Ceremonial Sitting on the Occasion of the Swearing-In of the Honourable Justice Beech-Jones [2023] HCATrans 152 (6 November 2023)

Last Updated: 8 November 2023

[2023] HCATrans 152

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 ROBERT THOMAS BEECH-JONES

AS A JUSTICE OF THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

AT

CANBERRA

ON

MONDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2023, AT 2.15 PM

Coram:

GAGELER CJ
GORDON J
EDELMAN J
STEWARD J
GLEESON J
JAGOT J

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

The Honourable Murray Gleeson AC KC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Honourable Susan Kiefel AC KC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG, former Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Honourable Kenneth Hayne AC KC, former Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Honourable Virginia Bell AC SC, former Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Honourable Patrick Keane AC KC, former Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Honourable Geoffrey Nettle AC KC, former Justice of the High Court of Australia

Dignitaries seated within the Court:

Senator the Honourable Michaelia Cash, Shadow Attorney‑General of the Commonwealth

Members of the Judiciary seated within the Court:

The Right Honourable Dame Helen Winkelmann GNZM, Chief Justice of New Zealand

The Honourable Debra Mortimer, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia

The Honourable William Alstergren AO, Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

The Honourable Christopher Kourakis, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia

The Honourable Alan Blow AO, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania

The Honourable Michael Grant AO, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory

The Honourable Peter Quinlan, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia

The Honourable Andrew Bell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales

The Honourable Lucy McCallum, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory

The Honourable Helen Bowskill, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland

The Honourable Justice A. Besanko

The Honourable Justice N. Perram

The Honourable Justice A. Katzmann

The Honourable Justice M. Moshinsky

The Honourable Justice B. Markovic

The Honourable Justice K. Banks-Smith

The Honourable Justice A. Stewart

The Honourable Justice K. Downs

The Honourable Justice G. Kennett

The Honourable Justice J. Ward

The Honourable Justice A. Meagher

The Honourable Justice F. Gleeson

The Honourable Justice M. Leeming

The Honourable Justice A. Payne

The Honourable Justice R. White

The Honourable Justice A. Mitchelmore

The Honourable Justice J. Kirk

The Honourable Justice C. Adamson

The Honourable Justice K. Stern

The Honourable Justice J. Basten

The Honourable Justice J. Griffiths

The Honourable Justice C. Simpson AO

The Honourable Justice M. Walton

The Honourable Justice S. Rothman AM

The Honourable Justice M. Slattery AM

The Honourable Justice D. Davies

The Honourable Justice P. Garling RFD

The Honourable Justice J. Stevenson

The Honourable Justice R. Wright

The Honourable Justice H. Wilson

The Honourable Justice N. Adams

The Honourable Justice J. Lonergan

The Honourable Justice P. Henry

The Honourable Justice K. Williams

The Honourable Justice D. Yehia

The Honourable Justice A. McGrath

The Honourable Justice D. Sweeney

The Honourable Justice M. Schmidt

The Honourable Justice B. Preston

The Honourable Justice S. Pritchard

The Honourable Justice J. Blokland

The Honourable Justice C. Loukas-Karlsson

The Honourable Justice B. Baker

The Honourable Chief Judge D. Price AO

The Honourable Judge S. Huggett

The Honourable Judge R. Newlinds

The Honourable Judge T. Fantin

Members of the Judiciary seated in the Sydney Courtroom:

The Honourable Justice R. Bromwich

The Honourable Justice S. Burley

The Honourable Justice W. Abraham

The Honourable Justice E. Cheeseman

The Honourable Justice E. Raper

The Honourable Justice S. Campbell

The Honourable Justice R. Cavanagh

The Honourable Justice N. Chen

The Honourable Justice N. Pain

The Honourable Justice L. Armstrong

Members of the Judiciary seated in the Melbourne Courtroom:

The Honourable Justice S. Kenny AM

The Honourable Justice L. Hespe

The Honourable Justice C. Horan

Members of the Judiciary seated in the Brisbane Courtroom:

The Honourable Justice S. Goodman

The Honourable Justice F. Meagher

The Honourable Justice D. Boddice

The Honourable Justice G. Martin AM

The Honourable Justice K. Mellifont

The Honourable Justice P. Callaghan

Former members of the Judiciary seated within the Court:

The Honourable W. Gummow AC KC

The Honourable W. Martin AC KC

The Honourable P. McClellan AM KC

The Honourable R. Macfarlan KC

The Honourable P. Johnson SC

The Honourable G. Bellew SC

At the Bar Table the following persons were present:

