Justice Minister Herbert Volney's statement in the Parliament yesterday was a mockery and was not an apology, says Law Association president Martin Daly."I do not consider the 'apology' to be satisfactory and I'm quite surprised that the Government MPs thumped their desks in approval of such a mockery," Daly said.
He came to the Parliament yesterday to hear what Volney had to say first hand. Daly said the statement was unsatisfactory because it did not acknowledge that the minister's budget contribution had made a direct charge that "speaking to the one in exalted office is akin to speaking to the Attorney General." Daly added: "That is a direct charge that the Chief Justice compromised his independence and the minister did not apologise for that."
"Moreover, he has tried to say that his words were vague," he said.
"But there is nothing vague about the statement that speaking to the 'exalted one is akin to speaking to the Attorney General'...There's no room for interpretation that it didn't mean other than what it said." "The Law Association did its best to protect the judiciary when Chief Justice Sat Sharma was under attack and we will do exactly the same when any Chief Justice, including the sitting CJ, is under attack...so I'm disappointed. "The association will not be satisfied with this statement." Saying that the association meets today, Daly noted that the apology would not be satisfactory in the context of what the group had initially said about Volney's budget statements.
"We were particularly strong about his allegation that 'speaking to the exalted one was akin to speaking to the Attorney General,'" he said. "But the minister has not addressed that and there was nothing vague about that statement. "Nor did he address or explain the so-called sweetheart deal he spoke of in his budget contribution...he tried to throw a blanket of vagueness over the whole thing. "People are overlooking that this has to do with the allegation of some kind of collusion and I don't think it is acceptable to say that. "I'm very disappointed. I don't think this statement saved anyone's face and it makes his colleagues look bad if they thumped their desks in approval of that."
(See Pages A5 and A24).