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TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

O/N H-1990950

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

CEREMONIAL SITTING OF THE FULL COURT

TO WELCOME

THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE LONGBOTTOM

THE HONOURABLE DEBRA MORTIMER, Chief Justice
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE NATALIE CHARLESWORTH
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE SARAH C DERRINGTON AM
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE FIONA MEAGHER
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE ERIN LONGBOTTOM
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE AMELIA WHEATLEY

BRISBANE

9.18 AM, FRIDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 2025

MORTIMER CJ:   Please call the welcome.  A warm welcome to you all.  We’re on the country of the Turrbal people and the Yuggera-speaking people, the traditional custodians of the land around Meanjin, Brisbane.  We’re not far from Maiwar, the Brisbane River, which has been an important water source to traditional owners for many thousands of years.  First Nations people cared for, lived on, and exercised rights over the country on which we’re meeting today for many thousands of years.  I pay my respects to their elders and their ancestors who despite colonisation have kept their culture strong and I pay my respects to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.  The Court is honoured to have so many people here today, testament to the wide endorsement of Justice Longbottom’s appointment.

I acknowledge the presence of the Honourable Justice James Edelman of the High Court of Australia, the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC KC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Honourable Patrick Keane AC KC, former Justice of the High Court and former Chief Justice of this Court.  I acknowledge Chief Justice Bowskill, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland, and present and former Judges of the Queensland Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.  Joining us here today are several former Judges of the Federal Court and I welcome you all back to the Court.  We also have colleagues from the Family and Federal Circuit Court of Australia and several of this Registry’s current Federal Court judges are unable to be here and have sent their apologies.

There are many Judges and Judicial Officers, current and former, from a wide variety of Queensland Courts, as well as State and Federal Tribunal members.  I welcome also President Kevin Smith of the National Native Title Tribunal and other Tribunal members and staff.  We have the legal profession here in large numbers, particularly and unsurprisingly members of the Queensland Bar.  May I also acknowledge the strong and significant presence of representatives from several Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations connected to the native title work of this Court.  Turning now to all the people who may be in this Courtroom for the very first time, members of Justice Longbottom’s family and friends.

No one achieves a milestone like judicial appointment on their own and today is an important opportunity to acknowledge all the support and encouragement which has enabled her Honour, as it has every one of her judicial colleagues on this Court, to reach this point in her distinguished career.  This is both a celebration and a ceremony.  We celebrate Justice Longbottom’s appointment as a significant milestone in her legal career.  We conduct a public ceremony so that members of the profession and the community can learn about the qualities and attributes of the new Judge who has accepted the responsibility to serve in the administration of justice of this Court.  Justice Longbottom, you took the oath of office on 20 December last year here in this building in front of family, friends and many of your new judicial colleagues from the Brisbane Registry.

You promised, as every Judge of this Court has, to do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or favour, affection or ill will.  That is a promise about independence, fairness, courage and impartiality.  Those are the values I am 
confident you will uphold in your service to the Australian community as a Judge of the Federal Court.  On behalf of the Judges, Registrars and staff of the Court, I congratulate you on your appointment.  I invite Mr Steger, Senior Executive Lawyer from the Australian Government Solicitor representing the Attorney-General for the Commonwealth, to speak on behalf of the Attorney-General.

MR C. STEGER:   Thank you, your Honour.  May it please the Court.  I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and to pay my respects to their elders past and present.  I also extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.  It is a great privilege to be here today to congratulate your Honour on your appointment as a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia.  The Attorney-General, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC MP regrets that he cannot be here to share this occasion with you today.  He has, however, asked that I convey the Government’s sincere appreciation for your Honour’s willingness to serve as a Judge of this Court, and the Government extends its best wishes for your career on the bench.  Your Honour’s appointment to this Court is another milestone in a highly successful legal career.  That so many of your colleagues in the judiciary and the legal profession are here today is a testament to the high regard in which your colleagues hold your Honour.

