AUSCRIPT AUSTRALASIA PTY LIMITED
ABN 72 110 028 825

Level 22, 179 Turbot Street, Brisbane QLD 4000
PO Box 13038 George St Post Shop, Brisbane QLD 4003
T: 1800 AUSCRIPT (1800 287 274)         F:  1300 739 037
E: clientservices@auscript.com.au           W: www.auscript.com.au

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

O/N H-372362

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

CEREMONIAL SITTING OF THE FULL COURT FOR THE

SWEARING IN AND WELCOME OF 

THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE GLEESON

THE HONOURABLE JAMES ALLSOP AO, CHIEF JUSTICE
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE JACOBSON
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE RARES
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE BUCHANAN
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE GORDON
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE FLICK
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE PERRAM
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE JAGOT
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE FOSTER
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE YATES
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE ROBERTSON
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE FARRELL
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE PERRY
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE GLEESON

SYDNEY

9.29 AM, TUESDAY, 22 APRIL 2014

GLEESON J:   Chief Justice, I have the honour to announce that I have received a commission from his Excellency, the Governor-General, appointing me a judge of the Federal Court of Australia.  I now present my commission.

ALLSOP CJ:   Thank you, Justice Gleeson.  Registrar, would you please read the commission aloud.  

THE REGISTRAR:   

Commission of appointment of a judge of the Federal Court of Australia.  I, General, the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC, retired, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under section 72 of the Constitution and subsection 6(1) of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 appoint Jacqueline Sarah Gleeson learned in the law to be a judge of the Federal Court of Australia assigned to the Sydney Registry, commencing on 15 April 2014 until she attains the age of 70 years.  Signed and sealed with the great seal of Australia on 14 April 2014.  Signed Peter Cosgrove, Governor-General by his Excellency’s command, Julie Bishop, Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Attorney-General.

ALLSOP CJ:   Thank you, registrar.  Justice Gleeson, I now invite you to take the oath of office.

GLEESON J:   I, Jacqueline Sarah Gleeson do swear that I will bear true allegiance to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her heirs and successors according to law, that I will well and truly serve her in the office of judge of the Federal Court of Australia and that I will do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or favour, affection or ill will, so help me God.

ALLSOP CJ:   Thank you, Justice Gleeson.  I invite you to subscribe the form of oath.  Registrar, I hand you the oath and the commission for the oath and a copy of the commission to be subscribed to the court’s records.

THE REGISTRAR:   Thank you.

ALLSOP CJ:   Justice Gleeson, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate you and welcome you to the court.  You have the warmest welcome from all the judges of the court.

GLEESON J:   Thank you, Chief Justice.

ALLSOP CJ:   Mr Attorney.

MR G. BRANDIS QC:   May it please the court.  It is both an honour and a pleasure to be here today to welcome the Honourable Justice Gleeson to the bench of the Federal Court and on my own behalf and on behalf of the government and the people of Australia I congratulate you on your appointment.  Today is the culmination of a long and distinguished career in the law and a fitting recognition of the exceptional skills, talent and ability which have been manifest throughout that career.  It is also, I might add, the first judicial appointment of the Abbott Government.  In fact, some of the members of the government know your Honour and remember you from Sydney University.  

I can tell you that when I brought the recommendation for your Honour’s appointment to cabinet a few weeks ago it was very warmly received indeed.  Of the many people of great distinction in attendance today may I acknowledge in particular the presence of your distinguished father, the Honourable Murray Gleeson AC QC, the former Chief Justice of Australia, the Honourable Justice Virginia Bell and the Honourable Justice Stephen Gageler of the High Court, and the Honourable Tom Bathurst, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.  John Pascoe, the Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court, many current and former judges of the Federal Court, current and former judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.  

