Ceremonial sitting of the Full Court
To welcome the Honourable Justice Needham
Transcript of proceedings
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE COLLIER
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE NICHOLAS
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE KATZMANN
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE WIGNEY
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE PERRY
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE MARKOVIC
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE BROMWICH
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE LEE
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE ABRAHAM
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE HALLEY
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE ROFE
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE DOWNES
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE GOODMAN
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE O’SULLIVAN
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE KENNETT
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE SHARIFF
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE NEEDHAM
THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE McDONALD
SYDNEY
9.31 AM, FRIDAY, 12 JULY 2024
COLLIER J: Well, welcome to everyone here this morning. Chief Justice Mortimer has asked me to convey her sincere regrets at her inability to be here. I am pleased to represent her Honour at this very important ceremonial sitting to welcome the Honourable Justice Jane Needham to the Federal Court of Australia. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people and pay my respects to their Elders.
I would also like to acknowledge Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, The Honourable Margaret Beazley, and her husband, Mr Dennis Wilson; The Honourable Commonwealth Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus; The Honourable Justice Beech-Jones of the High Court of Australia; The Honourable Justice Ward, President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal; The Honourable Chief Judge of the District Court of New South Wales; present and former Justices of this court; present and former colleagues of the Federal Circuit and Family Court; present and former colleagues of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the District Court, Land and Environment Court, Industrial Court and Magistrates Court; other distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.
There are others who could not be here this morning who have sent their apologies. I would also like to give an especially warm welcome to members of Justice Needham's family and to her Honour's invited guests and colleagues joining us for the ceremony today. This is a very important milestone in her Honour's career and one which no doubt has been made possible by ongoing support and encouragement from those closest to her Honour. Justice Needham was formally sworn in as a Judge of this court last week on 5 July 2024. Today is an opportunity to publicly recognise the significance of a judicial appointment to this Court. Justice Needham, on behalf of Chief Justice Mortimer and the Judges, Registrars and all the staff of the Federal Court of Australia, I congratulate you on your appointment, and I am confident that you will serve the Australian community with distinction.
NEEDHAM J: Thank you, Justice Collier.
COLLIER J: Can I please invite the Honourable Mark Dreyfus, Attorney-General for the Commonwealth, to address the Court.
MR M. DREYFUS KC MP: May it please the Court. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and 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's a great privilege to be here today to congratulate your Honour on your appointment as a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia. I would also like to take this time to thank you on behalf of the Australian Government for your Honour's willingness to serve as a Justice of this Court. The Government extends its best wishes for your career on the Bench. Your Honour's appointment to the Federal Court is another success in a distinguished career. That so many of your colleagues in the legal profession are here today is testament to the high regard in which your colleagues hold your Honour.
I would also acknowledge Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales; The Honourable Justice Robert Beech-Jones, Justice of the High Court of Australia; retired Justices of the High Court of Australia, both of whom are also former Justices of the Federal Court, the Honourable William Gummow AC KC and The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG; The Honourable Justice Julie Ward, President of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Judge Sarah Huggett, Chief Judge of the District Court of New South Wales; and former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Honourable Judge Michael Allen, Chief Magistrate of the Local Court of New South Wales; and other current and former members of the judiciary, members of the legal profession, and distinguished guests.
May I also acknowledge the presence of your Honour's family, who proudly share this occasion with you. Your children, Stella, Ronan and Angus, are here today alongside their father, Mr Joseph Darling. Time does not permit a full exposition of your Honour's achievements and the contributions you've made to the law, so today I will focus on some key achievements that mark your distinguished career. Your Honour grew up in a family of five children. Your sister, Emma, tells me that your late mother, Anne, was a Jane Austen fanatic, so much so that you were named after the author. Given your namesake, it is fitting that you love to read and undertake what you refer to as book marathons. According to an article published by the Jane Austen Society of North America entitled The Law of Jane, Legal Issues in Austen's Life and Novels - and I quote:
Few Lawyers appear in Austen's novels because, with the exception of Clergymen and Naval Officers, most of Austen's characters do not work for a living. At the time, Lawyers held a social status above that of a Tradesman but far below the ranks of most of Austin's wealthy characters. Even within the law there was a hierarchy. Barristers were considered gentlemen, but Solicitors, Stewards and Attorneys were not.
