Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

SPENDER J: Yes.
MR PERKINS: I want to refer to ground 18. In my submission,
punishment must take account of the fact that
SPENDER J: A person doesn’t have a civil right to breach the Racial
Discrimination Act.
MR PERKINS: A person does have a civil right to say things that others
disagree with or that may be considered to be wrong.
SPENDER J: Certainly. But in this particular case, the Federal Court –
Branson J held that what he was prevented from publishing constituted a
contravention of the Racial Discrimination Act. So it is not a question of
stripping him of rights to say things that he is entitled to say. He is
stripping him of rights to break the law.
MR PERKINS: In my submission the effect of the orders is extreme and
brings the appellant into a position where he is in effect living in an
absolutist society. He is unable to express views which he, for better or
worse, has about events which are matters of public importance.
GILMOUR J: Mr Perkins
MR PERKINS: That is a huge
GILMOUR J: Mr Perkins, that may be some political speech. It can be
made in some other place, but today, your client is here before this court
and presently you are making submissions on the question of sentence in
relation to his having been found guilty of contempt of court. Nothing you
are saying, with respect, goes to the question of sentence.
MR PERKINS: If the court pleases. Ground 17, in my submission, is
something that characterises totalitarian regimes that people are sent to
prison for expressing views which they
SPENDER J: They are not being sent to prison for expressing views.
They are sent to prison for breaking – for breaching orders of the court.
MR PERKINS: With respect, that is one step.
SPENDER J: Yes.
MR PERKINS: It is not to say that the step that I am urging on the court
is not also a step. They are steps in the same process, if I may say so, with
respect, and
SPENDER J: I want to repeat, you see, he is not being sent to prison for
expressing views. He is being sent to prison because he deliberately
breached orders of the court and he deliberately breached undertakings
he had made to the court.
MR PERKINS: A regime in which a person is prevented from saying what
he or she thinks about matters of public importance is a totalitarian
regime.
SPENDER J: That is not the case.
GILMOUR J: Mr Perkins, that is not a submission.
MR PERKINS: In my submission, it should be
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