Latest Family Court appointments … Friends in high places … The Abbott connection … Grumbling in the ranks … AG Porter tinkering at the edges … D-Day for FCFCA legislation … Law Council gets out the slingshot … Janek Drevikovsky reports 

Porter announced on March 11 both Judge Joshua Wilson (Melb) and Judge Robert Harper (Syd) would move from the Circuit Court to the Family Court.  

The very next day Wilson was sworn-in at a private Family Court ceremony, with a ceremonial welcome on Monday (March 18). Harper had his ceremony in Sydney on Thursday, March 21. 

Wilson’s welcome was not as warm as Porter might have hoped, judging from the sentiment scribbled by an upset barrister on a notice in the lifts at Owen Dixon Chambers. 

Dr Timothy McEvoy, from the Yarraside bar ‘n’ grill, also got a Family Court guernsey, according to this announcement on March 14.  

And all this in the wake of the Christian’s pledge not to appoint new judges to the Family Court, so it could wither and be subsumed by the less expensive FCC judges (previously magistrates).  

He was busy again at it on Friday (March 22) with two new Family Court appointments drawn from the FCC and Justice Peter Tree to the appeal division. 

One source scoffed that McEvoy had “no family law experience at all”, yet he had listed family law expertise on his CV – it was one case, in which he was unsuccessful. . He has had to withdraw as counsel assisting the aged care royal commission in order to take up his new gig on the court. 

At least McEvoy is a favourite of the former opposition leader and prime minister Tony Abbott, the Mad Monk. Between 2012 and 2014, he defended Abbott in a defamation claim brought by John Setka of the CMFEU. 

The Monk had implied in a TV interview that the plaintiff was an intimidatory “thug” and a criminal.  

McEvoy was junior to Michael Wheelahan QC, instructed by Arnold Bloch Liebler, and ultimately they managed to see off the unionist’s claim. 

McEvoy lists on his CV six of the matters in which he appeared for Abbott and, what’s more, he acted pro bono for the Mad Monk. 

Abbott disclosed this in his register of members’ interests for 2015 and 2016 where he also revealed a veritable treasury of spoils, including sapphire cufflinks and a case of Moet.  

This was reported in The Guardian in December 2013 just after the election that took Abbott to the prime ministership. 

He was gonged as a senior counsel in 2016, which he promptly traded-in for some QC plumage. 

For nearly a year now, the AG has been stuck in the desert with his camel of a fused court plan.  

The Family Court appeal division was to be packed off to the Federal Court but, in an effort to get his legislation through the senate, Porter now says there will be a dedicated appeals division at the FCFCA, but not dedicated appeal judges. 

One barrister who wants his identity kept under wraps, speculated that McEvoy will do appeal work in the new omnibus court, so that the “appointment can be said to come from the Family Court”. 

That said, whether the the Christian will actually get his reforms through the parliament remains to be seen. There are only 12 sitting days before the anticipated federal election is called and the budget is taking up most of the available space. 

In that narrow window, the Porter must win over the cross-bench senators, since Labor and the Greens will not support the Bill. It might all come down to Senator Fraser Anning. Wouldn’t that be a treat – the Fraser Anning Family Law Courts Act? 

The Law Council’s Family Law Section remains unamused. A bulletin to its cohort was particularly forceful: 

“Rebadging or renaming the courts will not solve any of the problems in the current family law system. This will only hurt families and children who are already at their most vulnerable.”   

The FLS called on members to lobby their local senators and contact swing votes on the cross-bench. However, the rash of new appointments suggests that Porter may be resigned to the fact that without the FCFCA he has no option but to keep the Family Court alive and kicking. 

Canberra insiders said at the time he became attorney general that at least Porter was smarter than his predecessor, George Brandis … If only.