Mr T. McAvoy SC, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services

Dr S. Donaghue KC, Solicitor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia

Mr G. McIntyre SC, President-Elect of the Law Council of Australia

Mr P. Dunning KC, President of the Australian Bar Association

Dr R. Higgins SC, President of the New South Wales Bar Association

Mr P. Garrisson AM SC, Solicitor‑General for the Australian Capital Territory

Mr J. Thomson SC, Solicitor‑General for the State of Western Australia

Mr M. Wait SC, Solicitor‑General for the State of South Australia

Mr N. Christrup SC, Solicitor‑General for the Northern Territory

Ms R. Orr KC, Solicitor‑General for the State of Victoria

Ms S. Kay SC, Solicitor‑General for the State of Tasmania

Mr G. Del Villar KC, Solicitor‑General of the State of Queensland

Mr B. Dharmananda SC, President of the Western Australia Bar Association

Mr D. O’Brien KC, President of the Bar Association of Queensland

Mr S. Hay KC, President of the Victorian Bar Association

Ms J. Abbey KC, Vice‑President of the South Australian Bar Association

Mr D. McConnel SC, President of the Northern Territory Bar Association

Mr B. Buckland, Vice-President of the Australian Capital Territory Bar Association

Mr A. Sullivan KC

Mr B. Coles KC

Mr B. Walker AO SC

Mr D. Robinson SC

Mr R. McHugh SC

Mr S. Lloyd SC

Mr I. Davidson SC

Mr R. Lancaster SC

Ms G. Furness SC

Mr. D. Toomey SC

Ms G. Bashir SC

Ms S. Dowling SC

Mr M. Green SC

Mr M. Hall SC

Dr C. Ward SC

Ms K. Richardson SC

Mr N. Owens SC

Ms K. Morgan SC

Mr M. Izzo SC

Mr C. Lenehan SC

Mr P. Herzfeld SC

Ms H. Roberts SC

Mr S. Beckett SC

Mr J. Kay Hoyle SC

Mr A. Butler SC

Prof R. Graycar

Prof J. Stellios

Mr B. Lim

Ms Z. Heger

Ms A. Hammond

Barristers appearing in the Sydney Courtroom:

Ms K. Eastman AM SC

Ms A. Sapienza

Speakers:

Mr Tony McAvoy SC, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services

Dr Stephen Donaghue KC, Solicitor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia

Mr Greg McIntyre SC, President-Elect of the Law Council of Australia

Mr Peter Dunning KC, President of the Australian Bar Association

Dr Ruth Higgins SC, President of the New South Wales Bar Association

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

BEECH‑JONES J: 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.

GAGELER CJ: Principal Registrar, please read the aloud the Commission.

PRINCIPAL REGISTRAR:

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

I, his Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under section 72 of the Constitution and section 5 of the High Court of Australia Act 1979, appoint the Honourable Robert Thomas Beech-Jones, Chief Judge of the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and a Judge of Appeal, to be a Justice of the High Court of Australia, commencing on 6 November 2023 until he attains the age of 70 years.

Signed and sealed with the Great Seal of Australia on 22 August 2023, David Hurley, Governor‑General, By His Excellency’s Command, Mark Dreyfus KC, Attorney‑General, Cabinet Secretary.

GAGELER CJ: Justice Beech‑Jones, I invite you to take the Affirmation of Allegiance and of Office.

BEECH‑JONES J: I, Robert Thomas Beech‑Jones, do solemnly and sincerely promise and declare that I will tread true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, His Heirs and Successors, according to law, that I will well and truly serve Him 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.

GAGELER CJ: Justice Beech‑Jones, I now invite you to subscribe the Affirmation of Allegiance and of Office.

Principal Registrar, please place these documents in the records of the Court.

Justice Beech‑Jones, welcome to the Court. I now invite you to take your seat at the Bench and to proceed to the discharge of the duties of the office of a Justice of the High Court of Australia.

BEECH‑JONES J: Thank you, Chief Justice.

GAGELER CJ: Mr McAvoy, representing the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.

MR McAVOY: May it please the Court. It is a great honour to speak on behalf of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Legal Services to acknowledge and welcome your Honour Justice Beech-Jones as a Justice of this Court. First, I must acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this Court and our nation’s capital sits. I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people and the Ngambri people. I also acknowledge their neighbouring First Nations from this region of the continent. It should also be acknowledged that the Court’s jurisdiction includes the lands and waters of all the First Nations of this continent, including my own people in central Queensland.

