'Will Peter Dutton Be Disqualified From The Parliament?'

On Thursday, 23rd August 2018, Robert Angyal was requested by ten daily news to write an opinion piece on whether Peter Dutton would be disqualified from Parliament. The piece needed to be completed by early Friday, well before the spill vote, and was delivered to ten daily at 5am that day. Ten daily "splashed" the piece, running it as a headline story.

The Solicitor-General of Australia issued his urgent advice on the Dutton disqualification issue at about the same time. Robert's piece (written for lay readers) reached conclusions very similar to this. 

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2018 Legal Language Breakthrough: The Quadruple Negative

2018 has seen a Legal Language Breakthrough: The Quadruple Negative (as used against Luna Park by a certifier addressing whether construction of a new ride required development consent):

“The works cannot be demonstrated as not inconsistent with the development consents as it was unclear whether the development consents authorise the installation of new rides.”

Wow! That's ... nearly incomprehensible.

We lawyers used to think that double negatives were not uncommon, especially in legal prose. And it was not unusual for layers not to stop there, but to wheel out the big gun of the triple negative. Whammo! Take that, whether you understand it or not.

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