Ceremonial Sitting On The Occasion of the Swearing-In of the Honourable Ian David Francis Callinan, QC C00/1997 [1998] HCATrans 7 (3 February 1998)

H I G H C O U R T O F A U S T R A L I A

CEREMONIAL SITTING

ON THE OCCASION

OF

THE SWEARING-IN

OF

THE HONOURABLE IAN DAVID FRANCIS CALLINAN, QC

AS

A JUSTICE OF THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

AT

CANBERRA

ON

TUESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 1998, AT 10.15 AM

Coram:

BRENNAN CJ

GAUDRON J

McHUGH J

GUMMOW J

KIRBY J

HAYNE J

In addition to the members of the Court the following dignitaries were present on the Bench:

The Rt Honourable Sir Harry Gibbs, GCMG, AC, KBE, retired Chief Justice of the Court

The Rt Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen, KG, AK, GCMG, GCVO, KBE, retired Justice of the Court

Seated behind the Bench were the following dignitaries:

The Honourable M. Black, AC, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia

The Honourable D.K. Malcolm, AC, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia

The Honourable A.M. Gleeson, AC, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales

The Honourable J. Macrossan, AC, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland

The Honourable J.J. Doyle, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia

The Honourable C.J. Cox, RFD, ED, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania

The Honourable J.A. Miles, AO, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory

At the Bar Table the following persons were present:

The Honourable D. Williams, AM, QC, Attorney-General for the Commonwealth

The Honourable D. Beanland, MLA, Attorney-General for Queensland

Mr Gary Humphries, MLA, Attorney-General for the Australian Capital Territory

Mr D. Graham, QC, Solicitor-General for Victoria

Mr T. Pauling, QC, Solicitor-General for the Northern Territory

Mr P.A. Keane, QC, Solicitor-General for Queensland

Mr B.M. Selway, QC, Solicitor-General for South Australia and also representing the Attorney-General for South Australia

Mr L.S. Katz, SC, Solicitor-General for New South Wales

Mr R. Meadows, QC, Solicitor-General for Western Australia

Mr B.W. Walker, SC, President of The Law Council of Australia

Mr R.W. Gotterson, QC, President of The Australian Bar Association and President of the Bar Association of Queensland

Mr M.L. Abbott, QC, President of The South Australian Bar Association

Mr N.J. Young, QC, Chairman of The Victorian Bar

Mr R.E. Williams, QC, President of The Australian Capital Territory Bar Association

Mr W. Martin, QC, President of The Western Australian Bar Association

Ms R. McColl, SC, representing The New South Wales Bar Association

Mr C. McDonald, QC, President of the Northern Territory Bar Association

Mr R.V. Gyles, QC

Mr D.F. Jackson, QC

Mr D.M.J. Bennett, QC

Mr J. Greenwood, QC

Mr J.G. Crowley, QC

Dr G. Griffith, QC

Mr J.E. Gallagher, QC

Mr G. Crooke, QC

Mr J.J. Spigelman, QC

Mr N.R. Cowdery, QC

Mr D.H. Bloom, QC

Mr M. White, QC

Mr P. Lyons, QC

Mr C. Pullin, QC

Mr S. Tilmouth, QC

Mr D.A. Cowdroy, OAM, QC

Mr P. Dutney, QC

Mrs A. Bennett, SC

Mr R.F. Edmonds, SC

Mr K.J. Martin, QC

Mr J. Waters, QC

Mr M. Cashion, SC

Mr J. Graves, SC

Ms A. Katzmann, SC

Mr R. Cogswell, SC

Mr S. Walmsley, SC

Mr R. Toner, SC

Mr P. Johnson, SC

Mr P.H. Greenwood, SC

Mr S. Finch, SC

Mr J. Sheahan, SC

Mr L.R. Boyes, QC

Mr T.J. Casey, QC

Mr A. Southall, QC

Mr J. de Wijn, QC

Mr C. Gunst, QC

Mr M. Shand, QC

Mr P. Tehan, QC

Mr D. Levin, QC

Mr K. Bell, QC

Mr M. Colbran, QC

The Honourable Sir James Killen

Mr A. Innes

Mr C. Carrigan

Mr R.A.J. Myers

Mr D.H. Tait

Mr P. Favell

Mr A. Philp

Mr R. Traves

Mr S.J. Given

Mr K. Howe

Mr A. Warnick

Mr A. Henskens

Mr S.J. Rushton

Mr A. Harris

Mr H. Burmester

Mr R.C. Refshauge

Mr S. Kerr

Mr E. Wilheim

Mr R. Heinrich, President of the Law Society of New South Wales

Mr G. Provis, President of the Law Institute of Victoria

Dr J. Mann, President of the Queensland Law Society Inc.