And may I also particularly acknowledge the Honourable Justice Edelman AC, Judge of the High Court of Australia;  the Honourable Justice Susan Kiefel AC KC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia;  the Honourable Patrick Keane AC KC, former High Court Judge and Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia;  the Honourable Chief Justice Helen Bowskill, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland;  the Honourable Catherine Holmes AC SC, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland;  the Honourable Justice Debra Mullins AO, President of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Queensland;  the Honourable Margaret McMurdo, former President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland;  the Honourable Walter Sofronoff, former President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland;  his Honourable Chief Judge Brian Devereux SC, Chief Judge of the District Court of Queensland;  and her Honourable Chief Magistrate Janelle Brassington, Chief Magistrate of the Magistrates Court of Queensland.

And may I also acknowledge the presence of your Honour’s family, who proudly share this occasion with you.  Your husband Joseph is here along with your children, Charlotte, Lucille, Thomas, Clare and Mary.  We are also joined by your mother Helen, sister Alex, brother-in-law Edward, Aunt Leila and Uncle Donald, as well as many more family and friends.  Time does not permit a full exposition of your Honour’s achievements and contributions that you have made to the law.  Therefore, today, I will focus on some key achievements that mark your distinguished career.  Your Honour is the eldest of two siblings.  Your father was in the Australian Air Force and was also a military attaché in Washington, DC. As a result, your Honour grew up moving between Air Force bases around Australia and completed two years of schooling in the United States before beginning boarding school in Brisbane at Stuartholme.

Your Honour would fly back to the United States as an unaccompanied minor every holiday, and as your friends and family have remarked, this is where your Honour may have gained your self-confidence and your love of international travel.  At school, your Honour excelled in English, ancient history, debating, and was a fierce competitor whether in a family game, a late-night run, or a team sport.  I’m also told that your Honour made lifelong friends in school, some of whom are here today.  Your Honour graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws with Honours in 2002.

Prior to being admitted, your Honour spent a year working as an Associate to the Honourable Justice Margaret McMurdo AC, then President of the Queensland Court of Appeal, and later as an Associate to the Honourable Philip McMurdo, also of the Supreme Court of Queensland, an experience which no doubt provided you with many insights into the workings of a superior Court.  I’m told that your Honour was an excellent Associate with a fine legal mind, and that even then you displayed a quiet confidence that you wanted to be, and would be, a Barrister.  In 2003, your Honour was admitted as a Barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland and came to the Bar full-time in January 2004 at the ripe old age of 26.  This was a bold move at such an early stage in your Honour’s career, however, your Honour’s hard work, courage and dedication made it possible.

Friends and former colleagues describe how you quickly built a reputation as a diligent and reliable junior barrister, becoming such a trusted mentor to a growing number of lawyers and barristers that you are reportedly still fangirled by junior members of the profession to this day.  As a barrister, you were briefed by the Commonwealth, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australian and Northern Territory Governments and have appeared in the Federal Court and the Supreme Courts of several Australian jurisdictions.  Your Honour also appeared in the Full Court of the Federal Court running appeals while still a junior counsel.  In 2019, your Honour was appointed Queen’s Counsel.

I am told that one highlight of your career as a silk was in 2021 in the case of Mineralogy Proprietary Limited in Western Australia, when, in the absence of the Queensland Solicitor-General, you represented the State of Queensland in the High Court of Australia.  This significant constitutional case was a four-day appeal in front of all seven Justices, where the Commonwealth and five States and Territories were represented.  More recently, your Honour was appointed as Senior Counsel, assisting the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.  Along with pursuing your legal career, you have also dedicated your valuable time to giving back to the community.  You have acted pro bono on many occasions.  Your Honour is a voluntary member of professional bodies such as the Supreme Court Library Committee and the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting.  Your Honour also has a particular interest in women’s and First Nations issues.  You are involved in community organisations such as the Zonta Club of Brisbane, an international organisation committed to improving the lives of disadvantaged women and girls and 
ending violence against women.  You have also been generous in your support of other organisations such as the Women’s Legal Service and Queensland Gives.

And it is with great pleasure that I now speak to a few of the qualities that have culminated in your appointment to this Court.  Many of your former colleagues have mentioned your impressive intelligence and work ethic, the hours spent for likely and even unlikely scenarios, and the extensive reading you do in preparation for every case.  At every stage of your career, friends, colleagues, family, including your husband and children, have witnessed your courage and dedication to the law and strong work ethic.  Further testament to your dedication and drive is the fact that, despite your relative youth, your Honour has spent more than 20 years at the Bar.  Additionally, many have mentioned your Honour’s good humour, compassion, courtesy, commitment to social justice and ability to listen.

