The High Court of Queensland

Where to now for Bookshelves Brandis? ... Banana Benders in charge ... Eleven names scratched by CJ from Sunshine silks list ... Prosecutors dominate NSW Dizzo appointments ... Farewell to Equity Queen ... What life looked like nine years ago ... From Justinian's Archive, December 2, 2016 

Queenslanders are beside themselves with glee that there are now three Brisbane-based judges on the High Court: the CJ Susan Kiefel, Pat Keane and now James Edelman. 

Rupert's Bowen Hills Bugle was beside itself with the announcement on Tuesday (Nov. 29) that a Queenslander and a Queensland resident had dominated the judicial selection process. 

Somehow it confirmed, once again, Australia is in the grip of the cultural and intellectual superiority of the Pineapple Mafia. 

In Canberra, attractive Queenslanders like George Christensen, Bookshelves Brandis, and Senators Ian Macdonald, Barry O'Sullivan, Pauline Hanson and nutter Malcolm Roberts, have the government dancing to their loony-tunes. 

Constitutional interpretation and the shape of our federation is in the hands of these sun-kissed creatures. No wonder the Sydney Oyster Bar and Vic's Bar are mightily miffed, each only having two of their own on the court. 

That's a minor insult compared to the misery felt by rejected leading lights of the law caper in South Australia and Tasmania. 

Sydneysiders are buzzing with the theory that Prof. James Edelman's selection was all the doing of his sponsor from the west, Social Services Minister Christian Porter, who in a previous role as WA attorney general raised Edelman up to the WA Supremes in 2011, before Brandis nabbed him as a judge in the Brisbane branch office of the Federal Court. 

At least Edelman won't be sitting on Air New Zealand Ltd v ACCC, an appeal from one his Full Fed judgments.  

Members of the Brisbane bar are now in a tizz that Bookshelves might appoint himself to Edelman's vacancy at the Brisbane registry. 

Pineapple silks sliced from bar list in QC uproar  

That's not all that has Banana Bending barristers agitated. The attorney general Yvette D'Ath today (Fri. Dec. 2) announced four new QCs: Vicki Loury, Bernard Porter, Matthew Brady and Christopher Murdoch. 

In Queensland it is compulsory for new silks to be QCs, courtesy of the former Conveyancer General Jarrod Bleijie. 

Bleijie with fans

Today's announcement is upsetting because the bar actually sent 14 names of to chief justice Catherine Holmes to be approved as QCs. Back came three, i.e. 11 were scratched, and one new one added. No reasons, explanations or excuses were offered. 

Barristers are livid and senior bartender, Christopher Hughes, has been trying to negotiate with the court, without success. 

The four names went off the Gov House, where Daphnis de Jersey swiftly issued letters patent. 

Hughes issued a cryptic little missive, saying: 

"The appointments were made on the recommendation of The Honourable Catherine Holmes, Chief Justice of Queensland. On behalf of the association I congratulate our new silks on their appointment." 

The attorney general added: 

"These appointments recognise the dedication, diligence and leadership of these members of the legal profession." 

Adding insult to injury, D'Ath led her media release with the announcement of a new District Court judge - Dennis Lynch - who joins two appointees announced last month, Catherine Muir and Nicole Kefford. 

They were the first to emerge from the new post-Carmody judicial filtering system, whereby recommendations emerged from the Judicial Appointments Advisory Panel, chaired by retired judge Hugh Botting. 

When Muir and Kefford were elevated, some of the bar's blokes sobbed into their pineapple cocktails, worrying about their place in the firmament, as "women were taking over the joint". 

Goody-Two-Shoes crowning appointments to the NSW Dizzo 

AG Gabrielle UptonMore than a few people have noticed that in NSW there is a marked tendency to appoint prosecutors as District Court judges. 

Since Gabrielle (Goody-Two-Shoes) Upton became attorney general in April 2015, 15 have been appointed to the bench of the District Court and of those two-thirds have have come from a prosecution background. 

No public defenders have been appointed, although it is understood some have applied. 

Of the 66.6 percent, six were crown prosecutors, one was the acting DPP and three had at some stage worked for the Commonwealth DPP. 

None of them are unworthy people, but collectively their appointments are an issue. 

The suspicion is that this is the work of the senior minister in the Justice Cluster F@#*, where the minister is (still) former copper and one-time leader of Cockies Corner, Troy-Boy Grant. 

The weighting in favour of prosecutors rather neglects the fact that the court also has a heavy civil case load. 

Here are the prosecutorial people who have been appointed to the court by Goody: 

Jennie Girdham -  Crown prosecutor (Aug. 2015)
Kate Traill - Crown prosecutor (Aug. 2015)
Greg Farmer - Commonwealth prosecutor (Aug. 2015)
Mark Buscombe - Commonwealth prosecutor (Nov. 2015)
Siobhan Herbert - Crown prosecutor (March 2016)
John Pickering - Deputy NSW DPP (March 2016)
L. J. Wells - Commonwealth prosecutor (April 2016)
Nicole Noman - Crown prosecutor (July 2016)
Phillip Ingram - Crown prosecutor (July 2016)
Jeffrey McLenna - Crown prosecutor (July 2016) 

Here's some recent to-and-fro with the bureaucracy about the matter at attorney general's estimates. 

Singapore sling 

Word has spread that Paddy Bergin at the end of this year is leaving her post as NSW chief judge in equity. She went to the Supreme Court in March 1999 and became CJ in Eq in 2009. 

She'll be spending more time with the Singapore International Commercial Court, alongside others from the Australian contingent: Dicey and (Thin) Roger Giles. 

[The current list of judges sitting on the International Commercial Court is here.]