Whether it is the Quandamooka people on the doorstep of Brisbane or the Warlpiri people from the deserts in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, or any other First Nation across our vast country, each of those nations have systems of laws and governance which have regulated life and sustained their spiritual and physical well‑being from the effective beginning of time and continue to do so. I also acknowledge the role of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Legal Services in its representation of First Nations people in criminal, civil, child protection and family law matters. They were the political backbone of our communities and continue to play an essential function in the legal system.

The Legal Services congratulate your Honour on your appointment and make perhaps the trite observation that New South Wales’ loss is the nation’s gain. We congratulate you and your family on your elevation to this esteemed position and wish you well in this, the so‑richly deserved latest instalment in your career. It is hoped that in due course your mind, and perhaps the attention of the Court, will be turned to such issues as the way in which the other rights beyond native title rights in land and waters and beyond identity may be accommodated within our common law. There is much work to be done. We congratulate you on your appointment.

May it please the Court.

GAGELER CJ: Thank you, Mr McAvoy. Mr Donaghue, Solicitor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia.

MR DONAGHUE: May it please the Court. First, may I, too, acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on and recognise and pay my respects to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.

Your Honour, it is a great privilege to represent the Attorney‑General the Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC MP today to congratulate your Honour on behalf of the Australian Government on your appointment as a Justice of the High Court of Australia. I would also like to thank you on behalf of the Attorney‑General and the Australian Government for your Honour’s willingness to serve as a Justice of this Court.

It is no surprise that your Honour’s appointment to the Court has been warmly welcomed by the Australian legal community and the public. Your Honour’s appointment followed an extensive consultation process with the legal community across Australia, and your Honour was strongly endorsed through that consultation process. The presence today of so many colleagues from the judiciary and the legal profession further demonstrates the high regard in which your Honour is held.

May I particularly acknowledge the Honourable Murray Gleeson AC KC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia; the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC KC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia; the Right Honourable Dame Helen Winkelmann GNZM, Chief Justice of New Zealand; the Honourable Chief Justice Debra Mortimer, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia; the Honourable Chief Justice William Alstergren AO, Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia; Chief Justices of the State and Territory Supreme Courts, State and Territory Solicitors‑General; Senator the Honourable Michaelia Cash, Shadow Attorney‑General; other current and former members of the judiciary; members of the legal profession; and distinguished guests.

May I also acknowledge the presence of your Honour’s family. Your wife Suzie and your children Gabriel and Sasha are here. We are also joined by your parents, Michael and Joan, as well as your brother Mark. I also acknowledge other members of your extended family and your close friends who join us today. Your Honour spent your formative years in Savage River in North‑West Tasmania. You developed a love for the freedom, great outdoors and natural beauty of Tasmania that you maintain to this day. Your Honour’s formative years were characterised by the strong value you placed on your family and your education. Your Honour, I am told, enjoyed school as your education progressed, and your Honour boarded during the week, continuing your high school education while commuting each weekend to and from your family home.

In 1988, your Honour graduated with a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National University, both with Honours. To this day, your Honour has sustained a strong interest in the sciences, however your Honour chose to pursue a career in the law which, as today attests, was an early display of excellent judgment. In 1988, your Honour was admitted to practice as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. In your early years of practice, your Honour joined Freehills before moving to Craddock Murray Neumann in 1990, specialising in criminal and immigration matters. In 1992, your Honour was called to the Bar, commencing practice at 11th Floor St James Hall Chambers. Your Honour developed a wide‑ranging practice, including administrative law, regulatory work, white‑collar crime, and a role as counsel assisting the HIH Royal Commission.

In your years as a junior you were led by a number of fine silks, including his Honour the new now‑Chief Justice, the Honourable Stephen Gageler AC. Other silks included Peter Hanks KC, who recalls leading you in a hard‑fought matter where you were both instructed by Justice Jagot, who was then a partner at Mallesons but who was later your colleague in chambers at 11 St James Hall.

In 2006, your Honour was appointed silk and you developed a reputation as a very fine public and constitutional lawyer appearing both for and against government. In 2012, your Honour accepted appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. You served in that capacity for almost a decade, before in 2021 you were appointed Chief Judge of the Common Law Division and a Judge of Appeal.

