Anyone for tennis?

Update ... Baffo bounds onto centre court ... Despite the plaudits, Tom Bathurst remains a mystery man ... An able barrister without much on the record ... The right noises about "access to justice", but who thinks anything interesting will happen? ... Some morsels about NSW's incoming chief justice

It seems Tom Bathurst is singularly responsible for the creation of a new recreation: "tennis opera".

This intriguing combination of sport and high culture sounds like fun.

It was snuck-in as a biographical detail by the NSW attorney general Greg (Dick) Smith when announcing that NSW's head barman would be "the state's 16th Chief Justice".

(Some confusion, surely! According to the official headcount he's the 17th CJ of NSW.)

The Bar Association in its release of the official CV of the new CJ also insists that "tennis opera" is one of his interests. 

We wonder. Does this game/performance have a wide following, or is it uniquely confined to a solitary admirer?

Bathurst, or "Baffo" has his chums call him, had a good beginning on the tennis court.

Joan Hartigan Bathurst: Tom's Mum, who had an ace backhandHis mother, Joan Hartigan Bathurst, who died in 2000, won the Australian Open in 1933, 1934 and 1936. She was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1934 and 1935.

With Edgar Moon she won the mixed-doubles at the 1934 Australian championships. She is included in the Mosman Sporting Hall of Fame.

Baffo certainly knows how to swing a racket. How he combines it with opera is our next project of discovery.

His other nominated interests are rugby and travel.

Travel is a curious thing to list as a special "interest". It sounds has though he'd run out of fascinating things with which to round out his bio, so he bunged in "travel".

Travel to where? What part of the world fascinates him? What history or culture draws him?

The St Ignatius, Riverview, year book for 1963 and 1964 does not reveal that he was a star in the debating or cricket teams or any of the other school activities in which a well-rounded fellow should have participated.

In fact, so low keyed was he at school that a contemporary in his year remarked, "I didn't know that Bathurst was at Riverview".

We mentioned in our Friday newsletter to subscribers that in 1963 at the age of 15 he got an A in English and five Bs in the leaving certificate.

Because of his young age, the future Chief Justice was known at school as "Baby Bathurst".

He repeated the leaving in 1964 and did better, with second class honours in English and four As and a B.

That was enough to get him a Commonwealth Scholarship.

He was a handy runner, finishing second in the mile in 1964.

His class mates in the 1963 leaving year included Nick Greiner (dux), Chris Hartcher MP, Steve Lusher (former MHR), Dr Keith Hartman (celebrity doctor) and George Palmer (Supreme Court judge).

In 1964 Justice Cliff Hoeben was dux of the school.

Since he's so much brighter than Baffo poor Cliffy must be wondering why he shouldn't be CJ.

Having leading Liberals like Greiner and Hartcher in his school year would have done Baffo no harm when a Tory regime was casting about for a likely lad to take the top job at the court.

*   *   *

The surprising, and possibly alarming, aspect of this appointment is how little is on the record about the CJ-in waiting.

The bar association told us that it kept no personal details about its president. It did not know which law firm he worked for prior to going to the bar, or his father's background, or whether he had delivered any learned papers or speeches.

It issued a potted summary of his career with a list of court triumphs. Apart from that all it could point to were five messages he'd written for Bar News or the annual report of the bar association.

Thomas Frederick Bathurst's Who's Who entry also confines itself to his various positions with the Australian and NSW bar associations.

The attorney general's announcement was accompanied by a sheet that gave TFB's date of birth (March 17, 1948), his qualifications (BA, LLB), the positions he held (prez of the NSW bar, the ABA and a member of the takeovers panel), his family (wife Robyn and two daughters) and interests (rugby, "tennis opera" and travel).

You couldn't get it much leaner than that.

*   *   *

In his younger days at the bar he frequented the upstairs lounge at the Surrey, a watering hole on the corner of King and Castlereagh Streets.

There was little sign of the phlegmatic Bathurst of today. Fellow drinkers remember a more voluble character, who held forth about his day's triumphs and the dull wittedness of his opponents and the bench.

His was among the finest of the self-inflating performances at the boozer and, as you'd expect, he had some stiff competition.

Bathurst does have an acute legal mind, with an economy of expression and a cultivated gravitas. Over the years he's become an indispensable accessory to high-end litigation.

From now on he requires a different set of skills. As a chief justice he needs to be a communicator and to make the court relevant and accessible.

So far he has not demonstrated any marked communication skills. Most recently, his performance at last Friday's (May 13) bench and bar dinner was lacklustre and the interview with Deborah Cameron on ABC radio (Tues. May 17) was a little weird (possibly because the interviewer was asking about things outside his comfort zone - such as domestic violence).

Even though he has spent much of his career acting for the fattest corporations and the grandest plutocrats, he has had to change of gear and make appropriate noises about access to justice. AAP quoted him on Friday (May 13) saying:

"It's a terrible thing for the courts only to be used by the very rich."

The Sydney Morning Herald recorded him after the AG's announcement saying:

"It's important we do what we can to make sure your average income earner can feel they can have access to the courts if they really need it."

In August last year he gave an interview to JustyFlix in which he assured us that everything was hunky-dory: barristers were not expensive; the reforms introduced for the English bar were not necessary here; lawyers do a good job at self-regulation; some people are always going to be dissatisfied with costs and delays, but everything is under control. 

*   *   *

Baffo Bathurst: unrivalled expertise, etcIf there is a hint that I've been ungenerous in this assessment of Baby Bathurst, then there are plenty of others who have made up for my deficiency.

Attorney General (Dick) Smith had a good command of superlatives, describing his appointee as "one of Australia's finest barristers ... [with an] unrivalled expertise in commercial law".

His chief booster has been the bar 'n' grill's CEO Philip Selth, who declared with a straight face:

"I've just walked back from the attorney general's press conference and I was stopped by four members of the bar association who said, 'great appointment'."

The LCA prez, Alex Ward, said:

"He is very highly regarded and will bring to the position of New South Wales Chief Justice a wealth of experience, sound judgment, innovative thinking and a complete understanding of both the state and national justice systems."

The president of the local law 'n' order society, Stuart Westgarth, thought Bathurst, "will make an exceptional contribution to the courts in NSW".

Etc, etc.

Possibly, the most memorable quote was from the incoming CJ himself, when he previously characterised the work of judges as providing "a lot of cheap written opinions".

*   *   *

Any other insights or historical notes to plug the gaps about about Baffo or Baby B would be most welcome. 

In an earlier edition of this story we said that there was no evidence Bathurst played rugby for Riverview. This is incorrect. In 1963 he was in the 15Bs and the following year the 5ths. In 1964 he was listed in the school year book as J. Bathurst.