A testament to your Honour’s character and dedication, your friends have described a time when your Honour talked two colleagues out of leaving the Bar and helped to organise better chamber arrangements to allow them to stay in practice.  Your Honour always had time for a supportive coffee with junior legal practitioners.  Outside of the law, your Honour has many interests and passions.  Your Honour has a keen interest in art, travelling, running, and is, I am told, a wonderful dinner host, even with limited notice.  Your Honour is particularly passionate about Indigenous art, an appreciation acquired through your Honour’s long practise in native title law.  We are also told that you have a keen interest in fashion, which has found many outlets, and is a passion you share with your daughters, Clare and Charlotte.

Always one to follow your own path, I am told that in 2002, as an Associate to Justice Margaret McMurdo, your Honour was allowed to park in the President of the Court of Appeal’s double car park under the Courts.  Your now husband encouraged your Honour to buy a 1979 aviation blue Mini Moke Californian, an open-top beach buggy with no windows or roof that was more suitable on the beach than in a Court car park.  Your Honour is said to have stood out during the winter months as you parked next to Judges in heated cars, with your Honour rugged up with a blanket, scarf and hat.  And I believe your Honour still has that beloved car today.  Your Honour is supported by a wonderful family.  We are told that you met your husband, Joseph, shortly before your admission as a lawyer.

He encouraged you to seek admission at the Bar and continued to cheer you on ever since.  I am sure that Joseph and your children are proud to celebrate your latest achievement, your appointment to the Bench at the Federal Court of Australia.  Your Honour’s appointment to this Court is a testament to your dedication to the law and your many accomplishments in the legal profession.  Your Honour takes on this judicial office with the best wishes of the Australian legal profession and the trust that you will approach this role with the exceptional dedication to the law that you have shown throughout your career.  On behalf of the Australian Government and the Australian people, I extend to you my sincere congratulations and welcome you to the Federal Court of Australia.  May it please the Court.

MORTIMER CJ:   Thank you, Mr Steger.  Ms Heyworth-Smith KC, President of the Queensland Bar Association and representing the Australian Bar Association.

MS C. HEYWORTH-SMITH KC:   May it please the Court, it is a great pleasure to speak on behalf of the Australian Bar Association and the Bar Association of Queensland and their members at this welcome ceremony for your Honour Justice Longbottom.  The President of the Australian Bar Association, Ms Roisin Annesley KC, gives her apologies for not being able to be present today.  I would also like to extend those congratulations to your Honour’s immediate and extended family joining us today.  Justice Longbottom, your Honour’s law degree was interrupted in third year by a two-year sojourn overseas, where you worked in the London office of US commercial and transactional firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Those Attorneys encouraged you to return home to finish your law degree and then return to them for an exhilarating career in mergers and acquisitions.  Fate intervened, though, in the form of a young Joseph Crowley when you met him in those last 18 months of your degree and settled on a somewhat different style of merger and acquisition.  The Bar already had much to be thankful for to Joe.  He has been a stalwart of the Bar’s educational programs for many years, but securing you to Queensland, well, that was next level.  In 2002, you served as the Associate to the Honourable Margaret McMurdo AC, then President of the Court of Appeal, and then as the First Associate to the Honourable Philip McMurdo KC in the Trial Division of the Supreme Court.  In 2003, having run out of McMurdos, you completed the Bar Practice Course, and you commenced your career as a Barrister.  In 2019, you were made Silk.  Your Honour joins the Court from the private Bar in Queensland, but with a truly Commonwealth practice.

You are perhaps best known for your native title practice, but there is no area of public and commercial law with which your Honour is unfamiliar.  Others have today addressed your contributions to the legal community and your service on Royal Commission’s Boards of Inquiry and acting in native title matters.  Your Honour’s service on professional and academic committees is well known and near pathological.  We have not time to catalogue even a small number of them, but I would mention those which I cannot help but think are close to your Honour’s heart.  As a mentor to the Papua New Guinean students who travel from home to complete our Bar practice course here in Queensland, and assisting to uphold the rule of law in our Pacific neighbours, presenting commercial and public law training series in PNG and Tonga.

