Lawyers decry Steven Miles’ attack on magistrate

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles slammed a Townsville magistrate’s decision to release 13 juveniles on bail in a single day.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Emily Barker

Lawyers have condemned Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles for an “extraordinary attack” on a Townsville magistrate after she released 13 juveniles on bail in a single day.

Mr Miles slammed the decision of magistrate Viviana Keegan as a “media stunt” because she did not agree with the government’s bail laws.

“This media stunt is putting the community of Townsville in danger. It should not be happening. We cannot allow the safety of Townsville residents to be held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices,” he said on Friday.

Bar Association of Queensland president Damien O’Brien said Mr Miles’s comments “ were unacceptable”.

“The members of the Queensland judiciary take an oath promising to do justice according to law,” he said. “The discharge of that oath involves applying often complex laws to the particular facts of the case before them. It does not involve making a decision according to what the government of the day wants or what the loudest voices call for.”

Queensland Law Society vice-president Rebecca Fogerty said Mr Miles’s comments were an “extraordinary attack on the judiciary, who can’t defend themselves (and) who can’t comment on specific cases”.

“It’s not the job of magistrates, and judges to make opinions that the public agrees with; their job is to apply the law as it stands,” she said. “When politicians interfere with this by casting doubt on the ability of judges and magistrates to do their job, it means people lose faith in the justice system.”

Ms Keegan’s decisions come as the government faces increased pressure over bed short­ages in youth detention centres that have forced authorities to hold juveniles for weeks in police watch houses.

Barrister Laura Reece, who served on the government’s women’s safety taskforce and more recently was counsel assisting on the DNA inquiry, said Mr Miles’s comments were concerning. “The idea any magistrate would release children to generate media publicity is a difficult proposition for anyone to accept because these kids are being held in watch houses,” she said. “The motivation in getting them out is entirely related to that situation.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said picking fights with the judiciary caused “huge” damage. “History shows that when governments are at war with everyone, that is usually a sign they are coming to the end of their tenure,” he said.

The former LNP government, led by Campbell Newman, suffered one of the greatest political defeats in 2012 after engaging in high-­profile fights with the judiciary and doctors. Mr Newman said he was “looking on with wry amusement at the Deputy Premier’s comments”.

Mr Miles was contacted for comment.