I’ve noted before my appreciation of David Bennett QC S-G’s oral advocacy. It’s high time for some more, from C v Australian Crime Commission [2006] HCATrans 240:
Let me give a homely example from my favourite power. Let us assume there is a spate of murders of lighthouse keepers in lighthouses and the Commonwealth, under the lighthouses power, anxious to keep the lights burning, wishes to investigate who is behind this matter. Now, there is no offence at the moment of murder in a lighthouse or murder of a lighthouse keeper under Commonwealth law. It is left to State law to deal with murder. Is it seriously suggested that we cannot investigate under the lighthouses power, by the use of compulsory powers if necessary, this spate of murders in lighthouses with a view no doubt, if someone is found, to handing the person over to the State authorities for prosecution under State law?
If nothing else, I’m sure Mr Bennett has a career as an entertaining and educational constitutional law lecturer after he ceases to be Solicitor-General.
For balance, though, I should mention something that you don’t see terribly often. In Commonwealth v East Coast Brokers Pty Ltd [2006] HCATrans 241, in ten minutes of submissions to the Court to grant special leave to appeal, Mr Bennett could not even convince Callinan and Heydon JJ to even elicit oral submissions from opposing counsel.