Judges of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales and the Honourable Bill Gummow, former justice of this court and of the High Court.  May I also acknowledge the presence of many other members of your Honour’s family who proudly share this special occasion with you.  Particularly, your mother Robyn, your sister, Rebecca, your daughter, Claire and your partner, Angus and his children, Ella and Steven and of a very large number of your professional colleagues.  Your Honour’s appointment to this bench comes after many years of commitment and service to the law in both the public sector and in private practice.  

You have been described by your colleagues as dedicated to your work, your clients and your briefs and possessing all the qualities of a highly accomplished member of our profession.  Your reputation is as one who applies yourself to your work with intelligence and perseverance.  Though these skills and attributes will be missed by the bar, they are the qualities which will be most welcome by your new colleagues on the bench.  Your Honour is the eldest of four children born to Robyn and the Honourable Murray Gleeson.  Growing up under the paternal guidance of such a distinguished figure in Australian legal history has clearly served you well, though at times perhaps it has carried the burden of expectation.

If so those expectations have been magnificently fulfilled today.  Your Honour attended high school at Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College.  Here you excelled at debating and public speaking.  Your Honour attended the University of Sydney where you completed first a Bachelor of Arts in 1986 and then a Bachelor of Laws in 1989.  In that year you were admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and became the associate to the Honourable Justice Trevor Morling of this court.  Your Honour was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New 
South Wales in 1991.  During this first period of your time at the bar you gained experience across a variety of jurisdictions, including of course, this jurisdiction.

You appeared as junior counsel in many leading cases, led by eminent members of the bar who would later become judges of this and other courts, including the chief justice and the Honourable Justice Arthur Emmett.  You read with the Honourable Justice Michael Slattery.  You practised for nine years at the bar before making a significant career change.  I understand that the move away from the bar at that time was a result of much personal reflecting leading to a conclusion that you had gone to the bar early in life and needed to acquire broader and more specialist knowledge before returning.  Around that time you had been briefed to appear for Mr Alan Jones at the Australian Broadcasting Authority’s cash for comment inquiry.  

This appearance led to your being approached with the offer of role of general counsel at the ABA.  You accepted the position and were able there to cultivate your interests in public law and broadcasting law.  You stayed with the Australian Broadcasting Authority for three years before being offered a position as senior executive lawyer for the Australian Government Solicitor in 2003.  In that capacity you advised and acted for regulatory agencies, including APRA , the Tax Agents Board, the Companies, Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board, the ABA and the Office of Film and Literature Classification.  You appeared before this court and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

You also demonstrated your commitment to educating others and sharing your knowledge by supervising other lawyers practising in those jurisdictions.  In 2005 your Honour returned to the University of Sydney to undertake and complete a Master of Laws focusing on administrative, regulatory and trade practices law.  It was in 2007 that you returned to the bar.  Your areas of practice included administrative law, competition and consumer law, professional liability and disciplinary proceedings and taxation.  Your Honour was briefed in a number of very significant matters, including the Canberra bushfires litigation in the Supreme Court of the ACT.

That matter involved more than 100 complainants and was the ACT Supreme Court’s largest ever civil case at the time.  Your Honour had established one of the leading junior practices in New South Wales and the ACT when you took silk in 2012.  As a silk you were immediately in heavy demand.  Your decision to accept judicial appointment is the senior bar’s loss.  Your Honour’s contribution to the community has extended far beyond your work at the bar.  You’ve discharged your obligations to your profession with your service to the New South Wales Bar Association.  You have served as a member of the Professional Conduct Committee and as a member of the Bar Council for four years.

You have been, if I may so, a role model in your field and you will continue to be so.  You have represented disadvantaged members of the community and those who are in need of your help – who were in need of your help and expertise, on occasion without any fee or expectation of reward.  I cannot conclude this speech without 
mentioning again some aspects or some of your Honour’s great personal qualities about which your colleagues have spoken to me.  They have mentioned your keen sense of humour as dry as the driest sherry, I am told.  Those who know you best describe you as friendly, tolerant, caring and kind.  You are said, by those who know you best, to demonstrate an innate compassion and an ability to relate to people, not qualities universally shared among barristers.  This, coupled with your well cultivated intellect and feel for the law, will make you an invaluable addition to this court.  

Your Honour, may I say in conclusion that your elevation to this bench is a special achievement which you share with your friends and family but which, more importantly, you must recognise as a product of your own hard work and commitment to your career, to the members of the public you have served and to the rule of law in Australia.  As your illustrious father has no doubt been a role model to you, so will you inspire the next generation.  You will strengthen what is already a great court.  On behalf of the government and the people of Australia, may I again congratulate you and wish you well in the many years of service that lie ahead of you to this court, to the law and to the Australian people.  May it please the court.

ALLSOP CJ:   Ms Needham.

MS J. NEEDHAM SC:   May it please the court.  On behalf of the Australian and New South Wales Bar Associations and of all barristers who practice in the Federal Court, I rise to welcome the appointment of the honourable Justice Jacqueline Gleeson.  I also wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this court stands.  In particular I pay my respects to the Cadigal people of the Eora Nation, their elders past and present.  Justice Gleeson, it would be easy only to speak about your lineage in the profession of law and the seeming inevitability that your Honour would follow in the footsteps of your esteemed father, the honourable Murray Gleeson, but to do so would overlook the struggle and austerity of your first years as a junior barrister.  

It would gloss over the diligence and determination required to reach the pinnacle of the profession, to be judged by your peers as being learned in the law and granted the rank of senior counsel and then to be appointed to the Federal Court of Australia.  Your Honour showed an early onset of advocacy skills when you excelled at debating at Monte Sant’ Angelo College.  I am told that when a nervous group of boys from Sydney Grammar, including one A. S. Bell, attended Monte for a debate, Sister Regina, your venerable debating coach, handed out the topic and said “All right girls, you take the boys upstairs.  You know what to do with them”.  I am quite sure that your Honour did.  My informant has not told me who won the debate which makes me suspect that the Monte team did.  You attended the University of Sydney and graduated, as we have heard, with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws.  

You were admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 13 December 1989 and went to work for the firm of Bush Burke & Company before being called to the New South Wales Bar in September 1991.  Perhaps with a touch 
of self-deprecation, your Honour describes the decision to practise at the Bar as “a failure of imagination”.  I know how your Honour feels.  You read with Stephen Rares whom you now join on the bench and Michael Slattery as well as with Cliff Hoburn and Malcolm Oakes.  You practised briefly from a licensed space in the basement of Selborne Chambers, the current premises of the Bar Association, without windows or natural light.  

You shared these Spartan lodgings with Michael Christie, Robert Mullanari and Malcolm Hadley.  As is often the case with junior barristers, you took whatever work you could lay your hands on and according to legend you survived for three months on a single brief fee.  That is to say, devilling for David Bennett QC.  Your self-described lucky break came in the form of a long and complex building arbitration case.  You were fortunate to be led by James Spigelman QC and Noel Hadley and equally fortunate to be opposed to Frank McCallary QC and Michael Pembroke.  This was an exceptional opportunity to gain experience in contract law and in the dark arts of quantity surveyors, all in the presence of such imminent counsel.  Your burgeoning practice allowed you to put a deposit on a room on 11 Selborne.  More building work ensued in which you were often led by that late great gentleman Paul Donoghue.  

Your Honour must have been a lioness of the construction bar because 100 per cent of my construction cases were conducted against you.  I found every case to be very enjoyable.  Another important line of work came when your Honour was briefed to appear for the Law Society in disciplinary proceedings against solicitors.  These were complex and often distressing cases in which the professional life of a fellow lawyer hung in the balance.  In this work valuable guidance on legal technicalities and the emotional burden was sought and gratefully received from Bob Stitt QC.  Your Honour contributed to the management of the Bar Association and to the regulation of the profession when you were elected to Bar Counsel between 1997 and 2000.  Later, after you took silk in 2012, you served on one of the Bar Association’s professional conduct committees.  

