved as a vexatious defendant. Indeed, that is not just our conclusion. Justice Templeman expressed horror last month at the conduct of the commonwealth. He said that, in all his years, he had never seen such an abuse of process as he had seen from the commonwealth. The commonwealth’s latest tactic today was to say that it required a four-week trial for this matter. It is very hard to get a four-week block of time. It means that the matter will go to trial some time in March 2007. We have another day in court tomorrow because the commonwealth is actually appealing the interim orders that were made by Justice Templeman, in which he described its conduct as an abuse of process. So, we are back in court again tomorrow on an interim measure. I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. I note that we have National Party support on this matter. I will provide the house with an update. A further directions hearing was held today. The matter has now been before the courts for some three and half years. We put it to the judge that it was time that a trial date was set to try to get some finality on this matter. As I have explained in this house from time to time, the commonwealth has behaved as a vexatious defendant. Indeed, that is not just our conclusion. Justice Templeman expressed horror last month at the conduct of the commonwealth. He said that, in all his years, he had never seen such an abuse of process as he had seen from the commonwealth. The commonwealth’s latest tactic today was to say that it required a four-week trial for this matter. It is very hard to get a four-week block of time. It means that the matter will go to trial some time in March 2007. We have another day in court tomorrow because the commonwealth is actually appealing the interim orders that were made by Justice Templeman, in which he described its conduct as an abuse of process. So, we are back in court again tomorrow on an interim measure. I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
I would like people to be aware of the costs that have been racked up on this matter due to the way in which the commonwealth has approached it. The Albany Port Authority has so far spent around $500 000. We calculate that the commonwealth has probably spent in the order of $1 million. We would expect with the four-week trial that the commonwealth is now proposing, plus all the other interim procedures between now and then, that at least another $750 000 of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this matter. It comes down to who is responsible for a set of bombs that have been found in Albany harbour, and that continue to impede the future growth of Albany. We would urge both sides of the house to tell the commonwealth to give up this very wasteful legal process and to get behind us and resolve the matter.
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