Mr G. Burnett, President of the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory

Judiciary seated within the Court:

The Honourable Justice John Lockhart, AO, Federal Court of Australia

The Honourable Justice Paul Finn, Federal Court of Australia

The Honourable Justice Mary Finn, Family Court of Australia

The Honourable Justice John Faulks, Family Court of Australia

The Honourable Justice R.P. Meagher, Supreme Court of New South Wales

The Honourable Justice S. Charles, Court of Appeal, Victoria

The Honourable Justice P. de Jersey, Supreme Court of Queensland

The Honourable Justice J.W.B. Helman, Supreme Court of Queensland

The Honourable Justice J.F. Gallop, AM, Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory

Mr R.J. Cahill, Chief Magistrate, Australian Capital Territory

Magistrate Frank W.D. Jones, Victoria

Speakers:

The Honourable D. Williams, AM, QC, Attorney-General for the Commonwealth

Mr B.W. Walker, SC, President of the Law Council of Australia

Mr R.W. Gotterson, QC, President of the Australian Bar Association and President of the Bar Association of Queensland

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

CALLINAN J: Your Honour, the Chief Justice. I have the honour to announce that I have received a Commission from his Excellency the Governor-General appointing me a Justice of the High Court of Australia. I now present the Commission to your Honour.

BRENNAN CJ: Mr Principal Registrar, please read the Commission.

PRINCIPAL REGISTRAR:

Commission of Appointment of a Justice of the High Court of Australia

I, WILLIAM PATRICK DEANE, Companion of the Order of Australia, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under section 72 of the Constitution, hereby appoint Ian David Francis Callinan one of Her Majesty's counsel learned in the law to be a Justice of the High Court of Australia for the term commencing on 3 February 1998 and expiring on his attaining the age of 70 years.

Signed and sealed with the Great Seal of Australia on 18 December 1997. William Deane, Governor-General, by His Excellency's command, Daryl Williams, Attorney-General.

BRENNAN CJ: Thank you. I now invite you to take the Oath of Allegiance and of Office.

CALLINAN J: I, Ian David Francis Callinan, do swear that I will bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, according to law, that I will well and truly serve Her in the Office of Justice of the High Court of Australia and that I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. So Help Me God.

BRENNAN CJ: Thank you. I now invite you to subscribe the Oath of Allegiance and of Office. Mr Principal Registrar, please record these document in the records of the Court.

PRINCIPAL REGISTRAR: Yes, your Honour.

BRENNAN CJ: Your Honour, I congratulate you on your appointment as a Justice of this Court and I invite you to proceed to the discharge of the duties of your office.

CALLINAN J: Thank you, Chief Justice.

BRENNAN CJ: Mr Attorney.

MR WILLIAMS: May it please the Court. It is my pleasant duty and great privilege today to welcome the Honourable Ian David Francis Callinan to the Bench of the High Court of Australia. On behalf of the Government and the people of Australia, I extend to your Honour a very warm welcome and congratulations on your appointment as a member of the highest Court in the land.

Your Honour's appointment is the forty-second to this Court since it was established some 95 years ago. You are the sixth member of the Court to be appointed from the State of Queensland. As such, you join eminent company from that State, including the present Chief Justice, Sir Gerard Brennan, former Chief Justice Sir Harry Gibbs and the first Chief Justice, Sir Samuel Griffith.

Your Honour was born in the northern New South Wales town of Casino, but you were educated in Queensland, attending Brisbane Grammar School and, later, the University of Queensland. You graduated in law from the University of Queensland in 1960. Your Honour was first admitted to practise in 1960 as a solicitor. That same year your Honour joined the firm of Conwell & Company in Brisbane where you were employed as a solicitor and, later, invited to become a partner. In 1965 you were admitted to practise as a barrister and you have practised principally at the Queensland Bar since that time. However, you are also admitted in most other States of Australia, as well as in Papua New Guinea and Ireland. In 1978, in recognition of your advocacy skills and professional standing, your Honour was appointed Queen's Counsel.

