Asylum seekers' lawyer to file new application

Transcript

BEN LOMAI: Their application basically was that under the Supreme Court rule six, I had no authority to sign. That issue went before the court. The court did not reach a unanimous decision but they split into two. The chairman of the bench agreed that I have the authority to sign under the rules, but the other two judges decided against it. So the chairman of the bench, David Cannings, agreed with us given the wider ambit of section 57 (of the constitution) that in this type of situation your lawyer can sign. But the other two judges think otherwise. Goodwin Poole basically stated, the body of the rules allows the law officer to sign, although form six provided that a person who's making the application or his lawyer can sign. So in effect there was inconsistency in the actual rules itself. The form said a different thing and the body of the rules said a different thing. Given those inconsistencies the other two judges were of the view that the law officer should sign the form instead of a lawyer of the applicant. So that was the decision yesterday and that effectively means that the substantive proceedings for the asylum seekers has now been struck out on a technicality. Immediately after that our team of lawyers discussed a way forward and we have decided that we should file a new application and we'll get all the signatures from all the asylum seekers and then we should re-file it again.

BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: So does that mean you will now have to travel to Manus Island to get all of the applicants to sign the new application you'll seek to file?

Ben Lomai: Yes, one of our guys is already there. She will be coming back on Thursday next week, and we just sent another guy from Sydney also going in this morning. Otherwise, I will go in myself and get everybody done. I have already notified all of the asylum seekers. They're disappointed but they know that eventually justice will prevail. And so I'm hoping to file it, say by Wednesday next week.

BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: When do you think a hearing will be scheduled?

BEN LOMAI: We're going into a holiday period now. The court will go into recess the 17 or 18 of December. They will reconvene on the first of February. The cost is escalating and we are basically managing on a shoe-string budget, but once we re-file we will try and progress it as soon as possible. The application will be worked within the confines of (the) Namah (case) and that will give us a speedy process in terms of having to go back and ask for a summary judgement immediately.