In The Conversation (15 August 2014) Emeritus Professor David Brown discusses the national trend towards denigrating judicial expertise, the lack of concern for evidence, and political impatience with and lack of faith in legal processes and the ability of the system to correct error. The result is that public trust in the judiciary and the criminal justice system is constantly eroded and feeds into an ‘increasingly uncivil public discourse’ with police and the media ‘calling the shots’.