Lyle Shelton arrived in the Queensland Supreme Court last week. Not for a final decision, but for another interlocutory hearing.

In February, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Appeal Tribunal weighed in on a 2023 ruling that had dismissed the vilification complaint against Shelton, finding the original decision had applied the wrong legal test.

HRLA represented Shelton at that Appeal Tribunal hearing. In response, he applied tp the Queensland Supreme Court for judicial review of the Appeal Tribunal’s decision – arguing that the aAppeal Tribunal itself applied the wrong legal test and expanded Queensland’s anti-vilification laws beyond what Parliament intended.

That application has not yet been heard on its merits. Last week’s hearing concerned applications filed by the complainants, Johnny Valkyrie and Dwayne Hill, seeking both to have Shelton’s judicial review struck out before he can make any substantive arguments, and to have Shelton pay all their Supreme Court costs.

What this means in practice: more than six years after Shelton published blog posts criticising Drag Queen Storytime at a public library, the case has not produced a final finding on vilification.

It has produced directions hearings, appeal hearings, an application for judicial review, an application to strike out that review, and a costs application running alongside all of it.

As Shelton put it: “If criticising drag queens as being unsafe to perform for children in public libraries can trigger six years of litigation, then nobody engaged in public debate is truly safe.”

That observation is a description of how Queensland’s vilification framework operates in practice.

The financial and procedural burden of sustained litigation is not a side effect of the system – it is the system’s most effective deterrent.

Most Australians who hold similar views about the welfare of children would not have the legal support or personal resolve to remain in proceedings for this long.

The case has now entered its seventh year with no trial date set and no final determination in sight.

HRLA will continue to represent Shelton as the judicial review application proceeds.