Party favourites elevated
Our northern affairs correspondent Pineapple Pol reports that the Banana Bending Crisafulli regime in Queensland has plucked a couple of Capital C Conservatives for judicial elevation – the first of the government’s senior court appointments.
Sitting Supremo Thomas Bradley has been lifted to the Court of Appeal and the senior judge administrator of the Dizzo, Paul Smith, moved into Tom’s slot on the Supremes.
Bradley ran as a National Party candidate for the Senate in 1998, number two on the Cockies’ slate after the dazzling Bill O’Chee. He has also been a grand fromage in the party organisation.
Unfortunately Tom was unsuccessful in getting his backside on the red leather.
In 2018, just weeks before he went to the Supreme Court, he memorably contributed to the campaign to block women becoming members of Tattersall’s Club in Brisbane. Again, he was on the losing ticket.
The Queensland junta has not forgotten Tom’s faithful service. He fills the vacancy created by Jean Dalton’s retirement from the QCA.
Paul Smith is also an adornment of the LNP and is expected to be made the senior judge administrator of the Qld Supreme Court when Glenn Martin SJA retires.
Paul is a devoted Army Reservist and recipient of QU Regiment’s Sword of Honour. Colleagues have indicated that civil cases are not his strong suit.
Here are our earlier speculations about judicial selections by the LNP regime.
Brothers and Sisters in Law
Slow lane judgment deliverer Jenni Hill from the WA Supremes has announced on LinkedIn that it is her brother, Graeme Hill SC, who has been appointed to the Federal Court from Vic’s Bar n Grill.
Justice Jenni says she hopes “he won’t have too many opportunities to consider my judgments and express a view as to whether I am plainly wrong” – adding:
“I believe we are the first brother and sister to have been appointed as judges. A great reflection on our parents who were both high school teachers and emphasised the importance of education.”
Jenni must have gone to a school where the teachers didn’t mind if her homework was late.
Actually, two Streets, Commander Sandy and Lieutenant Commander Sylvia (Emmett) were also brother and sister judges on the Circuit Court with chambers on the same floor.
Stokes’ Worst Australian picked up the Hills’ story, pointing out there is another clever sibling – Alison Hill, an associate professor of biochemistry at Exeter University with a doctorate from Cambridge.
The Worst says:
“Given Justice [Jenni] Hill’s reputation for clear decisions and orders, we genuinely hope the brother follows the lead of his esteemed sister as he finds his way among the secret squirrels infesting the Federal Court.”
Justice Jenni is the recipient of Justinian’s Golden Tortoise Cup, but there was not a whisper in the fishwrap about delays in the delivery of her judgments – in one case a hiatus of two-and-a-half years.
Golden Tortoise up for grabs
Actually, if Hill J doesn’t slow down a bit more, she’s in danger of losing her trophy to a judge from the Circuit Court, Antoni Lucev – a fellow Sand Groper.
We’ve reported before on the production of his reasons and orders that stretched close to the two-year mark.
There are four recent migration ones that must have consumed his valuable time over the Christmas break and which qualify him for the Golden Tortoise finals. The hearing dates for this crop were all in mid-2023, with delivery in February and March 2025.
The court generally expects judges to deliver their work within three months of the final hearing …
• AND19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
Hearing July 27, 2023. Judgment almost 19 months later on February 18, 2025.
• AMM19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
Hearing July 26, 2023. Judgment more than 18 months later on February 12, 2025.
• EGY19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
Hearing August 29, 2023. Judgment February 21, 2025 – over 17 months later.
• EBA19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
Hearing August 24, 2023. Judgment more than 18 months later on March 12, 2025.
• Tan v Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Defence)
This one is an outstanding shocker. There were hearing days in March, June and July 2022, plus in January and April 2023.
The last hearing date was on April 13, 2023, and judgment was delivered on March 26, 2025.
That’s a judgment delay of a tad under two years, and three years after the first hearing day.
Ms Yenny Tan was successful in her Fair Work claim, which she commenced in the Circuit Court on January 4, 2021. She had to wait four years, two months for it to be determined by the Court.
Rather miserable for the applicant.
Lucev was appointed a Federal Magistrate by Fabulous Phil Ruddock in August 2006 and went onto the Circus Court in April 2013.
Finally, close on the heels of Antoni is Judge Catherine Symons with a judgment turnaround time of more than two years and nine months to resolve a costs issue in HPZB v Minister for Home Affairs.
The hearing was on May 16, 2022, with judgment on March 3, 2025.
Judge Symons was appointed to the court in July 2021 by Madam Cash.
More muddle headed number crunching at the FCA
We’ve called in actuaries and abacus operatives to assist with understanding numbers provided to the Senate and to the Federal Court’s accountable authority within the AG’s Department, the Office of Legal Services Coordination.
The OLSC in Canberra requires non-corporate government entitles, such as the Federal Court, to calculate the cost of internal legal services, which includes a raft of things that public servants have to measure, such as direct and indirect salaries and overheads.
There’s even a handy guide about all the information that the court should report back to the shinies in the department.
The Federales tells us on its website that it has expended $0 on internal legal services, (but $814,302 on external legal services) in 2023-2024.
However, in probing the same question at senate estimates, the court told Senator David Shoebridge (Greens, NSW) that in total it spent $706,897 in 2023-2024 on internal legal services – presumably mostly for the Office of General Counsel, one of whose pressing jobs is to prepare responses to the barrage of questions raised by Senator Shoebridge.
Some confusion, surely? Like the information provided to the senate which claimed that the cost of catering for judicial farewells and welcomes was $0 – a figure understated by $160,000 over the last three years, with $25,000 alone for Chuckles Allsop’s grand tear-stained farewell tour of the nation.