Lehrmann inquiry boss's win before corruption appeal
Walter Sofronoff KC is asking the Federal Court to toss out the ACT corruption watchdog's March decision, which stemmed from leaks to a journalist.
But lawyers for the ACT parliament's Speaker claimed the appeal should be dismissed because the Integrity Commission's report on Mr Sofronoff's inquiry is protected by parliamentary privilege.
Parliamentary privilege is designed to allow parliament to go about its business without outside interference, such as from the courts.
Mr Sofronoff's lawyer, Adam Pomerenke KC, argued parliamentary privilege did not extend to the report published by the watchdog on their website.
Justice Wendy Abraham on Wednesday granted leave for the ACT parliamentary Speaker to make submissions about privilege but warned she wasn't persuaded by their argument.
"I am not satisfied that the conduct of the proceedings on the material on which the applicant wishes to rely involves an infringement of section 16 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act," she said.
Justice Abraham will hand down her reasons at a later stage.
The decision cleared the way for Mr Sofronoff's appeal against the corrupt conduct findings, which will be heard in late July.
Mr Sofronoff chaired a board of inquiry into the ACT's criminal justice system after controversy plagued the prosecution of Lehrmann, accused of raping then-colleague Brittany Higgins in a ministerial office at Parliament House in 2019.
A 2022 criminal trial was abandoned without a verdict because of juror misconduct.
The Sofronoff inquiry found the ACT's top prosecutor, Shane Drumgold, had lost objectivity over the Lehrmann case and had knowingly lied about a note of his meeting with broadcaster Lisa Wilkinson.
The ACT Integrity Commission found the majority of the inquiry's findings were not legally unreasonable.
But it found Mr Sofronoff's behaviour during the inquiry gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias and he might have been influenced by the publicly expressed views of journalist Janet Albrechtsen.
Mr Sofronoff repeatedly messaged the News Corp journalist and eventually leaked her an advance copy of his probe's final report.
That leak led to the Integrity Commission's "serious corrupt conduct finding" in March.
Mr Sofronoff's appeal comes as Lehrmann is making his own bid to clear his name after he was found to have, on the balance of probabilities, raped Ms Higgins inside Parliament House.
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