Stepping Over the Line?

It seems to me that Justice North's comments about the Australian Building and Construction Commission's case against CFMEU officials may have gone too far: "the ABCC should be publicly exposed as having wasted public money without a proper basis for doing so..." '...it was a completely unnecessary waste of public money" "If you want to make a case that the ABCC should not be criticised, well, you know, let’s hear – bring it on." "I must say it's a terrible waste of everybody's time." "...external forces that are beating up what's just a really ordinary situation that amounts to virtually nothing." He also described the ABCC's decision to take legal action as "outrageous"  I remember Justice North making similar comments 20 years ago about the ACCC's case against the Maritime Union of Australia during the Waterfront Dispute. At that time he said that our case was a waste of public money. 

This was after the MUA had taken illegal boycott action to close down half of Australia's ports and after the MUA had called on its overseas affiliated unions particularly in the US to take sympathy boycott action against vessels loaded with non-union labour.

Click in this link to see the recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/judge-blasts-building-cop-for-wasting-public-money-on-tea-cup-case-20180808-p4zwb0.html

Here is a story from the Canberra Times, 12 June 1998, p4 about Justice Norths's comments about the MUA case: