Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 04

     
     1        US retailer of fast-food beef products, including
     2        McDonald's, to be 100 per cent certain that their
     3        hamburgers contained no beef supplies originating from
     4        South America or Central American tropical forest
     5        countries" etc. and it goes on.
     6
     7        That is for me to decide, having heard all the evidence,
     8        including the expert evidence and factual evidence.
     9
    10        Then Mr. Secrett goes on actually referring to parts of the
    11        evidence or potential evidence and reaching his own
    12        conclusion in relation to that.  Again, and no disrespect
    13        is meant to Mr. Secrett, that actually trespasses firmly on
    14        a function which, under our constitution, only I have, at
    15        first instance, in this case.
    16
    17        I will hear what you want to say.  It does not do you any
    18        harm if those matters are excised because, in fact, I have
    19        read them.  In so far as they are advocacy and argument,
    20        I will take them to be part of your argument in due course,
         if you wish, but they are not admissible in evidence,
    22        either in a written statement or given orally from the
    23        witness box.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   I am not clear.  Are you saying from the whole that
    26        paragraph on page 4 right to the end?
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  The whole statement?
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  To the end of that first statement, yes.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  The whole of page 5, page 6, and page 7?
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  They are all argument by Mr. Secrett.
    37        He is perfectly entitled to his view; he is perfectly
    38        entitled to express it where he wishes, save as a witness
    39        in the witness box in this trial.
    40
    MR. MORRIS:  For example -- sorry, have you finished?
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Take your time to think about it.  (Pause).
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  The first thing is that we want to formally
    46        disagree with your indication in one respect because we
    47        have not had any time for legal advice on the subject, but
    48        there are certain particular passages that we feel
    49        particularly strong about that are ----
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Tell me which those are? 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  Clearly relevant in the context of Mr. Secrett's
    54        evidence, particularly in the light that his evidence
    55        includes negotiations with McDonald's and impressions
    56        from ----
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Direct me to the parts of those two
    59        paragraphs from the middle of page 4 onwards.
    60