Judges to face phone taps

JUDGES, magistrates and vice-regal officers will be subject to phone tapping surveillance and Royal Commission-like investigation under unprecedented new powers to be handed to Victoria's first Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission.

Members of the judiciary will also be compelled to give evidence, have their premises searched, computers monitored and assets seized under sweeping changes to Victorian law developed specifically for the new corruption-busting watchdog.

Vice-regal figures, such as the governor, will also be subject to the tough new coercive powers aimed at stamping out dishonest dealings and unscrupulous behaviour in the public service.

It will be the first time

the judiciary has been subject to such scrutiny, opening the door for the use of surveillance devices and telephone bugging equipment to observe, listen to, track and monitor suspected corruption in the courtroom.

Law Institute of Victoria president Caroline Counsel said the changes went too far, branding the move an "inappropriate leap".

"There is no evidence of any sort of systematic corruption in Victoria so you wonder are we in fact making a really big cannon to shoot a fly," she said.

"At the moment there is really nothing to justify this."

The Government will introduce the legislation in State Parliament this week.

Past judges could also come under scrutiny with IBAC to be equipped with retrospective powers to probe historic corruption allegations.

A senior government source said the hard-hitting changes were what Victorians had voted for in the hope of flushing out state secrecy.

"This legislation is further proof of just how serious the Government is about fighting corruption," he said.

The commission, and its yet-to-be appointed commissioner, will be accountable to a new joint parliamentary committee and an inspector hired to watch the watchdog.

A spokeswoman for Supreme Court chief justice Marilyn Warren, Anne Stanford, declined to comment.

heraldsun.com.au 3 Dec 2011

This is another publicity stunt to lead the masses into a false sense of security.

Judges are above the law, even if they are found to be corrupt, as they have the protection of the brotherhood.

There cannot be any incarceration time of corrupt judges, even though the legal system is littered with them.

Judges working together with Australia's largest drug cartels dismiss crime bosses, allowing them to keep the proceeds of crime. This is done in full view of the general public, and the acceptance (support) of the government.

Another farce spitting in the face of the public.