The controversy stems from a press conference on February 10 in which he labelled the decision of a Townsville magistrate to grant bail to 13 young people in a single day a “media stunt”.
“It should not be happening,” he said at the time. “We cannot allow the safety of Townsville residents to be held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices.”
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It was a bolder echo of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s call in December,following the stabbing death of North Lakes mother Emma Lovell,that the courts “need to do their job”.
Miles’ comments earned a swift rebuke from lawyers and civil liberties campaigners,who variously described them as “gutless”,inappropriate and ill-informed.
“They undermine faith in the criminal justice system and directly encroach on the separation of powers ... a fundamental tenet of our legal system and what separates us from police states,” said Rebecca Fogerty,the vice president of the Queensland Law Society.