Your Honour’s devotion to access to justice has seen you take on a series of roles focusing on the availability of legal information.  Your work on the Supreme Court of Queensland Library Committee, its Finance and Risk Management Subcommittee, the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting of Queensland, and as a contributing author to works on civil procedure and native title speak to your Honour’s desire to raise the quality and standard of access to legal information to heights that are the envy of other jurisdictions.  Your Honour is well known at the Bar for your acumen, industry and phenomenal capacity for preparation and scholarship.  As important as those are your Honour’s collegiality and warmth.  Your Honour has counselled distressed colleagues and given sensible and practical advice to overwhelmed juniors.

Genuine, kind, available and welcoming, safe hands and calming by your presence, knowledgeable and sensible, inspiring and natural.  Your Honour, I only have four minutes.  We are informed that your Honour suffered an early and formative indignation when you missed out on attending not one, but two Christmas parties at the White House, held for the children of diplomats when your father was a military attaché in Washington in the 1980s.  Your Honour’s sister, then aged two, was allowed to go, but you were deemed too old.  And we are told that it has been a sore point for your Honour ever since.  Perhaps though, it was this early injustice that has driven your Honour to seek better outcomes for others and set you on a path to this moment.

Your Honour is now a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia and entitled to a true sense of accomplishment.  While it is not a party at the White House, it is a very fine achievement.  Justice Longbottom, to accept an elevation to this Court is to answer a call to public service.  The Commonwealth will be very well served by your appointment.  Your colleagues at the Bar offer their thanks and congratulations for taking up such an important role.  We wish you the very best for your time on the Bench.  May it please the Court.

MORTIMER CJ:   Thank you, Ms Heyworth-Smith.  Ms Dee, President of the Queensland Law Society and representing the Law Council of Australia.

MS G. DEE:   May it please the court.  I echo the acknowledgments of the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Yuggera and Turrbal peoples.  I pay deep respect to the elders of this place, past and present, and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.  I also acknowledge Chief Justice Mortimer and her judicial colleagues, Mr Steger representing the Attorney General, Catherine Heyworth-Smith KC, President of the Bar Association of Queensland, dignitaries, colleagues, and most of all, your Honour and your Honour’s family and friends.  It is an honour to represent the Law Council of Australia and the Queensland Law Society at this morning’s ceremony to welcome your Honour’s appointment and extend to you the congratulations and very best wishes of the profession nationally and particularly here in Queensland.

It is hard to imagine that there could be anything more gratifying in my role than recognising the elevation of someone who has dedicated so much of their career here in Queensland to serving our community and profession and having the opportunity to thank them for their ongoing service.  That is what your Honour is doing today, taking on a great responsibility driven by your desire to serve.  And there is no doubt your Honour will serve the administration of justice in this country and those who come before you exceptionally well.  The highlights of your Honour’s career and the praise for your skills, knowledge and comportment are seemingly endless.

I hope across each of the speakers today we are able to touch on all of them, but fear it may be too great a challenge.  I will therefore resign myself to focusing on just a few achievements and attributes your Honour brings to the Bench.  I thought it would be fitting if my speech today was guided by the theme of service.  Upon your Honour’s appointment, the Queensland Law Reporter, in covering your elevation, said:

Ms Longbottom KC is part of a long line of distinguished Queensland legal figures who have served as councillors of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for the State of Queensland.

Your Honour was a member of the Council for five years.  That Council is a charitable institution which was founded in 1907.  The principal function of the Council is to publish the authorised reports of the Supreme Court of Queensland.  The members of the Council serve on a voluntary basis.  The importance of law reports cannot be understated.  A paper authored by John McKenna KC, Chairman, proclaimed:

These practices are fundamental to the efficient operation of the Courts.  The value of reports is significant, and in particular it provides an authoritative, reliable and easy-to-use reference source.

Your Honour was also a member of the Supreme Court Library Committee, the mission of which is to serve the administration of justice in Queensland by providing legal information services to the Queensland judiciary, legal profession and broader community.  These services would not be available without the commitment of time and expertise from members of our profession, such as your Honour.  Your Honour is well known for having a keen interest in supporting others coming through the profession, and you have been a generous mentor to many.  And even those who haven’t necessarily been fortunate enough to be guided by you personally, you have led and inspired through action.