The Bar is grateful for your Honour’s dedication and commitment to this important work.  However in 2000, your Honour’s career had reached a weigh point.  You have spoken of being brought to tears by leaving your daughter Claire in the hands of babysitters while you attended a Bar Counsel meeting.  Of course it is not unusual for Bar Counsel meetings to cause tears but they are usually shed in the boardroom or on the way home.  Your Honour left the Bar in 2000 and as we have heard from the learned Attorney-General, crossed back to the solicitor branch of the profession.  You sought to immerse yourself in Commonwealth law, particularly administrative, competitive, consumer and taxation law.  Your opportunity came when you were appointed as general counsel at the Australian Broadcasting Authority.  

It is not easy for a barrister to make the transition to paid employee, least of all in the public service.  There is possibly an apocryphal story that Gabler SC warned your Honour to expect many interminable meetings which are, of course, quite different from conferences with instructing solicitors.  But you rolled up your sleeves, learned 
how to read PowerPoint slides and to draft inoffensive emails and set to work.  In 2003 you went to work as senior executive lawyer at the Australian Government Solicitor.  There you were recruited to help run ACCC v Baxter, a long and complicated piece of litigation involving derivative Crown immunity.  As it turned out, the case outlasted your time as a solicitor.  It proceeded to the High Court in 2007, by which time you had returned to the Bar and you took your place at the Bar table with Alwyn Tonkin and Lindsay Foster SC, now, of course, a judge of this court.  

On return to the Bar, your Honour conducted a varied and interesting practice.  In 2012 your Honour took silk to much acclaim and dare I say it, to my own personal satisfaction.  Even more satisfyingly, 2012 was a bumper year for women at the Bar.  Your Honour was one of 12 women distinguished as senior counsel that year.  In 2012 and 2013 your Honour appeared for QBE Insurance in the Supreme Court of the ACT seeking damages from the New South Wales Government in respect of injury, loss and damage arising from the Canberra bushfires.  More recently you appeared as counsel for the New South Wales Government at the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuses.  

Those two cases demonstrate the breadth of your Honour’s practice as a senior counsel.  Justice Gleeson, you have distinguished yourself at the Bar as a diligent and determined advocate with a wonderful sense of humour.  Attorney-General Brandis QC has chosen wisely.  The Bar is confident that you will handle your new role with aplomb and I wish you well as this new and challenging phase in your career unfolds before you.  May it please the court.

ALLSOP CJ:   Ms Wright.

MS P. WRIGHT:   May it please the court.  Jacqueline’s academic achievement has been outstanding.  She is a talented and charming young woman with a warm friendly personality and an ability to relate to people of all ages.  Her interests are broad and her involvement deep and genuine.  She is highly intelligent, alert and self-motivated, yet patient and considerate of the rights and needs of others.  She has rightly earned our respect and affection and we feel her potential to achieve great success in her chosen career will be the source of great pride to the community of the Monte Sant’ Angelo College.  

These words were written more than 30 years ago and only go to show the prescience of the Monte Sant’ Angelo teaching staff.  Today we are pleased to welcome your Honour to the bench of the Federal Court of Australia and on behalf of the 26,000 solicitors of New South Wales we wish you every success as a member of the judiciary.  The Law Council of Australia has also asked me to convey their congratulations and best wishes on your elevation to the bench.  However, your Honour, I must pass on the disappointment expressed by the members of the law society’s professional standards department, who are in the process of directing a most pressing brief for your Honour’s urgent attention.  The fact that they’ve now 
lost the services of a high quality Silk has put them into what can only be described as a kind of deep collective depression.  