You have also played a wider leadership role within the Australian judiciary, having served from 2016 to 2018 as President of the Judicial Conference of Australia. Your Honour has heard almost 1000 cases throughout your judicial career to date, both civil and criminal in nature, including many hundreds of criminal appeals. You have shown yourself to be a true all‑rounder, and your judgments are very frequently cited. Of particular note, your Honour’s decision in Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) v Mawad has become one of the most‑cited judgments on bail in the Common Law Division. Further, your Honour has presided over matters that have garnered not only the interests of the profession but also the broader public, including, amongst many examples, litigation arising from the COVID pandemic and several high‑profile criminal trials, including, for example, the sentencing of Eddie Obeid. Your breadth of judicial experience will be invaluable to this Court.

Your Honour’s deep interest in engagement with public law has been demonstrated not just by your judgments but also by your presence and thoughtful contributions at the small Zines weekend round‑tables periodically organised by Professor Stellios and Acting Justice Griffiths, and also by your Whitmore Lecture in May this year on the ongoing ramifications of State Tribunals and Chapter III of the Constitution. In addition to your legal breadth, your notable mastery of caseload management, your Honour is regularly described as very approachable, a master of fostering camaraderie, and being very down‑to‑earth. On the evidence of your farewell sitting in the New South Wales Supreme Court a few weeks ago, you have made an enormous contribution to that Court, for which you obviously have very great affection and from which it is plain that you will be sorely missed. However, while your loss will be fairly keenly felt by that Court, no doubt your intellect, work ethic, and collegiality will be warmly welcomed by your new colleagues on this Court.

Your Honour’s drive for excellence is tempered by an innate sense of fairness, seen not only in the courtroom but apparently also on the football pitch. There is some evidence that you are an AFL tragic, which is testament to your tenacity and strength of character, if not to your judgment, since you apparently support Carlton. Your Honour’s recent contribution to the University of Sydney’s AFL Masters side was recognised with an award for the best and fairest, an honour that you shared on that particular awards night with your son, Sasha, in his student team. But despite that award suggesting that you have some talent, at your farewell in the New South Wales Supreme Court your dreams of a Brownlow were described as, quote, “delusional”.

Your Honour has always understood that the law is about people, and this has been demonstrated by dedication to pro bono work while at the Bar, as well as by ongoing contributions to various committees and associations. It was through your Honour’s pro bono work while acting for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre that you met your wife, Suzie. Your Honour has been described as living a life of service and doing so generously without expectation of thanks or glory. Despite your great career success, your Honour remains humble and your sense of humour tends towards the self‑deprecation. I am told your generosity also extends beyond the courtroom, with time and energy frequently offered in support of those in need in your local community.

Your Honour’s appointment to this Court acknowledges your breadth of experience, your intellect, and your many contributions to the legal profession. Your Honour takes on this new judicial office with the best wishes of the Australian legal profession, who trust that you will approach this role with the talent and energy that you have shown throughout your career. On behalf of the Attorney‑General, the Australian Government, and the Australian people, I extend to you my sincere congratulations and welcome you to the High Court of Australia.

May it please the Court.

GAGELER CJ: Thank you, Mr Donaghue. Mr McIntyre, President‑Elect of the Law Council of Australia.

MR McINTYRE: May it please the Court. I am pleased to rise to welcome your Honour’s appointment on behalf of the legal profession. I adopt the acknowledgement of the traditional owners by my learned friend Mr McAvoy.

I can endorse, as the Solicitor‑General has said, that your Honour’s appointment has received widespread support and been greeted with much enthusiasm. Your Honour’s integrity, humanity, and commitment to the law are highly respected and valued by all those who have known you or who have appeared before you throughout your career. As has been remarked, your Honour joins the High Court after a distinguished service as a judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court, including as the Chief Judge of Common Law since 2021, but as speakers at your farewell reflected, appointment to the High Court always seemed inevitable due to your strong interest in and expertise in constitutional law. Even as a student at the Australian National University, your Honour shone in this area, winning the BC Meagher Prize for Commonwealth Constitutional Law in 1987.

Earlier this year, your Honour delivered the 15th Whitmore Lecture and tackled the topic of the Constitution and State Tribunals. While your Honour is a proud Tasmanian, with your appointment to the High Court, you do return to an old stomping ground as sorts, having studied here in Canberra with the now‑Chief Justice, Chief Justice Gageler. With this appointment your Honour becomes the 57th Justice of the Court. To honour your love of the Carlton Football Club, a search was conducted by my instructor, Mr Popple, for a holder of the number 57 guernsey to use to highlight the power of this numeral, but alas, it seems the highest number to grace the back of a Carlton player to date is 56. However, some licence has been taken to look at players who have worn the number five and the number seven. They include two‑time Brownlow medallist Chris Judd and all‑time Carlton great Wayne “The Dominator” Johnston; your Honour is in very good company.