At the Bar, your Honour acquired a reputation as one of the best cross-examiners in the business. Your Honour also very much enjoyed the cut and thrust of trial work. Your Honour's trial experience includes a number of high profile cases. You appeared for Alan Bond on criminal corporate charges; you appeared in proceedings relating to the prosecution of Christopher Skase, and you regularly defended Kerry Packer's media group in civil litigation. You appeared on behalf of the Queensland Government at the Fitzgerald Inquiry into Corruption in that State.

As a leading silk, your Honour's appearances cross the spectrum from the criminal court to equity, from personal injury to land compensation. You have appeared in commercial, property and constitution matters, trade practices litigation, cases involving statutory tribunals and boards regulating professional bodies, planning and environment matters and revenue cases. You have held retainers from large Australian and overseas companies. You have appeared as counsel in major commissions of inquiry.

In the course of your Honour's varied practice, you have appeared in practically all Australian jurisdictions including the Federal Court, State Supreme Courts and the Industrial Relations Commission. Over a period of nearly 20 years you have argued a range of cases in this Court and you have, in times past, appeared in appeals to the Privy Council.

Your Honour has also contributed to the law in a variety of other ways. You served as a committee member of the Queensland Bar Association almost continuously from 1968 until 1987 and as President for three years from 1984. You were President of the Australian Bar Association from 1984 to 1985. You served as a member of the Queensland Barristers' Board for many years, including as Chairman in 1988. From 1985 until 1997, you were a Director of the Council of Law Reporting. In 1983 you were Convener of the Australian Legal Convention and, in 1984, Convenor of the Australian Bar Association Convention.

Your Honour has also served the community as Chairman of the Queensland Totalisator Board, as Chairman of Trustees of the Queensland Art Gallery since 1996 and on the Board of the ABC.

Despite your busy practice at the Bar and your many other commitments, your Honour found time to lecture in legal ethics at the University of Queensland and to accept appointment as Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle in 1993.

Away from the law, your Honour is a patron of the arts and a keen sportsman. Having also published plays and novels, your Honour is familiar with the role of critics. That is an experience which should be useful in your new role. The work of the Court has not, in recent times, entirely escaped critical review. The freedom of others to examine and comment on the work of courts is essential in our form of democracy. Your Honour should not be, and, I am sure will not be, unduly sensitive to critical reviews of your judicial work.

Your Honour brings to this Court a wealth of legal experience, a breadth of knowledge of life and wide experience of the Australian community generally. Your legal knowledge and intellectual abilities, your capacity to grasp issues quickly, your probity, as well as your many achievements during a long and successful career at the Bar, equip you well for this important appointment.

Your appointment follows very extensive consultations with governments, the judiciary and with legal professional bodies in all States and Territories of Australia. The fact that your Honour hails from Queensland, while not a decisive factor in your appointment, does help maintain the national character and composition of a Court with national functions.

Like most appointments to the High Court, your Honour's appointment has been the subject of considerable scrutiny. In fact, it has excited a modicum of controversy. You have been labelled by some in the media as a "conservative". However, experience has shown that it is simplistic to typecast appointees to the Court as either "conservative" or "progressive", "centralist" or "States Rightist". I question whether those who have sought to typecast you in that way were in fact aware of the extent of your achievements in the law and in other fields. They would certainly not be able to forecast how your Honour or, for that matter, any member of the Court, will decide any particular case in a few years time.

Every judge brings to his or her office a range of individual life experiences which temper the way he or she views things. I have no doubt that your Honour will consider every matter that comes before you on its merits, based on the facts and arguments that are presented to you. You will deal with these matters in a fair and impartial manner.

Public confidence in the judiciary goes hand in hand with the quality of our judges. For the parties appearing before our courts, the quality of the justice they receive is really the only thing that matters. It is also the only real measure the community has for assessing the success of the appointment process.

Your Honour's appointment is the first direct appointment to the Bench of the High Court from the private Bar since the appointment of Sir Keith Aickin in 1976. I have no doubt that your Honour will distinguish yourself as a Justice of the High Court of Australia and make a significant contribution to the deliberations of the Court.