Described as diligent, calm and competent, easy to deal with and down to earth, your Honour was the department’s go to person for complex disciplinary matters in the Court of Appeal.  Nothing was ever too much trouble, even if it meant sitting down on Christmas Eve to provide advice about a departmental matter.  No stone was ever left unturned in your thorough preparation of each case, so there were never any surprises once the matter came to court.  One of the law society’s litigation lawyers said that she had learned so much from working with you on difficult briefs and she has given us a few dot points of how to prepare.  In particular:  never get out of bed unless you’ve prepared a chronology.  Before getting dressed, always answer the question of whether the tribunal or court before which you are to appear has jurisdiction to hear your matter and the power to make the orders you seek.  

Be sure that your handbag contains an authority to support every proposition, including matters such as jurisdiction and whether a tribunal can stay its own procedures. Be sure to have obtained and served the necessary evidence to prove every point, even if you anticipate some matters will be admitted.  Be sure to have researched the meaning of the word “Necessary.”  Never take a Monday morning hearing date if you want your Honour to appear as your barrister, unless it’s your desire to spend Sunday afternoon with her, shadow boxing and bouncing ideas off you.  I’m told that some believed you had a far away weekender and couldn’t get back for Mondays.  You must know your brief frontwards, backwards, upside down and inside out.  And manage volume with lists, indexes and paginated cross-examination bundles.  Prepare hearing notes and cross off housekeeping matters as they’re dealt with. 

Cross-examine politely, yet with tenacity.  Make no assumptions.  Be modest.  Be fair.  Be reasonable and plan where to have lunch.  I’m not sure if the last point was reference to words of wisdom imparted by your father many years ago, but I believe the sentiment was to quietly contemplate what you might have for lunch as a way of remaining calm when dealing with particularly difficult clients.  But as we’ve heard, your Honour grew up on the northern beaches and was the eldest of siblings Rebecca, Gabrielle and Nick and they’re here, of course, today, as has been said, with every other proud member of your family, with one notable exception.  I note that the border collie, Brontie, is not in attendance, but will undoubtedly exact her revenge in the garden later.  

Before Monte Sant’ Angelo, your Honour attended Manly West and St Cecilia Primary Schools.  Then in high school, apart from being an outstanding debater, as has been commented upon, your Honour was also a member of the school choir and of the school newspaper’s editorial committee.  You also participated in tennis and swimming.  Your Honour won prizes in French, economics and mathematics.  And in 1983 you were awarded dux of the school.  So scholastically and professionally your stamina has certainly never been in doubt.  But I’m told socially your university 
colleagues noted a tendency for you to disappear at around about 10 pm from parties, only to be found later asleep in a friend’s car.  

Your Honour did some paralegal work for several firms, including Paul Wells & Co, Allens and Baker & McKenzie, prior to completing your tertiary studies and was an associate to the then Federal Court judge, the Honourable Trevor Morling in 1989.  Solicitor Bruce Burke gave you your first job and moved your admission.  It was a job offered purely on merit, as he was unaware at the time that you were the daughter of the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.  He said he was in such awe of the man he probably would have been too scared to have hired his daughter, had he known at the time.  An example of your fortitude, your Honour, was when he sent you out to do a plea regarding a client who had inadvertently fallen foul of the lawyer when he purchased an abalone which was either undersized or exceeding the seller’s quota.  

Told to come back with a good result, your Honour duly made the plea, but after the magistrate had made his decision you decided to give it another shot by arguing the case again to achieve a better outcome.  In a triumph of justice over procedure, your Honour was successful.  Your Honour left the bar in 2000, as has been said, to work at the ABA and then with the Australian Government Solicitor.  As a top quality lawyer from the private sector and displaying great passion and enthusiasm, you got drawn into everything and worked extremely hard.  And, of course, in 2007 you returned to the bar and you were appointed senior counsel in 2012.  

