Maybe it's the water?

Appointment as Attorney General of South Australia seems to induce a willingness to forget basic principles of jurisprudence among people who should be expected to provide an example to the community.

Yesterday the SA Attorney General, John Rau, announced that "South Australia is to get a Law Reform Institute for the first time in more than twenty years". According to his media release

the Institute will assist in the streamlining of South Australian laws and management of justice in this state. South Australia hasn’t had a Law Reform Commission since the late 1980s, and is the only jurisdiction in Australia not to have one. ...

"The South Australian Law Reform Institute, and its members, will play a key role in improving the administration of justice in South Australia", Mr Rau said.

"The Institute will help modernise, simplify and consolidate laws and the administration of the justice system and, in doing so, improve access to justice for the community.

The Institute's work will also lead to the repeal of laws that are obsolete or unnecessary for the community today.

In addition, the new body will consult and collaborate with law reform agencies in other states and territories on proposals to reform laws in other jurisdictions or within the Commonwealth."

Before you celebrate that progressive leadership, contemplate statements reported on the same day in the Adelaide Advertiser (ie the state's leading newspaper, albeit dismissed by Rau's colourful predecessor as a "sewer") under the headline "Attorney General John Rau moots laws to strip serious criminals of their rights".

The report states that -

Fundamental legal rights including the presumption of innocence and access to a fair trial must be sacrificed to eradicate sophisticated criminal gangs, Attorney-General John Rau says.

As the State Government prepares to return to Parliament in the new year with a raft of legislation targeting organised crime gangs, Mr Rau has warned the legal system has failed to keep up with ruthless gangs.

The State Government is in possession of a report from retired District Court Judge Alan Moss which includes several proposals for fixing anti-association laws ruled unconstitutional by the High Court last month.

Mr Rau said each model "has its own repugnant element" but the Government had "no choice" but to sacrifice legal principles in its attempt to win the war against criminal gangs.

"The rule of law has certain underpinnings in it, which include the fact that people are entitled to a fair trial, that there's a presumption of innocence," he said.

"When you are dealing with very organised, very sophisticated people whose capacities are much more focused and targeted than general government capacities are, you unfortunately have to start looking at models which eat away at those fundamental rights."

It is, in my opinion, both disturbing and bizarre that the SA Government - apparently unabashed by Supreme Court and High Court rejection of its flawed anti-bikie statute, apparently unabashed by criticisms such as that noted here, apparently unabashed by disquiet regarding proposals to reshape the rules of evidence in pandering to a crude populism - seems to be blithely headed towards sacrificing foundational legal principles.

We should, in my opinion, be wary about rhetoric involving "the war against criminal gangs". We should also be hesitant about statements that foster a moral panic or that expose the Attorney General to a much deserved ridicule. What will the new Law Reform Institute (and the University of Adelaide) be saying about Rau's proposals?