Should judges decide if they are biased?
A curiosity of the legal system is that the person being accused of bias gets to make a ruling about whether they are or not. Moves for change are afoot.
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Should judges be able to decide whether they are biased against a litigant? Not on your nelly, according to a review ordered by the federal government into judicial bias.
It’s one of the curiosities of the legal system that the person who is being accused of bias gets to make a ruling about whether they are or not.
It’s not that judges don’t go by the maxim that justice must not only be done but also be seen to be done. In fact, they set a pretty high bar when it comes to such perceptions.
Five-hour ambulance delays outside hospitals a âpublic health disasterâ
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Patients with heart attack symptoms and spinal injuries are being forced to wait in ambulances outside hospitals for as long as five hours in what paramedics and the Australian Medical Association have described as a deadly public health emergency.
A letter from a senior Ambulance Victoria executive, obtained by
The Age, and new figures reveal a health system under duress.
Ambulances have had to wait for hours outside Victorian hospitals.
Ambulance response times are at their worst since 2016-17 and Ambulance Victoria has instigated emergency protocols â where patients can be instructed to take taxis to hospital instead of waiting for ambulances â three times more this year than in the previous two years combined.
Five-hour ambulance delays outside hospitals a public health disaster smh.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smh.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Fridayâs judgment was arguably more of an academic exercise in whether to record a retrial or an acquittal next to Mokbelâs name.
The Tony Mokbel infamous arrest shot in Greece.
His legal team, led by Bret Walker, SC, had argued for an acquittal to be entered into the record because Mokbel would never receive a fair retrial because of the amount of publicity the case had received. Ordering a retrial, the lawyer argued, would undermine the publicâs confidence in the integrity of the criminal justice system.
But the court, in a majority ruling from justices David Beach and Robert Osborn, said they were âfar from persuadedâ that a fair trial could not be held and the very quashing of the conviction in itself condemned the conduct of Victoria Police in utilising Ms Gobbo.