Times have changed. I will return to your Honour's role as an advocate for women in the legal profession. However, I note at this juncture that your mother had herself been a trailblazer in this regard. She was a solicitor in the 1950s and I'm told the second female solicitor employed by what was then Allen Allen & Hemsley. As a child, your Honour loved horses and started riding at a young age. By the time your Honour was 10 or 11, your family had its own horses and you would attend pony club every weekend. In 2012, you confessed to Justinian that if you weren't a Barrister, you would have most liked to be training and riding Grand Prix dressage horses.
NEEDHAM J: True.
MR DREYFUS: It's coming back to haunt you, your Honour. Your Honour's first love was not the law but what you described as an interesting and fairly impractical degree in medieval English. Your Honour graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986. While your Honour was initially reluctant to follow your parents into the law, you then studied law part time at the University of Technology Sydney while working as an Associate to your father, Justice Denys Needham of the New South Wales Supreme Court. Your Honour graduated with honours in 1990 and took the somewhat bold step of proceeding immediately to the New South Wales Bar. Your Honour thrived at the Bar and took Silk in 2004.
You practised in a range of fields, including property, administrative law and inquiries. Your Honour has appeared in the Supreme Court of Samoa and the High Court of Fiji. On one occasion, Your Honour ran a trial in the New South Wales District Court concerning dognapping of a seeing eye dog. Your client was happily reunited with her loyal companion with an order for exemplary damages and for damages for personal injury. You were, however, most commonly to be found in the Equity Division of the New South Wales Supreme Court. That jurisdiction, you've observed, offered the opportunity to meet interesting people and ask them intrusive questions.
Your Honour's cross-examination was once described in the Courier Mail as savage and unrelenting. Your colleagues, however, speak of your humanity, diplomacy, respect and restraint. At the Bar, Your Honour was an exemplar of the open-door policy and made yourself freely available to assist senior colleagues and mentor junior colleagues alike. In your early years at the Bar, Your Honour was also a law lecturer at your alma mater, the University of Technology, Sydney. I'm told that Your Honour was a lively lecturer in real property and brought dynamism and colour to what may be considered by some a dry subject. Your Honour set exam questions in the town of Springfield and named the vendors and purchasers after characters from The Simpsons. I'm told there's nothing so refreshing as to have to solve dilemmas of Bart's easement over Homer's servient tenement.
From 2002 to 2011, Your Honour served on the Administrative Decisions Tribunal of New South Wales, first as a judicial member and later as Deputy President and Divisional Head of the Revenue Division. Your Honour has taken opportunities to serve the legal profession and the community. You were a Director of the Law Council of Australia between 2012 and 2014. From 2014 to 2015, you were President of the New South Wales Bar Association. As I noted a moment ago, Your Honour has been a leading advocate for women in the legal profession. In this role, Your Honour has demonstrated strength, integrity and resilience and worked selflessly to make the Bar a more welcoming and safer place for women. You have championed equitable briefing, emergency childcare and bullying and harassment policies and built strong bonds with other women across the country working to transform our profession.
It is a great pleasure to recognise a few more of Your Honour's personal qualities that have culminated in your appointment to this Court. Throughout your career, Your Honour has been known for your profound humility. You've been described as inclusive and gentle with an extremely witty sense of humour. You are a loyal friend who once became an expert in swampy meadows and all things hydrology in order to represent a mutual friend in a legal dispute. Your sister, Emma, says you are one of the most organised people she knows, with a fridge covered in a checklist of things to do each day. You host several popular annual events among your family and friends which are planned on whiteboards and large sheets of cardboard that could rival NASAs space plans.
Your Honour is known as a proud and dedicated mother to Stella, Ronan and Angus. Invited to describe yourself in three words in an interview some years ago, Your Honour offered lawyer, mother, tired. However, others described the way in which you have navigated your professional and family obligations as superhuman. Remarkably, Your Honour took Silk after a period of practising part-time for two years. No doubt thanks to a long tradition of playing Scrabble with your mother, Your Honour is a keen player of games, particularly word games. Your Honour hosts regular games nights with friends and has also become a keen Wordler. I am told that Your Honour is proud of your present winning streak, which, after today, should be at least 655 days in a row without losing or missing a game. Your Honour is not, however, confined to intellectual pursuits, and you are, I am told, a dedicated practitioner of Pilates.