On behalf of the Government and the people of Australia, I extend to your Honour warmest congratulations on your appointment and very best wishes for a long and satisfying term of office.

May it please the Court.

BRENNAN CJ: Thank you, Mr Attorney. Mr Walker, President of the Law Council of Australia.

MR WALKER: May it please the Court.

Your Honour, your Honour's publisher's publicist has misled your Honour if you accepted the invitation to give up your Honour's practice at the Bar, which is the envy of your colleagues, in order to increase the sales of your recent novel. Alas, the Bar has a newfound sense of economy, at least on the costs side, and it is likely that we will share dog-eared copies of your novel rather than each of us buy them.

But as I think the only declared novelist under your own name sitting on the present Bench, and unless Sir Samuel Griffith, under a non de plume, published historical romances of which we are now unaware, your Honour does have, in your most recent novel, a manual for adversary litigation which, perhaps, aspirants to advocacy in this Court should study. It starts with conflict in back streets; it moves to conflict on the football field; it has conflict in the air over Europe; conflict in politics; conflict in law and amatory conflict. It has the complete catalogue for those who would think that from what your Honour has written or said they will know, as it were transparently, what your Honour is thinking now or will think in the future. On reflection, of course, the whole notion of trying to detect your Honour's judicial career in advance in that fashion is absurd.

This Court, to the great relief of the Law Council, benefits from the enormous range of human qualities exhibited in its members and the Law Council refutes the proposition that those who have been active in public life have formed opinions about public matters and have expressed them as private citizens are thereby less fitted than others who have lived, or appeared to live, a cloistered life to be appointed and this Court's history, including the history of the appointment of practising politicians, belies the proposition that previously expressed opinions as private citizens or as politicians does anything other than add to the range of human qualities useful on this Bench.

That being said, it is clear that your Honour has not been selected to add to some potpourri or variety on the Bench. The distinction of your Honour's career at the Bar, as I have said, is enviable and the accolade of appointment directly from the Bar is the best measure that your Honour can appreciate of that today.

Your Honour's other interests, which principally include your legendary knowledge of, appreciation of and, alas, acquisition of Australian art, is something which can only add to the human breadth of appreciation necessary in the highest Court in the land. Your appointment brings to this Court for, alas, too short a time, two Queenslanders and before my friend, Mr Gotterson, about to follow, revels too much in that, may I on behalf of the Law Council bring attention as well to the fact that 10 years before you were a councillor of the Law Council of Australia, from 1984 to 1986, your erstwhile leader, the present Chief Justice, was also in an equivalent position and the Law Council welcomes, in particular, that this Bench is now graced by two distinguished practitioners who, while they were in private practice, served so well and hard in professional associations including the Law Council.

We have great confidence in your Honour's capacity. We look forward to your Honour's contribution. We admire your Honour's application.

May it please the Court.

BRENNAN CJ: Thank you, Mr Walker. Mr Gotterson, President of the Australian Bar Association and President of the Bar Association of Queensland.

MR GOTTERSON: May it please the Court.

On behalf of both the Australian Bar Association and the Bar Association of Queensland, I am delighted to welcome your Honour Justice Callinan to the Bench of this Court. The delight for me is all the more sweet for your Honour's having held, in the mid-1980s, the presidency of both the Bar Associations that I represent this morning.

The Bar always applauds the notable professional achievements of its individual members. In your Honour's case, the achievement of being the first practising barrister in 22 years to be appointed to the High Court surpasses the notable and stands as truly extraordinary. We congratulate you and sense the pride that rightly accompanies your appointment.

As the Attorney has said, you are the sixth Queenslander to join this Bench. Every one of your five predecessors has enjoyed a long period in office. Sir William Webb's was the briefest at 12 years exactly. Together they have served during 66 of the 95 years of the Court's life.

Justice Callinan, I am honoured to say that I have been a good personal friend of yours for many years now. You led me in many cases both at trial and on appeal. We shared a retainer in the sugar industry. When it comes to your Honour, I do know my topic well.

To many Australians, yours is a household name, known from several newsworthy criminal and defamation cases in which you appeared. But your reputation, I must say, within the profession is far more broadly based.

