Clear case for reform

Susan Harris Rimmer, The Australia National University

Abstract

Releasing an important 310-page government report on December 23 is always cause for alarm. On Tuesday the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, released the Clarke Inquiry Report which had been waiting on his desk for a month. The new Rudd Government announced an inquiry early this year into the ''arrest, detention, charging, prosecution and release of Dr Mohamed Haneef, the cancellation of his Australian visa and the issuing of a criminal justice stay certificate'', all of which occurred in late 2007. The inquiry was headed by former NSW Supreme Court judge John Clarke QC.