Ceremonial - Remarks on the Final Sitting in Sydney of Gleeson CJ [2008] HCATrans 302 (26 August 2008)

Last Updated: 28 August 2008

[2008] HCATrans 302

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

REMARKS ON THE FINAL SITTING

IN SYDNEY OF

THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE MURRAY GLEESON

ON

TUESDAY, 26 AUGUST 2008, AT 9.36 AM

MR JACKSON: Your Honour, may I mention something before the Court commences the list.

This is, we understand, the last occasion on which your Honour the Chief Justice will sit as a member of the Full Court in Sydney. There will, of course, be a formal ceremonial farewell in Canberra on Friday, but it would be remiss not to say something to mark the occasion.

Your Honour has been an outstanding figure in the Australian legal profession since you were called to the Bar of New South Wales 45 years ago as a barrister and Queen’s Counsel of the very first rank, as Chief Justice of New South Wales and as Chief Justice of Australia.

Your Honour, I have had the privilege of appearing, quite frequently I suppose in this Court, before the last five Chief Justices, Sir Garfield Barwick, Sir Harry Gibbs, Sir Anthony Mason, Sir Gerard Brennan and your Honour. Your Honour is a worthy member of a group of very distinguished Australians.

We wish your Honour well in life after the Court, and may I conclude with one observation. I understand your Honour is proposing to spend a week or two in Wingham, the town of your youth, immediately following retirement. Wingham has a connection with the Court. It had been part of one of Sir Edmund Barton’s electorates, and many years later his son, Oswald, a medical practitioner, proposed to set up practice there. Sir Edmund’s biographer records that Sir Edmund wrote to Oswald saying that he recalled having been to Wingham and had found it a very quiet town. Your Honour’s return there may enliven the municipality. It will not go unnoticed.

As I said, your Honour, we wish your Honour well.

GLEESON CJ: Thank you, Mr Jackson.

I am greatly obliged to you and to the members of the profession present for those generous observations.

Sydney, as you know, is a scene of much activity for the High Court. As it happens, applications for special leave to the High Court are not currently increasing. The number for the year end 30 June 2008 was almost exactly the same as the number for the year end 30 June 2007, but 72 per cent of those were filed in the Sydney Registry.

There is a certain symmetry about this occasion. In October 1988, I was appearing in my last case as a barrister. It was a commercial arbitration, at that stage being heard in London. I was appearing with Mr Kenneth Hayne, QC, and Mr Mukhtar of the Victorian Bar. In the finest traditions of the New South Wales Bar, I left them both and flew back to Sydney. I was sworn in as Chief Justice in early November. When I came to the New South Wales Bar, I had read with Mr L.W. Street, and he was my predecessor as Chief Justice. He arranged to retire on All Saints Day in 1988, giving himself the best possible opportunity of salvation, and I was sworn in on 2 November. Here, today, I am sitting on my last case as a judge in company with Justice Hayne.

Thank you for your observations.

AT 9.40 AM THE COURT COMMENCED THE
HEARING OF SPECIAL LEAVE APPLICATIONS