Speaking of good company, your Honour’s colleagues at the Supreme Court have spoken of how much you have contributed to the camaraderie of the workplace and how much you will be missed. I am sure their loss will be the gain of all those who work with you, here in this highest Court of the land. Your Honour is renowned for clear and precise judgments, often on complex and challenging matters, and for your outstanding judicial analysis, further explaining why your Honour’s appointment to the High Court has been so well received. On behalf of the Australian legal profession, I would like to formally congratulate your Honour on your appointment and, not to let a good analogy go to waste, look forward to the goals you will kick as a team player as you so ably continue your dedicated service to our country and community.

May it please the Court.

GAGELER CJ: Thank you, Mr McIntyre. Mr Dunning, President of the Australian Bar Association.

MR DUNNING: Justice Beech-Jones, Chief Justice Gageler, Justices of the High Court, retired Chief Justices and Justices of the High Court, distinguished guests all, it is my pleasure and privilege in equal measure, Justice Beech-Jones, to offer the congratulations of the Bar nationally upon your Honour’s appointment to our apex Court.

As has been observed by speakers who have gone before me, your Honour’s appointment to this Court has received universal acclamation, and unsurprisingly so. Your Honour brings to this Court a decade of exceptional service to the New South Wales Supreme Court, essayed in detail by Chief Justice Bell at your Honour’s recent valedictory. Your Honour departs that Court not only with the deep affection of the New South Wales Bar but with a reputation earned across the nation for your skill as a jurist. You enjoy a reputation for being as industrious as you are well‑humoured, as decisive as you are courteous.

Prior to your appointment to the Supreme Court of New South Wales, your Honour spent two decades in practice at the New South Wales Bar. Your 11th Floor St James Hall members are understandably delighted by the success that one of their alumni has achieved today. Your Honour’s breadth of practice, Bench and Bar, across the gamut of all areas of law: crime, civil disputes, public law, and constitutional law, equips your Honour well to deal with the wide and varied jurisdiction necessarily administered by this Court. Your Honour enjoys a reputation for a great insight into the human condition, something that is essential to fairly, and in an even‑handed fashion, dispense justice.

Your Honour, our members look forward to having the opportunity of appearing before you and developing the affection that the New South Wales Bar so evidently has for you. The experience your Honour brings to the Court resonates with the practice of all members of the Australian Bar. Your Honour’s career is an exemplification that the ultimate discharge of judicial office involves quietening real controversies between real people, and, as necessary, adjudicating between the citizen and the State. Today, Justice Beech‑Jones, is a day of understandable pride for your Honour’s family and friends. No one attains the sort of success of today, and those successes that have preceded today for you, without the love and support of your Honour’s family and friends.

Your wife, Suzie, your children, Gabriel and Sasha, your parents, and all of those near to you, should feel an understandable sense of pride and a stake in the success that is exhibited today. Justice Beech-Jones, the Bar nationally offers its congratulations on your Honour’s fine appointment and greatly looks forward to appearing before you in this Court.

May it please the Court.

GAGELER CJ: Thank you, Mr Dunning. Ms Higgins, President of the New South Wales Bar Association.

MS HIGGINS: May it please the Court. I, too, acknowledge the traditional owners. Chief Justice Gageler, it is an honour to speak today on behalf of the New South Wales Bar Association to welcome the appointment of Justice Beech-Jones to the Court. Justice Beech-Jones, the New South Wales Bar offers you its warmest congratulations on your appointment to the High Court of Australia.

Charles Darwin arrived in Tasmania on The Beagle on the 5th of February 1836. He was immediately excited. He observed similarities between the strata at Hobart Town and the bottom of the sea at Tierra del Fuego and believed that these distant continuities held an important clue to the evolution of species. Distant continuities likewise explain a great deal about your Honour. As we have heard, your Honour was initially raised in Savage River. With its population of 31, an average annual rainfall of 1953.9 millimetres, Savage River, in truth, was a place apt to produce a future High Court Judge; the opportunities for study were infinite.

