Queensland judiciary in crisis under Tim Carmody, says senior colleague
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Version 0 of 1. Queensland’s judiciary is in crisis and the role of chief justice Tim Carmody appears increasingly problematic after a colleague publicly revealed the depth of dysfunction in the courts’ top echelons. Supreme court justice Alan Wilson has given an excoriating account of Carmody’s performance, including his attempt to interfere with the appointment of another judge to oversee a potential dispute relating to the outcome of the state election. Wilson, in a speech at his farewell ceremony on Thursday, said Carmody had lost “all respect” from his peers, and that the chief justice had privately referred to them collectively as “snakes” and “scum”. Carmody had alienated his fellow judges through his hypocrisy, his lack of demonstrated legal ability and his preference for public relations over court work, which added significantly to his colleagues’ burden, Wilson said. The reign of Carmody was an “experiment” that was doomed to fail, Wilson said, adding that outsiders “do not know of a number of things which stand behind that prediction”. The outgoing judge’s remarks give the first public account from inside the judiciary about Carmody’s leadership since his highly controversial elevation from the magistrates court by the Newman government last year. “Sadly the current experiment, involving a chief justice who frankly admits he lacks [legal] ability, and has signally failed to manifest those skills, is not working – and there is no reason to think that it ever will,” Wilson said. Wilson’s speech earned applause from the judges’ cohort after they had filed out from the Banco court ceremony. It followed another speech on Wednesday from one of Queensland’s top criminal lawyers, Peter Davis, who told the Bar Association that “this crisis in the composition of the supreme court is not behind us and will not be for a long time”. Davis described the current “serious problems” as the result of a former government bent on “insidious attacks” on the law and the court. Former attorney general Jarrod Bleijie, asked by Guardian Australia of his view of Carmody’s appointment in retrospect and in light of Wilson’s comments, said: “Yeh, not commenting on it, thanks ... sorry mate.” Davis questioned why any bar association members had attended the swearing in of Carmody last July when all 25 judges boycotted it in protest. “I know that a number of the judges thought that to be a stand against them,” Davis said. Asked by Guardian Australia if Carmody’s position was no longer tenable, another prominent legal figure, the former solicitor-general Walter Sofronoff said: “It was never tenable.” Carmody told the Courier-Mail last week that if he “felt that the office was being damaged, the brand was being damaged because of who was at the helm, and that person was me, I would leave”. Wilson said in his speech that Carmody’s leadership had sapped morale to the point that “I hear judges at all levels of seniority, including quite young ones, speaking seriously of resignation”. “The problem is bad and, in my view, getting worse. That is why I am driven to say something,” he said. Wilson said the chief justice’s hypocrisy was demonstrated by his public urging of judges last Christmas to “maintain civility and courtesy”. Meanwhile, Carmody privately “on different occasions referred to us collectively as ‘snakes’ and ‘scum’”, which had a “devastating effect on morale”, Wilson said. One flashpoint was Carmody’s attempt to interfere with the appointment of a judge to oversee a potential dispute about the outcome of the seat of Ferny Grove while the state election hung in the balance. Wilson said Carmody had tried to contest the automatic operation of a protocol designed to remove political influence from the court of disputed returns – then attempted to “speak privately with the next nominated judge to that position about what he described in a memorandum as ‘unresolved concerns’”. This was “rightly resisted by the judge, and unanimously condemned by the judges,” Wilson said. Carmody also earned the “universal” condemnation of other judges through his “shocking sacking” of respected senior judge administrator John Byrne after a dispute over work schedules – a decision Carmody was later persuaded to reverse. Wilson said it was “an extraordinary state of affairs” that Carmody had decided not to do any trial work in Brisbane, would only do occasional appeal court work, and removed himself from court calendars “so nobody knows when or whether he intends sitting again”. Meanwhile, Carmody, who has not sat in a court hearing since 15 February, maintained a public record of his social and professional engagements outside court. “The notion that there is scope for some kind of full-time public relations role for a head of jurisdiction, and little more, is surprising,” Wilson said. “So is the idea that judge-work takes second place, and must give way to these kinds of events – which other judges do almost every day, but outside court sitting hours. “It does not seem a good use of resources. It places a significant extra burden on the other judges.” Carmody’s schedule this week included giving a Monday afternoon lecture to first year law students at the university of Queensland and he was believed to be in Papua New Guinea on Thursday. Wilson said Carmody’s fellow judges would “strive to continue to serve with the sense of duty, the diligence, the high ability – and the independence – that they have maintained through the current troubles”. But he said support from the legal profession was “critical” at a time when the dispiriting effect of being “publicly represented by a chief justice for whom most now lack all respect, is beginning to tell”. The attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, declined to respond to questions by Guardian Australia. |