ACT Attorney-General Shane Ratenbury says the findings of an inquiry into the prosecution of ex-Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann remain relevant, despite an ACT Supreme Court ruling about the man who led the probe.
Former director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold — who was the subject of several adverse comments from the inquiry — succeeded in his bid to challenge some of the findings through a judicial review on Monday.
Acting Justice Stephen Kaye ruled the conduct of the inquiry chair, Walter Sofronoff KC, gave rise to a “reasonable apprehension of bias” against Mr Drumgold.
That ruling was based on Mr Sofonoff’s communications with journalist Janet Albrechtsen of The Australian, which included more than 50 telephone calls over a six-month period, and a private lunch.
Despite the ruling in the Supreme Court, the bulk of the inquiry’s findings remained in place — except for one which was found to be “legally unreasonable”.
The recommendations of the inquiry largely went to systemic changes involving ACT Policing, and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said the government remained committed to implementing them despite the court’s decision about one of the findings regarding Mr Drumgold.
“They stand, in the government’s view, by themselves, and they are quite practical-oriented,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“In the consultations we’ve carried out with a range of key stakeholders, those recommendations that go to system issues have been generally well received.”
Last year, Mr Sofronoff was criticized by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr for providing a copy of his final report to two media outlets before it was officially made public by the government, at the time labeling the move as a “significant lapse of judgement”.
But today, Mr Rattenbury would not comment on the court’s findings about Mr Sofronoff, or whether the government was considering any further action against him.
He said the court’s findings “really do speak for themselves”.
“Given the propensity of people involved in this matter to start defamation proceedings, my inclination is to keep my remarks pretty limited today,” Mr Rattenbury said.
He stood by the government’s decision to appoint Mr Sofronoff to head the inquiry in February last year, and said he was considered “highly credentialed”.
“I don’t think anybody expected that we would find ourselves in the circumstances we now find ourselves in,” Mr Rattenbury said.
The ABC has contacted Walter Sofronoff for comment on the court’s decision.
Contact with journalist ‘must stop’
Director of the Center for Public Integrity, Geoffrey Watson SC, said Mr Sofronoff’s engagement with Ms Albrechtsen left the inquiry process “irredeemably flawed”.
“I cannot believe that it occurred, I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Mr Watson said.
“If it ever was a practice, people should recognize now that it must stop.”
He said he hoped there would soon be a “time for healing” for everyone involved in the range of legal matters which have emerged from Brittany Higgins’s rape allegation against Bruce Lehrmann.
“Whatever happened that night in Parliament House has spun off into something uncontrollable, some chaos,” Mr Watson said.
“It’s metastasized across the country.”
Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial for the alleged rape of Ms Higgins was abandoned due to juror misconduct, and prosecutors declined to retry the case out of concern for Ms Higgins’s health — leaving no findings against Mr Lehrmann.
He commenced defamation proceedings against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, over their interview with Ms Higgins on The Project — for which Justice Michael Lee has reserved his decision.
Meanwhile, the ACT government has settled a defamation claim brought by Senator Linda Reynolds, over comments Mr Drumgold made about her in a letter to the territory’s chief police officer.