Your Honour's appointment to the Federal Court acknowledges your dedication to the law and accomplishments in the legal profession. Your Honour takes on this judicial office with the best wishes of the Australian legal profession, and it is trusted that you will approach this role with exceptional dedication to the law, as 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. May it please the court.
COLLIER J: I now invite Mr Michael Izzo, Junior Vice-President of the New South Wales Bar Association, representing the Australian Bar Association, to address the court.
MR M. IZZO SC: May it please the court. I, too, recognise the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. I extend those respects to any First Nations people here today. It is a privilege to welcome your Honour Justice Needham on behalf of the Australian Bar Association. The President of the ABA, Peter Dunning KC, regrets that he cannot be here, and asks that I convey his apologies. Mr Toomey will give the principal address on behalf of the Bar. I will not steal his thunder, and will keep my comments very brief. But one thing I do wish to do is to take this opportunity to acknowledge, publicly, the deep impact that your Honour has left on the Bar - not just in New South Wales, but at a national level. Your Honour's career at the Bar, both as a barrister and as a much-loved President, and later Advocate for Change for the New South Wales Bar Association, has been marked by a passion for fostering a diverse and inclusive community, where the wellbeing of barristers is paramount.
Your Honour was instrumental in the implementation of gender equitable briefing policies at the national level. Your Honour introduced best practice guidelines on bullying and harassment, which are now mirrored in guidelines adopted by the ABA and other jurisdictions. And with Chief Justice Bathurst, your Honour established a protocol governing predictability of sitting hours, which is a worthy model for every jurisdiction in this country. This, at a time when the local Bar was engulfed in passionate debate over the then hot topics of incorporation, and the reintroduction of Queen's Counsel. Your Honour had the tenacity and presence of mind to look past those now long-forgotten struggles and focus on measures which would make a tangible and lasting impact on barristers, and lawyers more broadly, and through them, the administration of justice. At a personal level, your Honour has been a generous mentor and confidante, legendary for your breakfast sessions and your Honour's quiet diplomacy. Your Honour's calm and welcoming presence has been a source of comfort and support for so many at the Bar.
The Bar's loss is the Federal Court's gain. Your Honour comes to the role with a depth of experience in life and the law, but also, with an innate sense of justice, decency and compassion. Your Honour's legal knowledge and experience spans many areas across equity, commercial and administrative law. It will be a privilege to see your Honour thrive as a judge of this court, just as it has been to know your Honour as a barrister. On behalf of the Australian Bars, congratulations and the warmest wishes. May it please the court.
COLLIER J: Thank you. I now invite Mr Dominic Toomey, Senior Vice-President of New South Wales Bar Association, to address the court.
MR D. TOOMEY SC: May it please the court. As is customary on such occasions, I, too, acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. It is both my privilege and a personal pleasure to speak for the New South Wales Bar in welcoming your Honour's appointment, and to thank you for your enormous contribution thus far to our profession. Last year, when your Honour spoke on behalf of the profession at a farewell ceremony for Justice Hallen in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, you remarked that the sheer number of people in the large courtroom was a tribute to the regard in which his Honour was held. The same can be said of your Honour today, with this courtroom full of members of the judiciary, from across jurisdictions, many other distinguished guests and well-wishers.
I welcome your family and friends, who are here to share this special milestone in your vocational life, and those who are observing via the live stream. This is an occasion to be celebrated with those closest to you, and I acknowledge the presence in court today of your daughter, Stella, and her partner, Blake; your twin sons, Ronan and Angus; and your former spouse, Joe. Together, you and Joe featured in an AFR article about collaborative divorce. And if I may say so, it is a testament to the success of that process that you are all sharing this occasion as a family today. I mention that personal fact only because it is one of the many ways in which your Honour leads by example in advocating for the adoption of non-adversarial practices for resolving disputes.
Your Honour has said publicly that the collaborative process in family law was so good for you and your family that you trained as a collaborative practitioner in wills and estates. Collaborative processes are relatively new in that area as an alternative to courtroom litigation and traditional mediation. In public discussion, you have explained that collaborative practice is a third way in which everyone involved works together in determining what is in the estate, what everyone needs and how those needs can be met.