Seeking a change from a quiet, civilised environment, your family moved to Montreal, Canada, when you were a schoolboy. The opportunities for study remained ample. Your Honour’s next attempt to depart from a calm, quiet environment was to turn to the Australian National University. Your Honour was, by that point, equally drawn to mathematical formulae and legal formulations. This was an early sign of your Honour’s desire and ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind. This peripatetic, if focused, trajectory then took your Honour to the New South Wales Bar. While at the Bar, your Honour practiced from 11th Floor St James Hall. This was, perhaps, a genuine change of scene.

Your Honour there worked in Chambers alongside many superb and robust barristers, including your tutor David Robinson SC and the Honourable Justice Hammerschlag, now a Chief Judge in Equity. Just as today is a remarkable day for the New South Wales Bar, to have two of its former members sworn into the country’s highest court on the same day, so too is it a glorious day for that floor. Your Honour now sits alongside Justice Jagot, another former member of the floor, in a corner of Canberra that will be forever 11 St James.

Your practice at the Bar was truly ecumenical and your commitment fabled. Your Honour’s nights sleeping in Chambers while finalising submissions in the James Hardie Case are the stuff of local Bar lore. The tasks your Honour took on were never insubstantial, including being counsel assisting the Royal Commission into the collapse of HIH, and representing Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib against the Federal Government. Your Honour also gave significantly of your time to the New South Wales Bar Association, sitting on a professional conduct committee and the Human Rights Committee. Anyone who has sat upon a PCC understands the demanding combination of sympathy and detachment which the proper performance of a self‑regulatory professional disciplining function requires.

In 2009, three years after your Honour’s appointment as Senior Counsel, your wife was awarded a playwriting residency at the National Theatre in London. For many months, your Honour commuted between Sydney and London to facilitate that huge opportunity while maintaining a busy silk’s practice. That species of commitment is, perhaps, under‑celebrated but it is, perhaps, the most important kind of all. By this point your Honour had truly mastered what Mark Twain considered the test of a first‑rate intelligence: the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Your Honour was appointed to the Supreme Court on 12 of March 2012, at the age of 47, initially sitting in the Common Law Division and the Court of Criminal Appeal. Again, your Honour’s docket was ecumenical. Among the deluge of matters in your Honour’s court, the most biblical was the Queensland Floods Class Action. Your Honour conducted a view of a dam and patiently learned the intricacies of engineering hydrology and meteorology as they concern counterfactual flood operations. The hearing took more than 130 days; judgment was delivered on 26 February 2021. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that judgment was not the end of matters. A consequential judgment, judgment number 29, delivered on 7 May 2021, commenced with this wry paragraph:

Lurking under every rock and tree of this litigation is another issue about damages.

In late 2021, your Honour was appointed Chief Judge at Common Law and a Judge of Appeal. While in that role your Honour heard Kassam v Hazzard, a challenge to the New South Wales Public Health Order Number 2 of 2021, which confined the freedom of movement of certain workers unless vaccinated with an approved COVID‑19 vaccine. A case of significant public interest, opening arguments were live‑streamed on 30 September 2021 to an audience of 45,000 viewers. Your Honour’s judgment, delivered some two weeks later, was watched by 40,000 viewers online. That is a very low attrition rate for complex judicial review proceedings. It is comforting to know that your Honour’s wife is not the only member of the family who can hold an audience. Your Honour’s decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal a matter of weeks later, an application for special leave to this Court was declined with costs. Indeed, perhaps the only thing your Honour might miss as a result of today’s appointment is the peculiar joy of the High Court saying “Beech‑Jones J was correct”, but then, “I agree with Beech‑Jones J” may be a more than adequate substitute.

Your Honour’s most recent judicial decisions articulate a profound concern for the proper administration of justice. In Honeysett v DPP, a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal of this year, that court allowed an appeal by Mr Honeysett to set aside criminal convictions entered in 1987 and acquitted him of those historical criminal charges. The convictions which remained in place, even after the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Force in the mid‑1990s, revealed how police had fabricated evidence in the case. Your Honour wrote in your judgment:

To all outward appearances, the circumstances in which Mr Honeysett entered his pleas of guilty suggest there was a firm adherence to due process. . . Yet the entire process of criminal justice was corrupted by the conduct of the police. . . Convictions procured in these circumstances cannot stand and must be set aside. They are an affront to justice.

Even while Chief Judge at Common Law, managing a division as diverse in its areas of law as it is central to the administration of justice, your Honour somehow found time for extensive extra-curricular activities. You were President of the then Judicial Conference of Australia and worked alongside the Judicial Commission of New South Wales in effecting changes to the law on consent and sexual assault, including by providing your own practical insights about the effects for trial judges giving jury directions.

