Callinan J - Welcome Sydney CER

[1998] HCATrans 25

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 JUSTICE IAN DAVID FRANCIS CALLINAN

AT

SYDNEY

ON

FRIDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 1998, AT 9.17 AM

CALLINAN J

Speakers:

Mr I. Barker, QC, President, New South Wales Bar Association

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

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

HIS HONOUR:   Mr Barker.

MR BARKER:   Your Honour, welcome to New South Wales and on behalf of the New South Wales Bar I congratulate you on your appointment to the High Court.

Your Honour, on every other occasion when I stood where I stand now, I was given a meagre 20 minutes to present an admittedly convoluted argument, before a trap door opened.  Often I was beaten into surrender well before that time.  This morning I have been given almost no time at all.  So, I will make my comments brief.  I suppose the quickest way I could summarise your Honour's previous career and background would be in ten words:  Casino, Brisbane Grammar, Queensland University, solicitor partner, barrister, Queen's Counsel 1978!

1965 was the year you were called to the Bar.  You practised principally in Queensland as well as being admitted in other Australian States and Papua New Guinea and Ireland.  Your professional association with the Sydney Bar is extensive and you have many friends among its ranks.  On behalf of the Bar Council I express the hope that you will continue your association with the New South Wales Bar Association by converting to Associate membership.  The letter is in the mail.

In 1984 and 1985 you were appointed President of the Australian Bar Association and you have held many and various senior positions including Presidency of the Law Council of Australia and as a visiting Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle.

Your Honour, yours is the first direct appointment from the Bar to this Court since Sir Keith Aickin in 1976.  This must say something about the standard of excellence which the independent Bar brings to the administration of justice.

It may be timely for me to say this.  Unfortunately, it has become common in some circles for people to demonstrate their displeasure at decisions of this Court by personally abusively and unfairly attacking the Judges.  You may take it that on such occasions the Association I represent will respond by publicly supporting the Judges under attack.  I believe this to be an essential function of the Bar.

Again, the barristers of New South Wales welcome you.

HIS HONOUR:   Mr Heinrich.

MR HEINRICH:   May it please the Court.

On behalf of the solicitors of New South Wales, I congratulate your Honour on this, your first judicial appointment.

The rarity of coming straight from the Bar, after practising as a solicitor and a barrister, to the High Court has been mentioned, however, I wish to briefly highlight other activities and positions which you have held prior to your appointment, to complete the picture, so to speak.

Conwell & Company in Brisbane can take pride in the fact that they had some influence on your career.  You became a partner of that firm of solicitors.  After five years, your Honour was called to the Bar.

Your extensive career as an advocate was complemented by other acts of service to the profession, including as a Director of the Council of Law Reporting, Convenor of the 1983 Australian Legal Convention and you also accepted other academic appointments.  You were, for example, lecturer in legal ethics at Queensland University and Visiting Professor of Law at Newcastle University.

The community has also been well served in your capacity as Chairman of the Queensland Totalisator Board, as Chairman of Trustees of the Queensland Art Gallery and you were on the Board of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.  The latter two appointments are a reflection of your strong patronage of the arts.

In a private capacity you have published plays and novels and I understand you are an avid art collector. 

Your wide ranging legal experience is well recognised.  Your years as a solicitor and partner in a legal practice are a significant component of the experience you bring to the Court.  The solicitors of New South Wales now look forward to your Honour's contribution to the rule of law throughout Australia.

We will also continue our strong support, led by our former President, Patrick Fair, of all judges and decisions of the Court.

Your Honour, again, I congratulate you and wish you well for the years ahead on the High Court of Australia Bench.   As the Court pleases.

HIS HONOUR:   Mr Barker and Mr Heinrich.

I appreciate very much your kind words of welcome from the New South Wales profession.  I was myself admitted to the New South Wales Bar more than a decade ago.  Since that time I have had the good fortune to practise in this State and appear before many of the judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.  During that time I have made numerous friends of members of the profession on both sides.  I have also had the pleasure of participating annually in sporting events between the New South Wales Bar and the Queensland Bar.

It has to be admitted that Queensland, for many years, was resistant to interstate professional intercourse.  Even before Street's Case, that resistance was inevitably starting to crumble with improved communications and the increased mobility of people in business throughout the country.  That process was, in my own case, accelerated by the goodwill and friendliness of the New South Wales profession whenever I encountered members of them.  In particular, I recall how much was contributed to the good relations between the Queensland and New South Wales professions by the modesty, professionalism and sociability of two of this State's leading counsel, Mr Hughes, QC, and Mr Gleeson, QC, as he then was, when they appeared against a Queensland contingent in Brisbane in the 1970s in the Withers Royal Commission.

The solicitors in this State have also been generous to me.  That side of the profession here justifiably bears a reputation for innovation and robustness.  Members of it have not been loath to give outsiders a chance and that has had the effect of enhancing the national character of both the Australian Bar and the solicitors' profession.

New South Wales is, I believe, by any standard, the most litigious of the States of the Commonwealth.  I am told that there are more special leave applications originating in New South Wales than in any other State.  Not surprisingly, there is a similar statistic with respect to appeals.  In consequence, we can expect to see quite a deal more of one another, and I look forward to that.

Thank you again, personally, and those whom you represent for your cordiality and welcome this morning.  Thank you.

AT 9.25 AM THE COURT ADJOURNED