Another example of your Honour's having brought your own experience to the profession has been in helping to educate Barristers about the use of social media. Your Honour has long used social media very effectively as a way of promoting access to justice, of highlighting the importance of pro bono work and in advocating for diversity and gender equality in the legal profession, efforts which have attracted large followings of your accounts across social media platforms. Last year your Honour participated in a CPD event on the use of social media by Barristers co-hosted by the New South Wales Bar Association's Education Committee and New Barristers Committee, chaired by Arthur Moses SC.
You were on a panel that discussed some of the benefits of social media as well as offering precautionary advice concerning potential defamation liability and the avoidance of contempt. In January of this year, your Honour spoke again on that topic to a New Zealand Bar Association conference. But for considerably longer than social media has been prominent, your Honour has made a huge impact by sharing your experiences of being a woman at the Bar, always as a generous participant in intra-professional and public discussions on gender inclusion.
Your contributions in that regard are legion and too numerous to mention in the time we have today. It is sufficient to say that you have consistently applied yourself to the improvement of people's lives at the Bar, but particularly the lives of women who have chosen that career path. Your Honour has brought personally gained wisdom and practical advice to discussions about promoting flexible work practices for parents at the Bar, knowing what is possible from your own experience of parenting your children while managing a busy practice, both as a junior barrister and later as silk.
Much of your later work is a continuation of that which your Honour was doing as President of the Bar Association in 2014 and '15: advocating for advancements with the equitable briefing policy, as we have heard, and launching the first model of the New South Wales Bar Association's best practice guidelines. Your Honour served as President of the Bar Association during a period of heightened public interest in the Bar and in a time of change. Your advocacy for gender equality was constructive and practical, demonstrating problems with gender equity using empirical evidence and proposing solutions based on your own experience. As President, you said that your aim was making the Bar a better place to work for everyone.
You promoted the possibility, indeed the achievement, of flexible work practices in the interests of all barristers, irrespective of gender. Your Honour was President during the tragic events of the Lindt siege that shocked and saddened the entire profession and personally affected many. Your executive team's approach to that tragedy was practical and communicative, not only via electronic news updates but also in opening up the common room of the Bar Association to provide a central place for members to gather and talk in person, with support from a social worker if desired. Your Honour offered personal condolences to many of the bar who were affected.
I had the privilege of being a bar councillor during your Honour's presidency. It was not an easy time. There was the incorporation issue, as Mr Izzo has already mentioned, and, dare I mention it again, the QC debate, which were really quite polarising at the time, not only at the bar generally, but on the council itself. If I may say so, your Honour handled those matters with characteristic equanimity and dignity, often in quite heated circumstances. I admired both your strength and your measure.
At the end of your presidency, your Honour was made a life member of the New South Wales Bar Association in recognition of your exceptional service to the Bar Association and to the profession of the law. You joined a relatively short and distinguished list of life members, including your father, who had himself been a Silk and served as President before his ultimate appointment to the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
I offer here a little story your Honour once told of a trip you took to the Royal Easter Show with your father shortly after his appointment. As you pulled into the by then already very crowded car park at Moore Park, a vacant space immediately presented itself. Your father pulled in, only for the two of you to see a sign at the head of the space that said "strictly reserved for judges". He turned off the engine. "Well?" he said.
Your Honour's completion of your presidency could have seen you step back from your already impressive record of service to the bar, but that is not in your Honour's nature. You later accepted a three-year appointment, as we've heard, as an advocate for change for the Bar Association, which has seen you actively involved in improving life for many of those at the bar.
In your professional life as a silk as well, you exemplified what it means to be an inclusive and supportive profession, through your generous collegiality and mentorship, often meeting individual members to discuss concerns over breakfast. As an Advocate for Change, you took phone calls from many people, many of whom you did not already know, who were seeking to raise personal and structural issues related to practice at the bar. You also in that role gave many talks on topics related to diversity at the bar.
Your Honour's involvement with the Bar Association was, of course, all in addition to your busy practice as a silk. As we have heard, you were called to the bar in 1990, immediately after being admitted to practice as a legal practitioner. Early in 1991, you joined 13th Floor St James Hall as one of the foundation members. You are now a life member of that floor.
