New informant legislation risks rerun of Lawyer X scandal, experts and opposition say

Victoria’s peak legal bodies have warned that proposed new laws responding to the Lawyer X scandal will open the door to police using other lawyers to snitch on their clients.

• Chip Le Grand
• The Age

Under legislation revealed in parliament on Wednesday, the Victorian government has moved to give police discretion to register children, lawyers, journalists, doctors, priests, parliamentarians and judges as human sources.

The bill was drafted in response to the McMurdo royal commission, which recommended the government legislate the management of police informants, rather than leaving it to police regulations and policies.

The Victorian Bar and the…

• New informant legislation…