And while you’ve undoubtedly inherited your father’s keen intellect and he has been a huge presence in your life, as my colleague said, your Honour’s successes have been on your own terms.  You’ve never been a protégé;  you’ve always been your own person.  Your Honour is not only the source of great pride to the community of the Monte Sant’ Angelo College, you’re the source of great pride, no doubt, to your family and I know to women lawyers and the wider legal profession.  And many have benefited from your wisdom, experience and representation.  Today’s appointment is a tremendous accomplishment.  And I have no doubt that you will discharge your duties with great ethical sensibilities, the integrity, the passion and the generosity of spirit for which you’re both renowned and respected.  As the court pleases.  

ALLSOP CJ:   Justice Gleeson.  

GLEESON J:   Chief Justice, judges of the court, distinguished guests, my family and friends, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.  Thank you, Mr Attorney, Ms Needham and Ms Wright, for your very kind words.  This is an important occasion for me to acknowledge where I come from and to express my gratitude for the many good fortunes that have brought me here today.  My heritage is a mix of Irish, Scottish and English.  That heritage bestowed on me a Catholic sense of morality, a Protestant work ethic and a deep appreciation of wit.  Humour is highly valued in my family as an antidote to snobbery, self-indulgence, self-righteousness, pedantry, bullying, in fact all unpleasantness.  I have been fortunate all my life to have been surrounded by virtuoso humorists.  

I’m sorry that my paternal grandmother is not here today.  She died last year at the age of 96.  Her origins were Scottish Protestant, although she converted to Catholicism.  She exemplified the frugality of people of her era and took huge pride in her family.  If she were here today, her pride might be of the sinful variety.  

My mother stayed at home to raise me and my three siblings.  The role of the homemaker can be tough, particularly in an era of individualism and celebrity.  My wellbeing and development was my mother’s job and she can justly take credit for any success of mine.  

I will say a few words about my father.  He was stern.  He articulated his values succinctly: “Courtesy costs nothing and yet, if not returned, leaves a person in a position of advantage”.  On how to use the telephone: “State your message and hang up”.  He deplored “insults to the poor”.  These included my schoolgirl French excursion to New Caledonia and Easter show bags.  

As children, my sister and I used to visit my father’s chambers at Seven Wentworth on the weekend.  We were given the job of decorating bookmarks.  I met many of the then leaders of the Sydney bar, including the late John Lockhart, a former judge of this court.  Other members of Seven Wentworth, who later became the kind of judges that I would like to be are John Clarke QC, Terry Cole QC, David Hunt QC, Michael Slattery QC and Ruth McColl SC.  Ruth McColl was the first barrister I ever met.  Over the years she has been very kind to me and I am honoured that she is here today.  

My father and I are the only lawyers in the family.  Occasionally my siblings wonder about my admiration of him.  His self discipline is the virtue that I admire most and which I hope most to emulate in my new role.  

My siblings are Rebecca, Nicholas and Gabriel.  Rebecca and Gabriel are here today, vibrant and glamorous as usual.  Nicholas is overseas.  He was recently appointed CEO of a Norwegian shipping line.  I am proud of my siblings: they are all complex and interesting people, concerned to live good and worthwhile lives and they are great dinner party companions.  I could not ask for anything more.  

My immediate family comprises my partner, Angus, my daughter, Claire and Angus’ children: Ella and Stephen.  Claire is a delight, a joy and an occasional source of consternation.  She has a great love of learning, albeit not necessarily her year nine syllabus.  I’m very happy to have the three children in my every day life.  They constantly test my capacity for ex tempore judgments.  I must disclose to the registry my weekend job as a taxi driver.

At this point, I also stop to thank my partner for his warmth, encouragement and support.  And for listening to war stories that I will now acknowledge as deeply boring.  

I’ve also benefited greatly from loyal friendships.  Even more so than my family, I do find it difficult to give my friends the attention I deserve and I am fortunate that they have not discarded me.  Many of my friends are here today and I thank them for doing me that honour.  My old friend, Natalie Adams, now the New South Wales Crown Advocate, has changed her holiday plans to attend.  That is typical of the wonderful friends that I have made at university, through my local community in Balmain and through my work.  

