Julian Gerner’s High Court lockdown challenge fails
A high-profile High Court challenge against the Victorian government over lockdown has been thrown out after sitting for only two hours.
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A constitutional challenge to Victoria’s lockdown has been thrown out by the High Court after sitting for just more than two hours.
Mornington Peninsula hotel owner Julian Gerner had asked the nation’s most superior court to declare the state’s strict lockdown – which lifted last week – was never legal.
His high-profile lawyer Brett Walker SC told the court the lockdown was a violation of Australians’ constitutional right to a “free and confident society”.
But on Friday the full bench of the court dismissed the claim.
Mr Walker argued that the constitution as it was written at federation protected Australians’ right to move between states – and he said you could not move between states if you could move within a state.
“(It is) in effect a stifling of that to say you cannot leave your house at all,” he told the court.
“Movement is part and parcel of being a society.
“(It is) a substantial impeding of the freedom of political communication if citizens are held in enclaves.”
But the court disagreed.
In documents filed with the court, lawyers acting for the Victorian government argued there was no constitutional freedom of movement within a state.
They did not argue that Mr Gerner – and the state of Victoria – had not been negatively impacted by lockdown.
Their argument was a legal one: that limiting freedom of movement through lockdown was not a breach of the constitution.
“Such an implication finds no foothold in the text or structure of the constitution,” they said.
The High Court on Friday accepted this argument.
Mr Gerner’s legal battle is a separate challenge to one against the state’s curfew filed by another Mornington Peninsula hospitality owner, Michelle Loielo, which was dismissed by Victoria’s Supreme Court on Monday.
Mr Gerner is the owner of restaurant Morgan’s Sorrento.
The court’s reasons for decision will be published at a later date.
Originally published as Julian Gerner’s High Court lockdown challenge fails