Your Honour paved a blazing path as a leading native title barrister, and I don’t think I would be remiss to suggest that I believe this would have likely opened doors to a specialty that may otherwise have felt closed to female lawyers.  And, of course, your Honour has been a part of some of the most significant matters, inquiries and investigations in our nation’s recent history.  This includes the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide and the Australian Capital Territory Board of Inquiry on the Criminal Justice System.  Your Honour will bring to the Bench an outstanding work ethic, an ability to consume volumes of information and a strategic mind.

These, combined with your respect for all, your empathy and intellectual rigour will be welcomed by the Court.  I expect your Honour will also make a most stylish addition to these hallowed halls thanks to your love of fashion.  As someone put it to me, and I hope they don’t mind me paraphrasing just slightly, your Honour can master complex topics and does so in excellent shoes with the most incredible 
candour and care.  Your family and friends are exceptionally and justifiably proud of you today, as always, I am sure, and your colleagues genuinely thrilled by your elevation.  Your Honour, on behalf of the lawyers of Australia, please accept my congratulations, best wishes and thanks for your ongoing service.  May it please the Court.

MORTIMER CJ:   Thank you, Ms Dee.  Justice Longbottom, I invite you to reply.

LONGBOTTOM J:   Thank you, Chief Justice, Mr Steger, Ms Heyworth-Smith KC and Ms Dee for your kind and generous words.  Thank you also to the present and former members of the Judiciary, friends and family members who have taken time out of your busy lives to honour the Court by your attendance here today.  I am especially thankful to those who have travelled from interstate.  Mr Steger, I am grateful for the trust that the Attorney-General has placed in me by nominating me for appointment to the Federal Court.  It is a particular honour to have in the Court representatives from a number of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Council and representative bodies for Queensland.  As has been mentioned this morning, a substantive part of my practise at the bar was in native title.

The first native title trial in which I was briefed as Junior Counsel for the State concerned the land on which this Court sits, that of the Turrbal local group of the Yuggera-speaking peoples.  As the judgment from that trial records, the post-sovereignty history of the Yuggera-speaking peoples in Brisbane is one of dispossession from their traditional lands.  By the early 1850s, the Turrbal people had been driven from their camping ground in nearby York’s Hollow, now Victoria Park.  And by the 20th century, or the turn of the 20th century, early settler Tom Petrie knew of only one or two of the old men from that local group who were left alive.

Native title is an exceptionally rewarding, but also a challenging area of the law, not least of all for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples concerned.  During that trial and my subsequent time at the Bar, irrespective of whether I was acting for the State or the applicant, I learned much from the patience and generosity of spirit of the First Nations people with whom I engaged.  It is a particular privilege to be appointed to a Court whose important work includes native title, and I look forward to continuing on with that work in this next phase of my professional life.  The generosity of others has been a hallmark of my career to date.  It is not possible in the time available to mention each of those in the room to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, so please forgive me for combining my comments to just a select few.

The first two are the Honourable Margaret McMurdo AC, and the Honourable Philip McMurdo KC.  As has been mentioned, I had the exceptional good fortune to be each of their Associates.  The McMurdos have variously been described as exceptionally talented, prodigious and amongst the greats.  Now, those descriptions are undoubtedly true, but beyond that is the civility, integrity and good humour with which each of them has conducted their professional life and the exceptional kindness that they have shown to people like me who have crossed their path.  Quite 
simply, they set the standard to which I aspire.  The next is Justice Sue Brown.  Justice Brown was my Junior Master during my first year at the Bar.  As many of you will know, that role is voluntary and lasts only one year, but I was never quite prepared to give her Honour up, and she graciously surrendered to that reality.

Her words of wisdom, legal and otherwise, occupy considerable real estate in my head.  And her support, quiet and consistent when needed, and joyous on occasions such as this, is something for which I am eternally grateful.  I loved my time at the Bar.  The intellectual challenge of the role and the highs and lows of advocacy were undeniably part of the reason for this, but I principally attribute it to two things.  Firstly, the solicitors with whom I worked.  Ms Dee, I never had the opportunity to practise in your branch of the profession, but I was the beneficiary of many of the exceptional lawyers who occupy its ranks.  They have been my collaborators, my supporters, and on occasions, my comrades in arms.  I am delighted to see a number of those former colleagues here today.