Your Honour appeared as leading counsel in a large number of appeals in this Court involving subjects as diverse as industrial law, family law, commercial law and town planning. We were briefed together in the prominent civil fraud case of Gould v Vagelas. Our client was Mrs Gould. She was on Legal Aid. The Court, fortunately, for her, allowed her cross-appeal and restored her damages in full. You remember, no doubt, the Christmas cakes that she would regularly bake and sends as tokens of her gratitude.

Apart from the High Court, you were also frequently heard in intermediate Courts of Appeal throughout Australia in a broad array of matters representing governmental, commercial and individual interests. As well, you found time to appear regularly at first instance in courts and tribunals. In the best traditions of the Bar, your door was open to all. You would readily accept a speculative brief for an injured plaintiff whose prospects of success were but modest ones.

Those who appeared with and against you know you to have been an opponent with a mastery of the brief, adept at court craft and seductive in persuasive argument. There is many an expert witness who has felt the keenness of your questioning in cross-examination. The Court is sure to benefit from your special blend of talents and extensive experience at all levels in which the advocate's services are engaged.

Those on the Court who perhaps do not know you well will quickly sense your good humour, your inclination to look for the positive features of an individual or in a situation, and your uncompromising loyalty both to institution and to colleagues.

They will also learn that you have an all but inexhaustible patience, and this I have seen. As some of us here know, few task are more testing for the Queensland barrister than the extraction of cohesive instructions, in the late hours of the night at a Far North Queensland sugar town, from a mill suppliers' committee comprised of hard men - and they were always all men - invariably with a strong sense of a dollars' worth and often with an idiosyncratic view of what the law was or ought to be. Callinan QC never failed to pass that test with admirable composure.

If the work of the Court allows for relaxing interludes, your colleagues are sure to enjoy your entertaining conversation, particularly in your chosen fields of interests: Australian art and the character-building disciplines of cricket and rugby. Your handsomely struck 44 runs for the Bar in last year's match against the North Coast Solicitors assures you of selection in the High Court XI.

Justice Callinan, the Bars of Australia, and particularly your home Bar of Queensland, wish you every success in your term of office. May it please the Court.

BRENNAN CJ: Thank you, Mr Gotterson.

CALLINAN J: Your Honours, Mr Attorney, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Walker and Mr Gotterson.

I express my appreciation to all who are present today. In many cases you have travelled considerable distances to be here and for that I am very grateful.

The presence of so many of the Chief Justices of the Courts of the nation is something I especially appreciate, and welcome, as an indication of the Federal nature of the country and its courts. I acknowledge with pleasure the presence of the Right Honourable Sir Harry Gibbs and the Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen. I observe that there are present other judges, who are good friends as well, from the various courts of Australia.

An occasion such as this tends to be one upon which the profession indulges itself in shameless hyperbole. This has been no exception. I know however that the compliments are well intentioned and I thank you Mr Attorney, Mr Walker, and Mr Gotterson for them.

It is now thirty-seven years since I began practice in the legal profession, the last thirty-two of which have been spent at the Bar. Most, on their first appointment to the Bench say it, and I too, do so with sincerity, and not a little sadness, that my time at the bar that has now come to an end has been happy and rewarding.

There is, for me, a symmetry about the events of today and the presence here of two people. The first I mention is the Right Honourable Sir Harry Gibbs. I last spoke here at a ceremony, as opposed to a hearing, on the fifth day of February 1987, on the occasion of the retirement as Chief Justice, of Sir Harry. He does me much honour by coming to my swearing in.

The other person is His Honour the Chief Justice, Sir Gerard Brennan. He has no doubt forgotten the case, but my first appearance in this Court was as his junior, in an application in a matter that had commenced in that rather curious, but uniquely Queensland jurisdiction to which Mr Gotterson has referred, the sugar circuit. The application went the way of so many applications to this Court. We failed, but my introduction to the Court was at one and the same time, frightening but stimulating. It is a pleasure to be sitting here now as a member of that Court with the same leader as I had in my initial appearance here almost thirty years ago.

I have been reminded a number of times that I am the first appointee to the Court from the independent Bar since Sir Keith Aickin some twenty-two years ago.

I do take pride, not only on my own behalf, but also on behalf of the Bar of Australia, in the fact that I come to this Court directly from its ranks.

