On Wednesday 15th May 2019, the newly appointed Attorney General and first time Member for Kandep Open, Alfred Manase filed a Supreme Court application asking the Court to stay (stop) Parliament from entertaining vote of no confidence when it reconvenes on Tuesday 28th May 2019.
It is clear the instructions came from Prime Minister Peter O'Neill who is desperate to avoid being voted out of office and face multiple criminal charges.
O'Neill and Manase are asking Supreme Court that it should stop Parliament from dealing with vote of no confidence until it first deals with O'Neill's Supreme Court Reference questioning a decision of Supreme Court in 2016 that ordered Parliament convene to deal with a notice of no confidence filed by Opposition. A notice O'Neill went through great efforts to avoid being tabled in Parliament.
It was only after the then Opposition Leader Don Polye took the matter to Supreme Court that it ruled the actions of Speaker and Parliament Committee in rejecting the notice was unconstitutional and ordered Speaker reconvene Parliament to table it.
The main issue behind O'Neill's Supreme Court Reference is that Supreme Court has no powers to interfere with Parliament procedures.
In that Court's decision in 2016 breached Section 99 of Constitution which states there should be a separation of powers between the three arms of Governments, 1) Parliament, 2) Executive (NEC) and 3) Judiciary.
The funny thing about this whole issue that if O'Neill is saying the Court should not interfere with Parliament then why file a stay application asking it to do just that - interfere with Parliament procedures.
It's my view O'Neill's Supreme Court Reference is nothing a but a scheme to use the Court to avoid being voted out of office.
There is a common saying in law:
"He who has dirty hands should not come to court"
On that basis I expect the Supreme Court to either ignore or throw out his mischievous stay application.
It is not the first time O'Neill has abused the office of the Prime Minister in a scheme to try and manipulate the judiciary. In 2014 in the height of his arrest by Fraud Squad he sacked the then Attorney General and Police Commissioner, their replacements side lined Task Force Sweep Police Lawyer, preventing them from submitting key evidence in relation to the validity of O'Neill's warrant of arrest. In the absence of that evidence the Court was forced to rule the warrant was defective - when in my view it wasn't.
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