Does the Tax Commissioner know how his legal representatives conduct litigation?

Tax Commissioner defends outrageous conduct of legal representatives

The legal profession has high standards for how litigation is to be conducted. 

The Commissioner of Taxation's website says:

"As a government agency, we apply the highest standards of ethical behaviour when we are involved in litigation. ...[We] need to do the right thing, be fair and have the highest professional standards ..."

A statement of claim lodged in the Federal Court of Australia recently details unprofessional and unethical conduct by the Tax Commissioner's legal representatives in defending an action alleging serious fraud by senior Tax Office delegates of the Tax Commissioner. 

The Tax Commissioner may have acknowledged that his legal representatives had behaved inappropriately - if he was aware of the issue. Instead, a team of legal representatives was sent to the Federal Court of Australia with the unenviable task of devising a way to obstruct, and presumably to defeat the litigation. 

This is no easy task. The unfortunate legal team who have accepted the challenge requested a few months delay of the proceeding, suggesting they may be able to devise some strategy to either justify the unprofessional conduct of the Tax Commissioner's legal representatives, or otherwise prevent the Court hearing the matter.

The statement of claim describes misconduct by the Tax Commissioner's legal representatives in a previous proceeding. The Tax Commissioner has now engaged, and is funding, those same legal representatives - to defend that misconduct.

• If the Tax Commissioner is aware of the misconduct of his legal representatives, would he finance them to defend themselves against charges for conduct that was plainly unprofessional and outrageous?
• If the Tax Commissioner is not aware of the misconduct, who made the decision to engage and fund those legal representatives to defend themselves, and why?

 

This is the statement of claim lodged in the Federal Court of Australia:

Statement of Claim - lodged 29/11/2024

This is an email from the legal representatives - who are both responsible for the misconduct described in statement of claim AND are engaged to oppose the proceeding - where they say they intend to delay the proceeding and require some months to begin some new, unspecified proceeding to block all progress to a hearing:

Email from Legal Representatives engaged to defend themselves - Sent 12/12/2024