Your Honour took silk in 2004. Your Honour worked nationally and internationally as a succession law specialist, including on a billion-dollar family provision case in Mead v Lemon, and other matters concerning delusionary disorder and testamentary capacity, estate administration and will construction, and issues of family descent. That's descent, not dissent. You practised in equity and trusts, and provided advice on succession planning. You also practised in administrative law, environmental law and revenue law, as well as carving out a practice in dispute resolution, both as a mediator and collaborative practitioner.
You appeared in numerous legally complex and emotionally difficult inquiries and inquests, including the Royal Commissions into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and aged care and disability. Your junior in one of those Royal Commissions observed dryly to me that the three knocks which herald the entry of a judge to her court will already be familiar to your Honour. "That's how she summoned me from my room next door," he said.
Your Honour's expertise in your chosen fields has been recognised through various appointments, including, as we've heard, as a lecturer in law at UTS, from where you had graduated with first class honours and were later given a UTS Alumni Award for Excellence, and as a Judicial Member of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal and as Deputy President and Head of the Revenue Division of that Tribunal. You have also received numerous awards and accolades, including being named Senior Barrister of the Year, one of 100 Women of Influence, Barrister of the Year, Women in Law Barrister of the Year, and Australia’s Leading Wills and Estates Litigation Senior Counsel. But your Honour’s reputation in the profession goes beyond excellence as a Lawyer and Advocate. You are someone with whom other members of the profession want to work.
For instructing solicitors, you have been a pleasure to brief. It is said that your Honour is wonderful with clients, with a calm demeanour and emotional intelligence, giving them a sense of reassurance in the inevitably fraught setting that is litigation. You have what has been described as a great bedside manner which has been an asset in dealing particularly with the emotions that can run high in estate matters. Your reputation for being easy to deal with has resulted in long and successful relationships with many Solicitors and Junior Counsel.
As has already been adverted to by the Attorney, however, it’s not all sweetness and light. The Courier-Mail, as we’ve heard, described your Honour’s cross-examination of a school principal in a historical sexual abuse case in 2015 as savage and unrelenting. Within the velvet glove, apparently, resides an iron fist.
In addition to the many accomplishments I have already outlined, your Honour has a degree in linguistics and, as we heard, medieval English from the University of New South Wales. And on occasion you have spoken and written on the intersection between literature and the law.
In your personal life, your Honour's generosity features prominently. Each year, you open your house on Boxing Day to friends, colleagues and neighbours, bringing people together over the Christmas leftovers. My sister often says to me that children learn in three ways: example, example and example. I have no doubt that your Honour's children, to whom you are devoted, have benefited enormously from the example you have set and continue to set for them. It remains to be seen, of course, whether they too will get a tattoo of each of their children's names.
Your Honour also has a passion for horses, as we've heard, although my informant was unable to tell me whether you had ever uttered those fateful words as a child, ''Daddy, I want a pony'', far less whether you actually got one, but I understand from today that you did. In your pursuit of physical health, I'm told that you're often seen around Chambers drinking indescribably coloured concoctions from jars. Perhaps that's the secret behind your equanimity, although it has to be said I'm simply not ready to give up coffee. Your Honour, I thank you for your many significant contributions to the profession that we both love.
I thank you also for the encouragement you have offered me personally over the years in seeking also to contribute through our professional association. You bring to the bench a vast knowledge and a deep understanding of the issues affecting those who will come before you in your new capacity. Your appointment has been warmly welcomed with remarks that reflect your reputation for being a pillar of the profession. Many have remarked that you are likely to follow in the legacy of your father as an exceptional judge.
That is not at its core an observation about heredity, although that undoubtedly contributes, but rather a reflection of the profession's high regard for your ability and, above all, the admirable, distinctly personal qualities you will bring to the role. In an essay after the death of your father, to whom you had been Associate for a time, you wrote that he inspired in all who came into his Court, both lawyers and litigants, a secure confidence that justice had been done, every argument had been listened to with a fair and open mind, an erudite intelligence had been brought to bear on the issues, and all who had participated had been treated with courtesy and respect. Your Honour enters judicial life with the secure confidence of the profession that you will do the same. On behalf of the New South Wales Bar, I wish you all the best as you commence this next stage of your vocational life, and may there always be a parking space for you at the Easter show. May it please the court. Thank you.
COLLIER J: Thank you. Can I please invite Ms Juliana Warner, President-Elect of the Law Council of Australia and representing the Law Society of New South Wales, to address the court.
