Thursday, June 08, 2006

A parking ticket or breach of international law?

(Reproduced with permission from The Free Times Independent - Warwick QLD)

A parking ticket or breach of international law?


By: David Dawson

Speeding tickets bring out all kinds of excuses - some people claim that they were running late, while some plead for mercy. Others get more creative.

The Warwick District Court received an interesting submission last week, when Warwick resident David Drinan claimed that the judge presiding over the case and indeed, vast sections of Australian legislation were violating international law. He also said that the appointment of the magistrates and judges who had sentenced him and presided over his appeal were invalid.

Mr Drinan, a former One Nation candidate for the district, was appealing a speeding ticket, after an incident on the 17th of October 2004. He was clocked at driving 119 km/h while in a 100 km/h zone. Mr Drinan’s submission claims that all motor traffic acts have no basis in Australian law, as after the treaty of Versailles Australia should have enacted it’s own laws rather than adopting British ones. The reasoning
behind it was a little more complex.

His submission stated that “the Constitution of the State of Queensland... made for the furtherance of the colonial administration... ceased to have legal effect within Queensland upon the attainment of separate Australian legal sovereignty.”

He cited a treaty made by the now defunct League of Nations in 1919, and a vast number of legislative documents and Acts.

One may argue that since the League of Nations has been disbanded, their laws no longer have any effect, though Mr Drinan’s submission had an answer to this.

The submission said that although the Australian Government had previously used a piece of legislation called Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (1901), (which Mr Drinan says is a British piece of legislation) to enter into international treaties, the use of this legislation was rejected by the United Nations because it was subordinate to the UK. Mr Drinan believes that this has forced the Australian Government to fall back to using their membership of the League of Nations for entering treaties.

He claimed that a 1919 League of Nations treaty guaranteed Australia separate legal sovereignty, rather than using British laws, which according to Mr Drinan, include motor traffic acts. His submission said that there had been no referendum to adopt the old British Constitution, nor to re-introduce a new Australian one.

Mr Drinan was unsuccessful in his attempts to have the case referred to the federal attorney general, with Senior District Court Judge Trafford-Walker throwing out the appeal.

Cop fines someone for speeding

Revenge is the sweetest.

Follow story.