Ceremonial - Welcome to Mr Justice McHugh - Brisbane

[1989] HCATrans 143

~-

H I G H C O U R T 0 F A U S T R A L I A

SPECIAL SITTING

WELCOME TO

MR JUSTICE McHUGH, A.C.

AT

BRISBANE

ON

-TUESDAY, 2 7' JUNE 1989

McHUGH J

Speakers:

Mr G. Crooke, QC, President of the Queensland

Bar Association.

Mr R. Grainger-Smith, President of the Queensland

Law Society.

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

MR CROOKE:	If Your Honour pleases, the Queensland Bar welcomes Your Honour and the High Court to this
city on the occasion of its Brisbane sittings.

Your Honour commenced a distinguished

legal career on admission to the Bar in New

South Wales in July 1961. You took silk in 1973.

Your practice was large and varied and included

frequent appearances before this Court in cases

emanating from all parts of Australia. Not only

was your practice at the Bar outstandingly

successful and thus demanding of great time and

energy, Your Honour's abilities and energies

were also channelled towards service to the Bar.

Between 1977 and 1983 you were first a member

of the Committee of the New South Wales Bar its President. You were also President of the

Australian Bar Association and your work in

all these fields made you known, liked and

respected by those at the Queensland Bar.

In October of 1984 your elevation direct

from the Bar to the prestigious New South Wales
Court of Appeal constituted deserved recognition

of Your Honour's ability and hard work.	It closed
a chapter in Your Honour's career where it

continued to be possible, selflessly,to give of

your talents to serve your colleagues in high

office in a professional association.

Such a contribution as Your Honour made

in this field should not be overlooked. These were
times when the need for longstanding institutions

such as the independent Bar were being progressively

a11d more openly debated and called in question.

A man of Your Honour's stature and ability was

able to do much towards the ongoing task of
reinforcing community and government respect for,

confidence in and recognition of the need for

an independent Bar in the true sense of that term.

many important cases and wrote many important Your Honour was, of course, involved in	judgments in your time in the New South Wales
Court of Appeal. Your appointment to this Court
was universally acclaimed by the profession and,
of course, was again recognition of Your Honour's
talent and ability to discharge the onerous duties
of your new office. We express to Your Honour
the confidence and support of the Bar in Queensland
and wish you a successful and satisfying term of
office as a Justice of this Court.

McHUGH J: Thank you, Mr Crooke. Mr Grainger-Smith.

MR GRAINGER-SMITH:  If Your Honour pleases, it gives me

great pleasure to be here today as President

of the Queensland Law Society, representing

the solicitors of this State. On their behalf

I would like to extend to you a very warm welcome on your first visit to Queensland as

a Justice of the High Court. Your Honour's

progression and eminence in the legal profession

has been fully commented on by the previous

speaker, and on other occasions. There is no

need for me to repeat what has already been

said.

The solicitors of Queensland consider it

of particular importance that the High Court

continues to visit Brisbane. The High Court's

stature, and influence and its decisions are,

of course, recognized, but it is this sittings

each year that provides the opportunity for the

profession and the public in Queensland to
participate in the business of the Court. It
enables cases of importance to this State to

be dealt with here in the presence of the

litigants involved. The solicitors of Queensland

believe that the sittings is of great importance

and benefit to us and we would hope that this

occasion will mark the first of many such

visits by Your Honour to this State.

McHUGH J:  Thank you, Mr Crooke and Mr Grainger-Smith.

I thank you both for your kind words of

welcome and your profession of goodwill. It

is said that to be a southerner in Queensland,

at least at State of Origin match time, is a

burden almost too unbearable to carry. But

if I bear that burden with more ease than most

it is because I have always had strong family
connections with Queensland and at an important

stage of my life I was in fact a Queenslander. My paternal grandparents settled in Queensland

after arriving from Ireland and they resided

in this State until they died. My father was

born in north Queensland and lived there until

adulthood and I,myself, from the age of seven to

thirteen, lived with my parents in a number of

towns in northern Queensland.

Understandably,it gives me special pleasure

to be the subject of this welcome by the

Queensland profession. That pleasure is increased

by my knowledge of the respect with which the

Queensland lawyers are held throughout Australia.

During my period as an office-holder with the

Australian Bar Association and with the Law Council of Australia I got to know the leaders of the

Queensland profession. As a practitioner I had

the opportunity from time to time to observe the
skills of members of both branches of the

profession. Experience of forensic contests

with counsel from the Queensland Bar long ago

persuaded me that the members of this Bar are

second to none as advocates.

My association with members of the solicitors'

profession in this State has not been as close
or as widespread as my association with members
of the Bar, but occasionally I was fortunate enough
to be briefed by a Queensland solicitor to advise
o~ less rarel~ to appear, not, of course, I hasten

to add, in the Queensland Supreme Court. The

quality of briefs sent to me by Queensland solicitors

was uniformly of the highest order. Indeed, I

can remember obtaining a brief as a junior counsel
in 1968 and being overwhelmed by the quality of the

brief that was sent to me. I do not know whether

that was typical of the sort of brief prepared by

Queensland solicitors, but it was certainly the

best prepared brief that I had ever seen up to

that stage and, I think, since.

Mr Crooke and Mr Grainger-Smith, I look forward

to the appearance before the High Court of members

of the Queensland profession and it goes almost

without saying, to the annual visits of the Court

to Queensland. I thank you again, for your welcome.