3 February 2009
Tuesday Transcript: Kirby the Urbane
Yesterday was the last day of the Kirby Era. Justice Michael Kirby retired from the High Court.
On Australia Day, his Honour gave a wonderful speech surveying his long career in the law, from his articled clerkship through to his service on the highest court in the land. Despite all of the wonderful (and terrible) things that have happened during that time, he noted that there was at least some symmetry to his career: “Having the same distinguished speaker at my judicial coming in and at my judicial going out closes a circle.”
In November 1974, I was asked whether I would consider appointment as a Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. I was 35 years of age. I agreed and was welcomed to that office in Sydney in December 1974. My commission dated from 1 January 1975. At an early age, I therefore enjoyed the rank, title and salary of a federal judge. Only Mary Gaudron, appointed a year earlier, was younger. At my induction ceremony, the President of the New South Wales Bar Association, Mr T.E.F. Hughes, QC, welcomed me on behalf of the Bar. He claims that he declared that I was noted for my “urbanity”. The official transcript of the ceremony recorded that the reputation was for “vanity”. [...]
At the time of my resignation, I will be the longest-serving judicial officer in the nation. At my farewell in Canberra on 2 February 2009, the final speech will be given by Mr T.E.F. Hughes, QC, still in active service at the Bar. Perhaps he will reveal exactly what he said at that welcome ceremony in 1974.
I commend the speech to you as an interesting and critical review of both Justice Kirby’s career and the development of the legal profession in the last fifty years. And when the transcript of Justice Kirby’s High Court farewell — the first for a non-Chief Justice — is published at AustLII, perhaps Mr Hughes will tell us what he thinks the Great Dissenter’s vanity all these years later.
Related posts:
- Tuesday Transcript: Mutant Death and Justice Bell
- Tuesday Transcript: High Court TV reviews
- Tuesday Transcript: Hats off in court, please
- Tuesday Transcript: Know Your Teabag
- Tuesday Transcript: Nice Catch
