Former top judge sprays politicians and media for attacking judicial independence

Former Supreme Court judge Lex Lasry has opened fire on politicians and the media in a public speech made just days after leaving the bench, claiming the justice system is being compromised by cynical “performative outrage” and “political theatre”.

It was a significant public intervention in what is shaping up in Victoria to be a potential law-and-order state election in November, with the Allan government under sustained pressure over its handling of street crime, youth crime and bail.

Lasry, a judge for nearly 20 years in Victoria and the Northern Territory, also warned Australia was headed down the pathway of America under President Donald Trump, where the judiciary was being actively undermined by personal attacks and delegitimised of their authority.

“When judges are publicly criticised or vilified, the attacks reveal a problem … They illustrate how thin – or how robust – our commitment to judicial independence really is. If you want to understand a nation’s constitutional character, watch how its politicians speak about its judges,” Lasry said.

“It is important to understand that judicial independence matters because courts are places where rights are protected and power is constrained.”

Lasry delivered his speech at the Criminal Lawyers Association NT conference in Bali last week, just three days after stepping down from the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.

The speech was originally titled “Separation of Powers: Then and Now”, but Lasry changed it to what he said was “a more appropriate title”: “The Ritualised Art of Shouting at the Scoreboard.”

Having joined the bench in 2007, Lasry sat in judgment on some of the biggest cases in Victoria’s history, including triple child murderer Robert Farquharson, prison gang boss Matthew Johnson and sex killer Sean Price.

As a lawyer, Lasry was involved in controversial cases such as terrorist “Jihad Jack” Thomas, defending Van Nguyen, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in foreign death penalty prosecutions, and was junior counsel assisting the Costigan royal commission.

His motive for delivering the critical speech, Lasry said, was his significant concern with “the ever-increasing level of personal criticism – and, at times, personal vilification – of judges” exhibited by the media and politicians.

It was part and parcel of an attempt to make criticism of the judiciary as normal and acceptable as political criticism, he said.

“Media critics of the judiciary and politicians require that judges be in touch with ‘community expectations’ – whatever that means, and however it might be measured,”