Your Honour will recall, if increasingly faintly, the moment as counsel when, on the eve of a trial, you discover which judge has been allocated to your case. The universal reaction of counsel in New South Wales upon discovering that it was your Honour has been “fantastic, it is Beech‑Jones.” It is a very fine thing for this country that every litigant able to have their case entertained by its ultimate Court of Appeal may be able to know that feeling.

May it please the Court.

GAGELER CJ: Thank you, Ms Higgins. Justice Beech‑Jones.

BEECH‑JONES J: Chief Justice Gageler, fellow and former Judges of this Court, men and women of the Australian judiciary, honoured guests, family and friends.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we are gathered. I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people and the Ngambri people, who hold deep and abiding ties to this part of Australia. This being a ceremonial sitting at the seat of national government of a court having nationwide jurisdiction, I also acknowledge traditional owners and custodians of lands in all parts of the continent, Tasmania, the Torres Strait Islands and other coastal islands. I do so in the place – in the courtroom – where traditional laws and customs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were first recognised by the common law in the decision of this Court in Mabo v State of Queensland (No 2).

The Court and I are honoured by the presence of the Shadow Attorney‑General, Senator the Honourable Michaelia Cash, the Solicitor‑General of the Commonwealth, Dr Stephen Donaghue KC, as representative of the Federal Government, as well as the Chief Justice of New Zealand, the Right Honourable Dame Helen Winkelmann; the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, the Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the Chief Justice of New South Wales, the Chief Justice of Tasmania, the Chief Justice of Western Australia, the Chief Justice of the Northern Territory, the Chief Justice of Queensland, the Chief Justice of South Australia, the Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory, the Chief Justice of Victoria and the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

I also acknowledge the presence of previous judges of this Court on the Bench today, namely the Honourable Murray Gleeson AC KC, the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC KC, the Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG, the Honourable Kenneth Hayne AC KC, the Honourable Virginia Bell AC SC, the Honourable Patrick Keane AC KC, the Honourable Geoffrey Nettle AC KC, along with the Honourable William Gummow AC KC, who is sitting in the body of the Court.

These former judges of this Court personify the rich legacy that I inherit and the high standards I must uphold.

Mr McAvoy, thank you for your important statement. Your words have particular potence coming from Counsel of your standing.

Mr Solicitor, Mr McIntyre, Mr Dunning and Ms Higgins, thank you for your extremely kind words. I am honoured today by the presence of many family, friends and colleagues from different places and times in my life. Throughout your speeches I felt a growing anxiety that, if the reception afterwards takes too long, they will confer with one another and discover the number and extent of the exaggerations in those speeches, especially about my AFL ability. For the moment I will take comfort in the fact that your generous statements about me remain on the record and undisturbed by the truth.

Fortunately, the dynamics of the retirement of former Chief Justice Kiefel, the promotion of Justice Gageler to the office of Chief Justice, and my appointment to this Court are such that none of us have to engage in the artifice of somehow pretending that I am replacing either of them, as if such a thing was possible. That said, I would like to acknowledge both.

Across three decades, and across three great courts, former Chief Justice Kiefel served the judiciary and the nation with great distinction. Her career, from the time she left school until her retirement from the highest judicial office in the country, is a testament to the values of scholarship, hard work, integrity, duty and discipline. Former Chief Justice Kiefel leaves this Court a great legacy of judicial leadership both in and out of court. The nation owes her its gratitude.

This morning I had the privilege of sitting where most of you sit now during the swearing‑in of Chief Justice Gageler. I first encountered the Chief Justice as my opponent when I conducted my first hearing in the Federal Court nearly 30 years ago. What cruel twist of fate would serve up such an opponent to a young barrister? All of the qualities that distinguish him as a great judge and a nice person and which will serve him well as Chief Justice were on display then: a complete command of the subject matter, clear expression, unfailing courtesy and respect for all, and, of course, he was stunningly persuasive. That said, and I mean no disrespect to him or the fine judge who decided the case, my strongest memory of that case was explaining to my client, a woman who showed great dignity in difficult circumstances, why we were not successful. Practice as a barrister has many high points, but it is the losses and, more importantly, the experience of the clients who bore them that have best prepared me for being a judge.

As you heard, that career as a judge commenced with my appointment to the Supreme Court of New South Wales, with my commission having expired at midnight. In the years in between I was fortunate enough to be schooled in judging through the breadth, complexity, seriousness and sheer volume of that Court’s work. The Supreme Court of New South Wales is collegiate, its judges are productive, and its work is uniformly and widely respected. It was a privilege to serve the people of New South Wales as a judge of their Supreme Court. I am honoured by the presence today of many of my close friends and former colleagues from that Court.

