AG refuses to intervene in McBride trial. We are bitterly disappointed with the correspondence received today on behalf of the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus. We have waited weeks for a reply to detailed subs seeking the withdrawal of charges against McBride and now this vague letter arrives, with no indication that the arguments have even been considered. As a trial is days away, we cannot comment on the matters we put to Mr Dreyfus seeking his intervention but we utterly reject the contention that the Attorney-General cannot intervene except in "unusual and exceptional circumstances". The law imposes no such restraint nor any hint of it. The AG does not need exceptional circumstances but there is no shortage of them in McBride’s case. The implication that the AG’s Department has an arm's-length relationship to the case is difficult for us to accept as we are constantly entangled in its interventions. The AG now exerts startling powers over the conduct of the trial and the presentation of evidence under the National Security Information Act (NSI) Those powers are being exerted with vigour. In common parlance the AG and his delegates are up to their necks in this secret trial.