Rampart Talks: Justice Michael Lee

Joe Aston interviews Justice Michael Lee for Rampart.

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My guest this month on Rampart Talks is Federal Court Justice Michael Lee.

I first crossed paths with His Honour in 2020 as a defendant in high-profile defamation proceedings brought (successfully) against The Australian Financial Review and me by former Blue Sky Alternative Investments director Elaine Stead. In his judgment, Justice Lee described me as "no respecter of persons," which might be the most treasured character assessment of my life if not for Lisa Wilkinson's appraisal that I'm "a disgusting human being" with "a black soul."

Incidentally, Wilkinson was later a defendant in an even more high-profile case heard by Justice Lee – Lehrmann v Network Ten – and happily, his Honour's negative findings about my journalism pale in comparison to his Honour's findings about hers.

In our interview, we discuss both the Stead and Lehrmann cases, not to mention Justice Lee's judgment in ASIC v Star Entertainment and its message on the acceptable boundaries of AI-use by company directors. We traverse his Honour's early life, including his time as a Fairfax copy boy, and his career at the Bar as a specialist in class actions – with the occasional assassination, defamation and even traffic brief.

We also explore Justice Lee's deep concerns about the philosophical direction of arts institutions, trade unions and universities, and his Honour's views about the administration of justice through the courts, which so often tend towards denying the media's access to case documents.

The court is a public resource, and the surest safeguard in the administration of justice occurring impartially and in a principled way is scrutiny. There should be no reason why the law, which requires necessity to make a non-publication order, should mean anything less than that. 'Necessary' is a very strong word, and yet you get particularly large firms of solicitors all over the country, which will put together swingeing confidentiality orders on the basis that it's commercially convenient, or to spare embarrassment. Well, that's not the test, it never has been the test, and it ought not be the test. So yes, it is something that I think is important because I think it really is fundamental to the administration of justice and keeps our system accountable to the people. I mean, the hallmark of bad legal systems is secrecy.

There is so much more in this episode, so I encourage you to access the full version, which runs for 82 minutes. The full version is only available to Rampart's premium subscribers, who can watch on rampart.news or listen via Spotify or Apple Podcasts (if you haven't already activated this integration with your preferred podcast app, you can do so here).

For Rampart's free list members, a 17-minute cut is available on rampart.news, YouTube and all the major podcast players.

I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers, Joe