In his swearing‑in speech in 2016, my colleague Justice Edelman weaved an alluring metaphor of the common law as a form of chain novel with each judge writing part of the story in a manner consistent with the law’s evolving but underlying values. This reflects the truism that knowledge of the common law’s historical origins is often critical to the task of explaining and developing the law as a judge of this Court must do. This longitudinal aspect of legal history has a latitudinal counterpart in that sometimes – perhaps often – it is critical to understanding a doctrine or case to appreciate its social and political context. This is especially so for the cases decided by this Court under the Constitution over which it keeps watch.

As constitutional clashes go, the events that became the subject of the Tasmanian Dam Case had everything: a State‑wide referendum, a State election which revealed a clear indication of State electoral will, a federal election with an equally clear but opposite indication of electoral will, a treaty, federal legislation, a hearing where all the constitutional heavyweights turned out and then, finally, just over 40 years ago, a 4‑3 judgment from this Court which was later described by Professor Leslie Zines as a course in Commonwealth constitutional law in its own right.

Having lived in the north and western areas of Tasmania in the late 1970s and early 1980s, been present in Canberra when the Tasmanian Dam Case was decided and then studied it soon afterwards, what stands out to me now is not so much all the words that are found in volume 158 of the Commonwealth Law Reports but the divisions in Tasmanian communities, families and workplaces that those events gave rise to. Equally, I recall that after the immediate fire and fury, the resolution by this Court of that titanic struggle was peacefully accepted and respected, if not agreed with, by those who hoped for the opposite result. In the end, our State and Federal democratic institutions, the Constitution and this Court all performed their function and life moved on.

Since that time, much of my family including myself have moved around and across this vast continent with all that entails, especially during a pandemic. All in all, like my fellow judges, I have lived a little bit of federation.

Unlike Tasmania, no one is an island, especially me. I have far too many to acknowledge, and I will keep it brief.

My teachers at Wynyard High School and Hellyer College in Burnie, and my lecturers at the ANU were all employees of the State. They were overworked, highly professional and deeply committed to assisting every student regardless of their ability. They were fine examples of public service for a judge to follow.

As you have heard, present in the Court today is my older brother Mark, a retired police inspector and supremely optimistic North Melbourne supporter. Travel and significant family commitments have prevented my other two brothers, David and Martin, from physically attending but they are very much present in the form of their children, that is, my nieces and nephews. I owe a great deal to the fact that I had three older brothers to watch and learn from and to look out for me.

In 1963, my parents arrived in this country from Wales. They were both in their early 20s. They had my three brothers to keep them busy. My birth two years after their arrival added to their burdens. They had no other family here, and I suspect very little money, but they did have their faith and a capacity to work hard. Wherever we lived, no matter how remote, they provided a happy and safe home for all of us to flourish while helping build communities around them. As their son, I see my parents as an example of how this country so often works, although as a Judge I have also seen that it does not work for everyone, especially its First Nations people in their dealings with the judicial system.

I am relieved by the fact that very soon the focus of attention will leave me and return to where it rightfully belongs, namely, my wife Suzie. Viscount Maugham was the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain in the late 1930s. He probably did not realise it at the time, but after he left office, it was not his judgments that were read but the books written by his little brother Somerset. I am not under any misapprehension about the longevity of my judgments compared to Suzie’s words. Suzie and our wonderful children, Gabriel and Sasha, both give me strength and keep me grounded.

The presence of my family and friends on this day serves to remind me of where I came from, what is important and make my affirmation of office that much more solemn.

I am very much looking forward to joining this great Court. My new judicial colleagues, their staff, the staff of the Court, including its Principal Registrar Philippa Lynch, its Senior Registrar Carolyn Rogers and its Senior Executive Deputy Registrar Ben Wickham, have all been generous with their time and warm in their greetings.

When I was first sworn in as a Judge, I concluded my speech by saying that the time for me to talk was over and the time for me to listen had commenced. Eleven and a half years later, I am still talking. Perhaps not for the last time, I state that I agree with what I said previously, however this time I will do what I say.

Thank you for honouring the Court and myself with your attendance.

GAGELER CJ: The Court will adjourn and resume sitting at 10.00 am tomorrow.

AT 2.55 PM THE COURT ADJOURNED