Second, the members of the Bar.  Now, this might say something about my idea of a good time, but it’s always a little thrilling when at ceremonial events such as today, the Bar stands together as the President addresses the Court.  It epitomises the collective solidarity and independence that are integral to the Bar’s existence.  And, as curious as it sounds, it’s a little bittersweet not to form part of that group today.  For the majority of my time at the Bar, I was a member of Murray Gleeson Chambers.  That group was founded by the Honourable Walter Sofronoff KC, Justice Peter Davis, and Margaret Hoch with a singular object of fostering collegiality.  This reflected an appreciation, amongst other matters, of how important it can be in weathering the slings and arrows of professional life to like the person that you see across the coffee machine each morning.

Now, there were certainly mornings when I did not like seeing Joshua Jones across the coffee machine in the pink rugby shorts that he seems to think are fitting office attire.  But that aside, in my experience, Murray Gleeson Chambers was spectacularly successful in achieving its aim.  I felt so fortunate to be asked to join and each day I walked into Chambers, I was reminded what a privilege it was to be a part of that group.  The camaraderie of its present and former members, including the Honourable Bob Gotterson AO KC, Justice Elizabeth Wilson, and Deputy President Catherine Hartigan, was fundamental to my happiness at the Bar.  So, too, was the presence of Tracey McNab.  Tracey is critical to the efficient running of the professional, and let’s be honest, personal lives of the members of the group.

Indeed, I was told by more than one former Chamber colleague that the friendship would be over if I even thought of trying to lure Tracey across to the Federal Court.  But the collegiality I experienced was not confined to Murray Gleeson Chambers.  Justice Catherine Muir, Justice Rebecca Treston, Jonathan Horton KC, Patrick McCafferty KC, Ruth O’Gorman KC, and Marjorie Daley, who has the dubious honour of being not just a professional colleague, but a dear lifelong friend, are amongst the many to whom I am indebted for their support and friendship during my 
time at the Bar.  It is not possible to speak of the generosity that I have experienced in my professional life without mentioning my family.

Firstly, my mother, Helen Madden, my aunt, Leila Smith, and my sister, Alix Armstrong.  Each of them has busy and demanding lives, but they have been selfless in their support of me.  That support, both practical and emotional, is often unseen and sometimes unthanked, but it has been essential.  I simply would not be here without it.  Next, my children.  Mary, Claire, Tom, Charlotte, Lucille and Alec.  They are each remarkable individuals of whom their father and I are exceptionally proud.  Juggling parenthood and professional life is, it turns out, exceptionally challenging.  Who knew?  My children have paid the price for that more often than I would have liked.  I want to publicly acknowledge that sacrifice, but also thank them for their unwavering love support.

Lastly, to my husband, Joe Crowley.  Justice Rangiah recently told me that he has vivid memories of Joe and I studying together at Level 20, Inns of Court, where he and my late father-in-law, James Crowley KC, had chambers.  Now, that certainly seems like a long time ago, but it paints a fitting picture of the importance of Joe in my career.  Joe has been my fellow traveller in navigating a career in the law.  He is also my biggest champion.  It was Joe who encouraged me to apply for the Associateship to Justice Margaret McMurdo, and later to go straight to the Bar.  And it was Joe who supported me in taking on matters that were challenging and exciting, but also meant long periods away from home.  At times, this has meant that Joe has had to put his own aspirations to one side in favour of mine.  But that is the nature of the man, putting others before himself.  I feel incredibly lucky to have had Joe as my constant companion since that final year of law school.  His love and wise counsel have been a mainstay that I could not have done without.  

Finally, thank you to the Chief Justice, my sister and brother Judges, Court staff, and my initial, albeit temporary, Associate, Harrison Smith, for the warmth of their welcome.  It has been delightful to see the collegiality of my former life replicated within the Court.  Today’s ceremony is the culmination of that, and I am very grateful for all of it.  Sir Gerard Brennan described the role of a Judge as one of service to the community in the pivotal role of administering justice according to law.  It is a privilege to have been given that opportunity.  I am now looking forward to getting on with the challenge ahead.

MORTIMER CJ:   Thank you, Justice Longbottom.  The court will now adjourn.

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