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Landmark decision by Court of Appeal paves way for Youthlaw human rights case

August 5, 2013

Last Friday the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria made a landmark decision to grant a protective cost order to our client Nassir Bare.  Without this order he would have had to discontinue his appeal. The appeal will now proceed.

This decision is a first for Victoria and will create a legal precedent to protect people bringing public interest cases where they might otherwise be stopped from doing so by prohibitive costs.

The decision was made by the highest court in Victoria and will be influential nationally.  Australia has no national laws regulating costs in public interest cases and few court decisions.

The anti-corruption body  IBAC and the Victorian Attorney-General opposed the costs order arguing that public interest  was not a sufficient reason for costs to be restricted  and that the appeal case is unlikely to be successful .

The order restricts any costs against our client to $5,000.  Compare this to the possibility of hundreds of thousands of dollars and you can understand why this decision is so significant.

The substantive case is about the accountability of police when they misuse and abuse their powers.  Our client Nassir Bare a vulnerable young man was assaulted at the age of 17 by police and requested his complaint be investigated not by police but by an independent body. His complaint was sent to the OPI (now IBAC) but they refused to investigate and referred it to Victoria Police.  It is at this point that this test case began by challenging the decision by IBAC.

IBAC  currently only investigates 1% of complaints against police. The rest are investigated by Victoria Police.

The appeal follows a March decision by Justice Williams of the Supreme Court. Justice Williams found against Nassir Bare and in favour of  IBAC. The court case heard that Nassir was subjected to a serious assault, including being capsicum sprayed while handcuffed and being racially abused at the hands of Victoria Police officers in February 2009. At issue was the right to independent review of the allegations rather than investigation by police themselves.

Both the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and the Attorney-General have intervened in the case as it calls into question whether IBAC has complied with the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.

We thank the legal team at Maddocks and counsel Jason Pizer, Emrys Nekvapil and Fiona Spencer for their exceptional pro bono assistance.

Reasons for today’s decision, which sets an important precedent, will be handed down in court on Friday 9th August 2013 at 9.45am.

Read the following media coverage of the decision:

For media comment at or after the hearing on Friday 2 August:

Ariel Couchman, Director (Youthlaw) mobile: 0438 812 937

For media assistance contact:

Darren Lewin-Hill, Communications Manager (Federation of Community Legal Centres) mobile: 0488 773 535

Inquiry into Victoria Police’s stop and search policy opens

June 19, 2013

Victoria Police has just opened a public inquiry into two key policies that shape their interactions with the community, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse groups and the Aboriginal community: its field contacts policy (‘stops and searches’) and its cross-cultural training program.

This inquiry is the first of its kind held by Victoria Police. Its outcomes have the potential to improve the interactions of police with Aboriginal, newly arrived and culturally diverse communities not only in Victoria but across Australia, as other police services take note of the Victorian response.

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It’s smarter to invest in diversion than in prisons

May 16, 2013

A review of the evidence shows that prison is costly, has negligible or negative effects on re-offending and, in the case of young people, may inflict long-term damage, thereby squandering the opportunity for rehabilitation and diversion that is presented with young people.[1]

 Prison is costly

The cost of new prison infrastructure and expansion of prisons to accommodate an increasing prison population within Victoria is in the hundreds of million of dollars. The 2013–2014 Victorian State Budget committed an extra $131.5 million on top of the $819 million prison funding announced last year to extending the prison system. Despite these budget commitments, it is predicted that Victoria’s prison system will still fall 1,400 beds short of the required capacity by 2016.[2]

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No right to independent police investigation

March 26, 2013

No right to independent police investigation

In a disappointing decision handed down yesterday, the Victorian Supreme Court ruled that there was no right to an independent investigation of a police complaint.

Our client, Mr Nassir Bare, was a 17 year old Ethiopian Australian young man who alleged that a police officer had used excessive force against him in 2009.  The allegations included serious assault, being capsicum sprayed while handcuffed, and being subjected to racial slurs by police.

Nassir  requested an independent investigation into these allegations to the then Office of Police Integrity (OPI).  Nassir had genuine concerns and fears that information about him or his complaint would result in reprisals from local police if internally investigated.

The OPI found that while the complaint warranted investigation, the investigation of the complaint would still be referred back to police.    This decision from Justice Williams vindicates a scheme whereby police officers can investigate themselves.

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