Sir Keith Aickin had also, as I have been, at the time of his appointment, a director of some public companies. I hope therefore that I may be, as he did, able to make a contribution to the work of the Court in two particular respects: by bringing to it a current understanding of some of the problems and uncertainties encountered by the practising profession in advising and advocacy on a daily basis, and, by utilizing a knowledge of contemporary problems in commerce. I would hope that such contributions may go some way towards compensating for an absence of judicial experience.

Speaking of experience in other fields, Mr Gotterson, I thank you for your reference to cricket. I do not expect to be able to utilize my knowledge of that game here and I come to Canberra, I fear, too late and too old to be a serious candidate for the Prime Minister's Eleven.

No-one reaches a position such as this without the support and help of other members of the profession, including one's adversaries. In addition to several kindly and tolerant judges before whom I have appeared, there have been many solicitors and barristers who have assisted me over the years. I do not refer to these by name because the list would be too long to recite. I do mention, however, the regret I feel at leaving my colleagues in my own very congenial set of chambers on the tenth level of the Inns of Court. I also record my thanks to those other members of the bar, senior and junior, people whom I have led and people against whom I have appeared, who have taken the trouble to come to Canberra today. It is a source of pleasure that so many of them come, not only from Queensland but also from other States and Territories of Australia.

I am appreciative too of the presence of friends from schooldays and several other walks of life in which I have occasionally myself strolled.

No-one coming to this Court in 1998 could be unaware of the difficulty of, and likely controversy surrounding some of the questions that will have to be answered by the Court in the next decade, answers which will have profound effects upon the lives of many, perhaps in some cases, all Australians. No matter how the questions are answered, and whether they can be answered unanimously or not, some people will be dissatisfied. In the end, such questions have to be answered by somebody, and our constitution requires that the High Court undertake that task. I will strive for my part to answer those questions as conscientiously as I can. I do not expect the task to be easy. It is to be performed, of course, in the knowledge that Judges owe allegiance to the Constitution, the law and justice. They have no constituencies.

When I was asked what my feelings were when I learned of my appointment to the Court, I said that I was in awe of it. Those feelings have not changed. The High Court of Australia has an enviable reputation throughout the common law world. Many of my predecessors are people whose names I can repeat only with respect and admiration. I hope that my recollection of this occasion and the repeated references to the reasoning of those great Judges will keep me in a suitable state of humility throughout my term on the Court.

There is one theme to which I would like to return, and that is the role of the independent Bar. When I practised as a solicitor, and subsequently as a barrister, almost all of the important advising work in potentially litigious and litigious matters was done by the independent bar. That continued until, as I remember, the early years of the last decade. At about that time a significant, and undesirable change occurred with respect to the provision of legal opinions. Increasingly they were provided in-house by firms of solicitors, most notably very large firms. Whilst I would accept that much useful work has been done in this way I would sound a note of caution about any expansion of the practice. Clients would do well to remember that nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect that in the morning, or at some time in the months ahead, the adviser will have to vindicate his or her opinion in court, an ordeal which a solicitor who is not an advocate will be spared. In saying this I make clear that I have known many litigation solicitors with almost mystical powers of prediction and judgement, but I emphasise that the virtual reality of the solicitor's office is no substitute for the hard and unforgiving actuality of the courtroom, particularly the courtroom of interventionist and busy appellate courts.

I come to this position at a somewhat older age, I think, than the ages of the appointments of those who now occupy this Bench. I have therefore lost some who would have taken much pleasure in this event. I regret that my parents,who made great sacrifices so that I could attend secondary school and the university, and enter into articles of clerkship, and my elder brother are not alive to share this day with me.

I have left until last my children, Rory and Fiona, and their spouses who are present in Court today, and my wife Wendy. My children have endured patiently, without rancour, the absences and distractions of the rather busy life I have led at the bar and in other fields. I thank them for their understanding.

It is very difficult for me to find the words to express my gratitude to my wife for her encouragement and unstinting support in all matters throughout our marriage. Much of this is of a private nature, but suffice to say that of such qualities as I may possess, and as bring me to this point in my career, most I owe largely to her.

BRENNAN CJ: Court will now adjourn until 2.15 pm.

AT 10.48 AM THE COURT ADJOURNED