Ceremonial - Welcome to French CJ and Bell J - Brisbane [2009] HCATrans 147 (22 June 2009)

Last Updated: 2 July 2009

[2009] HCATrans 147

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

SPECIAL SITTING

WELCOME TO

THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERT SHENTON FRENCH

AND

THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE VIRGINIA MARGARET BELL

AT

BRISBANE

ON

MONDAY, 22 JUNE 2009, AT 1.43 PM

FRENCH CJ
BELL J

Speakers:

Mr M.J. Byrne, QC, Vice President of the Bar Association of Queensland

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

FRENCH CJ: Mr Byrne?

MR BYRNE: May the Court please.

Your Honours, in the absence of Michael Stewart SC, it is my privilege, on behalf of the barristers of Queensland to extend to your Honour Chief Justice French and your Honour Justice Bell a sincere and warm welcome to your first sittings as Judges of the High Court of Australia in our beloved, dare I say it, Sunshine State.

Each of your Honour’s reputations and achievements precedes you. However, it would be remiss of me, on this special occasion, not to place some details on the public record.

Your Honour Chief Justice French obtained your science degree, majoring in physics, prior to finalising your law degree from the University of Western Australia.

Your Honour’s subsequent academic association with that institute of learning seemingly laid down the pathway to your Honour becoming an acknowledged leading constitutional jurist. This, in part, is reflected by your Honour’s position as President of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law for some four years.

The judicial career of your Honour is, with respect, remarkable - being appointed a Judge of the Federal Court at the age of 39 and having then served also as President of the National Native Title Tribunal and a member of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and Fiji.

Chief Justice French, welcome to Queensland.

Your Honour Justice Bell is the 48th person to become a Judge of the High Court and, as a matter of history, the fourth woman to hold such office.

The enviable reputation your Honour has as a formidable raconteur perhaps owes some of its origin, along with your Honour’s fledgling legal career, to your early practice of law, including criminal law, at the Redfern Legal Centre.

The dual and necessary skills, in such an environment, of effective communication and thinking on one’s feet, were no doubt further honed during your Honour’s practice as a public defender.

As a judicial officer, your Honour’s record speaks for itself - a Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for 10 years, President of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and a Judge of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

Justice Bell, welcome to Queensland.

In concluding, I note the importance, both ceremonially and professionally of the High Court sitting in our State so as to allow practitioners and importantly potential future practitioners an insight into the working life of the highest Court in our country, and I express the best wishes of the Bar for each of your Honour’s first such sittings.

May it please the Court.

FRENCH CJ: Thank you for your kind remarks, Mr Byrne.

I have visited Queensland many times since my appointment as a Judge of the Federal Court in 1986, but one of my most pleasant moments here occurred in 1987. I was working in the library of what was then the Federal Court building one Sunday afternoon while visiting for Full Court sittings. An attractive young woman, who turned out to be one of Justice Pincus’ daughters, came up to me and asked “Whose associate are you?” Sadly, time has taken its toll and no one would make the same mistake now, but it was a story I never tired of recounting to my more aged colleagues on the Bench.

There have been many occasions to get to know Queensland and particularly regional Queensland during my time as President of the National Native Title Tribunal between 1994 and 1998. My visits to this State included the beautiful and fascinating islands of the Torres Strait as well as other parts of far north Queensland. I became familiar with the technique used by regional pilots in far north Queensland of buzzing airstrips before landing in order to clear the stock from them.

To be complimented as I have by the Bar Association today is no small thing. Queensland has given three Chief Justices to this Court, as well as a number of other distinguished appointments to its membership, including the well-known playwright and author, Ian Callinan, and my colleague, Justice Susan Kiefel.

Queensland has always set the bar high when it comes to selecting candidates of senior judicial office. The first Chief Justice of the colony appointed in 1863 was selected according to criteria that he be “of high moral character, not less than 40 years of age, firm, discreet and above temptation to mix in local party politics”. Being a failed political candidate from many years ago I can assure you I have no such temptation.

Your compliments are also no small matter given the long and proud tradition of the profession in this State. I thank you and I look forward to returning from time to time as the work of the Court requires, and also outside that framework to meeting members of the profession both at social events and at local conferences.

Justice Bell.

BELL J: May I also thank you, Mr Byrne.

I am very aware of the responsibility that appointment to this Court carries with it and I appreciate the goodwill of the Queensland Bar.

Like the Chief Justice, I am conscious of the contribution that the Queensland profession has made to this Court, in my case, informed by Michael White’s and Aladin Rahemtula’s collection Queensland Judges of the High Court. I happen to have that work because by some lucky chance some years ago I got on to Aladin Rahemtula’s mailing list. The Supreme Court of Queensland is fortunate in its selection of librarian.

In the foreword to the book, the Honourable Murray Gleeson commented on the strength of this State’s long-established and separate Bar. While I have not had the pleasure of practising in Queensland, may I at least take this opportunity to point out that I had the inestimable benefit of having commenced my legal studies here in Brisbane, at the University of Queensland. I have very happy memories of the law faculty housed in that magnificent sandstone quadrangle, even if in those days, due to the relative scarcity of women law students, the facilities for the women students were located downstairs in the Russian department.

Importantly, as all of you here will appreciate, my understanding of the criminal law was informed by the clarity of Sir Samuel Griffith’s great Code, unsullied by the concepts of mens rea and malice aforethought and other medieval notions of that character. I had the benefit of studying contract law under Professor Sutton, who was then the dean of the faculty. They were truly wonderful days.

On my more recent visits to Brisbane, I have been struck by how the city that I remember with such fondness from my early university days has been transformed, particularly by those magnificent walkways along South Bank and the river.

It is a delight to come to Brisbane. I look forward to the opportunity to renew my friendships with the many Queensland judges, who I have come to know and to meet regularly at conferences during my years as a judge of New South Wales. I join with the Chief Justice in thanking you all for the warmth of your welcome and your attendance here today at this ceremonial setting.

FRENCH CJ: The Court will now adjourn till 2.15.

AT 1.51 PM THE COURT WAS ADJOURNED