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THE RORT · CASE FILE · THE SUPPRESSION RORTCASE OPEN · TRACKING
CASE FILE · JUSTICEARTICLES · 2

The Suppression Rort

STATUS · Ongoing · unresolved3 August 2026The Monday on which Carr's legal team abandoned the application to extend his suppression order, without explanation…

Open justice with a price of admission. Interim secrecy is most available to those with the resources to assemble it, the orders that matter escape the Act that is supposed to govern them, and nobody can even say how many exist.

Fig. 02 / The chain, in order

Fig. 02Source: case chain · every investigation in this case, in sequenceAs of 2026‑07‑06Auto-assembled

Fig. 03 / Who's named in this case

Fig. 03Source: entity scan · names appearing across this caseAs of 2026‑07‑06Auto-assembled

From the desk

  • 4 December 2026Watch
    Watch: did the Open Courts Act pledge survive the 28 November election
    The order the Act cannot reach · The Suppression Rort
    The Suppression Rort
    Read the desk note

    Check whether the Carroll and Kilkenny pledge of 11 August 2026 survived the election result, whether a bill amending the Open Courts Act 2013 has been introduced, and whether it reaches interim orders or only orders held after conviction. The week after the election is this desk's own date, not drawn from any calendar entry; election day itself is tracked separately.

  • 9 October 2026Watch
    Watch: the open threads in the suppression follow-up
    The order the Act cannot reach · The Suppression Rort
    The Suppression Rort
    Read the desk note

    Check the outcome of the Queensland costs submissions listed for 7 September 2026, read AB v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2026] NSWSC 767 at first hand to settle its true date: three sources have given three different dates, 1 July, 9 July and 13 August 2026, and none has been confirmed, and check whether Carr's lawyers have filed the flagged appeal to the Court of Appeal, not confirmed as filed or decided as of 9 September 2026. One month on is this desk's own reading, not a date drawn from any document.

  • 9 September 2026Updated
  • 9 September 2026Record
    Record: suppression follow-up published as article 2; Carr named in article 1
    The order the Act cannot reach · The Suppression Rort
    The Suppression Rort · attended 9 September 2026
    Read the desk note

    ATTENDED 9 September 2026 (audit item: suppression follow-up, due before 28 November 2026).

    FINDING. Ralph Carr, previously the unnamed 'entertainment and sports manager' in article 1, can now be named: his suppression order lapsed on 3 August 2026 when his own legal team abandoned the extension application, not by any ruling against him. He was sentenced on 25 August 2026 to six years with a four-year non-parole period, after a stay application was argued and rejected. An appeal has been flagged but not confirmed as filed or decided. In Queensland, a non-publication order over an unnamed man was upheld on judicial review on 28 August 2026, resting on the court's inherent power to protect the administration of justice rather than any statute. In New South Wales, the Supreme Court restrained a broadcaster and suppressed four identities in AB v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, resting on inherent jurisdiction and equitable breach of confidence rather than the state's own suppression orders Act. Neither interstate mechanism sits inside the Open Courts Act 2013 that Victoria's pledge would amend.

    ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 2, 'The order the Act cannot reach', published, setting out the interstate comparison. Article 1, 'The secrecy you can buy', updated: the byline now reads 'updated 9 September 2026'; the passage on the second case in 'The order finishes its work before the verdict' was rewritten to name Carr and add the stay application, the sentence and the flagged appeal; a new key fact was added recording Carr's naming and sentence; and references [13] and [14] were added to support the sentence and the stay application.

    STILL OPEN: the outcome of the Queensland costs submissions listed for 7 September 2026, the true date of AB v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2026] NSWSC 767, and Carr's flagged appeal, none of them confirmed as of this date.

    NEXT DATE: watches set for 9 October 2026 and 4 December 2026.

The desk record →

Nobody wrote this page. It assembled itself from the 2 investigations that make up The Suppression Rort, and it deepens automatically each time The Rort publishes another in the series. The named actors, the sourced figures and the evidence chain stay in lockstep with the archive.

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