I would like to mention a few of my early mentors in the legal profession.  I had several paralegal jobs while I was at university: one in particular was with Paul Wells.  I’m so pleased that he and his wife could attend today.  Paul’s lessons were about the importance of the client: soothing his or her concerns (to be done in the first instance with an immediate offer of a cup of tea) and solving their problems.  

As you’ve heard, I was an associate to the Honourable Justice Morling.  I am deeply honoured by his attendance today.  He exemplified the courteous, businesslike and hard working approach to judicial office now championed by the Chief Justice.  

I’m very proud and pleased to see my former employers and colleagues from Bush Burke & Company here today.  Bruce Burke had the terrible job of teaching me how to write a letter.  I believe he succeeded but it was at the cost of several litres of red ink.  John Bush was the honorary solicitor for the New South Wales Rugby League Players Association.  At the time the League had introduced its first salary cap and player draft.  The systems were challenged by the Association and with Mr Bush’s oversight I was involved in the conduct of that case from the commencement of the proceedings up to the High Court.  It was a superb experience for a junior solicitor.

From the time of my admission to the bar I received support and encouragement from barristers and judges too numerous to mention.  Justice Rares, who is sitting to my right today and Justice Slattery of the Supreme Court, in particular, spent innumerable hours teaching me aspects of the law and litigation.  Early on, it is true, I subsisted by devilling advices for other barristers.  Over the years my father’s good friend, Robert Stitt QC, provided me with counsel on many occasions.  I tried to adopt some of his cross-examination techniques.  Now, sadly I will only be able to use them at home.  

I enjoyed several years of practice on the 11th floor of Wentworth Chambers.  I was fortunate to observe, work with and learn from the many great barristers on that floor, including judges of the New South Wales Court of Appeal, Justices Emmett, Hoeben and Macfarlan, Frank McAlary QC, Bob Hunter QC, John Machonachie QC, Jim Poulos QC, Hal Sperling QC, Paul Donohoe QC and Alan Sullivan QC.  Of course, James Stevenson SC and Francois Kunc SC and I could not omit to mention Stephen Gageler SC.  It was through the 11th floor that I met the Chief Justice.  I had the privilege of being briefed with him, led by the late Peter Hely QC in an ASIC prosecution of the directors of Adsteam.  

When I started work with the Commonwealth I was warned, it’s true, that I was moving into a different environment.  I worked with the then General Manager of the Australia Broadcasting Authority, Giles Tanner, for three years.  Mr Tanner has kindly come to court today.  I am now proudly fluent in the language of Commonwealth acronyms.  

When I returned to the bar in 2007, I was generously offered a licence in the annex to 6 Wentworth.  A little while after, I bought chambers on 7 Selborne.  I will miss 7 Selborne greatly.  In particular, I enjoyed the friendship of my old friend since high school days, Justin Smith, and working on a long and hard fought case in the ACT, the Canberra bushfires case, with Rod Smith SC.  I would like to mention that I am the fourth member of 7 Selborne to join the Federal Court after Justices Michael Foster, Hely and Jacobson.  I am delighted to associate myself with them.  

I have worked with several members of the current court, either as a solicitor or as a barrister or both.  As well as the Chief Justice, I have worked with Justices Rares, Robertson, Lindsay Foster and Wigney.  I’m looking forward to working with them again, even Justice Foster.  

So now, thanks to so many of you I am here.  I particularly thank my clerk, Nick Tiffen and receptionist, Josie Lawson, for their support.  I will miss them greatly.  I thank the solicitors who briefed me and the staff of the Federal Court who have provided so much assistance in preparing for today.  

I have a profound respect for the rule of law as a bed rock of our society and economy.  I look forward to discharging my role as a just to the best of my ability and hopefully, a little better.  

ALLSOP CJ:   The court will now adjourn.

MATTER ADJOURNED at 10:06 am INDEFINITELY