MS WARNER: May it please the court. I, too, respectfully acknowledge that this ceremony takes place on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and I pay my respects to their elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. I also acknowledge the Honourable Justice Berna Collier; the Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC MP; Mr Michael Izzo SC, Junior Vice-President of the New South Wales Bar Association and representing the Australian Bar Association, and Mr Dominic Toomey SC, Senior Vice-President of the New South Wales Bar Association; all judicial officers; dignitaries; family, friends and most of all, your Honour. It is an honour, and, indeed, a great pleasure to represent the Law Council of Australia at this ceremony, to welcome your Honour's appointment and extend to you the congratulations and best wishes of the profession.
I seem to be outnumbered by barristers who are speaking at the bar table today, so I think I will even up the score a bit by saying that I am also representing the Law Society of New Wales, and I am here to congratulate you on behalf of the 42,230 solicitors holding active practicing certificates in this great state. One of the many, many things that I admire about your Honour is that you have been an outspoken and tireless champion of diversity, inclusion and equality within the profession. Throughout your career, you have carved a path for other women to follow, and supported many female lawyers on their journey. We've heard today that you're following in your father's footsteps, and I understand that it was through your Honour working as an associate to your father in the Supreme Court that the legal profession was lucky enough to finally attract your attention and dedication. But I would also like to pay privilege to your mother. Your mother, then Anne Cunningham, was a solicitor for five years at the venerable firm of Allen Allen & Hemsley in the 1950s - only the second woman lawyer there. She must have been exceptional, and I bet she was called Miss Cunningham every single day of that five years.
She must have been a trailblazer at the time. Many women of her generation left their careers early for a variety of reasons, but went on to raise little girls who grew up - like your Honour - determined to make a change. So it's hardly surprising that you have been such a champion for women lawyers. I expect that your mother was a huge source of inspiration for you. With your appointment, you will continue to inspire the next generation within our profession, or those considering a career in the law. However, as we've heard, in the early days, your interest in the law had to do battle with your love of literature, and your original field of study was, of course, Medieval English. A degree you've noted was interesting, but fairly impractical in terms of career prospects. But in switching to the law, you did not leave your love of literature behind. In your 2021 Sir Anthony Mason oration, you spoke on literature in the law, particularly, the use of literary quotes in judgments. Of the use of literature by judgments, your Honour said you believe its use is to:
../make judgments more readable, to illustrate a point, or to demonstrate that some aspect of human behaviour has been dealt with in literature and is thus perhaps less surprising or unusual. It is the touchstone of a common experience, seeking to include the reader in the shared knowledge and familiarity -
which, I think, says a lot about how you see when the court should interact with the people who come before it. But you did lament the lack of modern texts and Australian and female authors referred to, a deficiency you will no doubt now address in spades.
Your Honour has already served our profession and the people in Australia in so many ways. From your presidency of the New South Wales Bar Association and your implementation of the equitable briefing policy, which, as part of the solicitors branch of the profession, I have done my level best to pursue, and emergency child care for members of the Bar, to fearlessly speaking out against bullying and harassment, through to helming some of the largest succession matters that have been heard in this country.
Even before your much-deserved appointment to this Court, Your Honour had established an enduring legacy, and a legacy that goes far beyond the courtroom. It's a legacy built on the success of the many lawyers, both men and women, you have personally mentored, the difference you have made for so many as an advocate for work-life balance and the lawyers who have chosen the law and remained in our profession because of the example you've set and the changes you've brought. You're a great role model, and if I may be so bold and make a comment that actually none of the male speakers today could get away with, I would also add that you're a very stylish one. You do a great line in well-cut black dresses and pearls, and you will see that I'm trying to dress like you today.
You have a very full life, and particularly a very full home life, centred around your three amazing and talented darlings, Stella, a blossoming ceramic artist, and your twins, Angus and Ronan, who are now heading for the HSC. I well remember you telling me about the highs and the odd low of home-schooling young teenage boys during the pandemic lockdown. I am sure that your darlings could not be more proud of you than they are today. You're definitely what I would call a home and hearth girl. You love to cook, and like many good cooks with a generous spirit, you're a feeder. One of your juniors says that there was always an offering of delicious food when he came to your place to work, and, of course, we've heard about your annual party. You have also famously been a carer for a menagerie of animals in need, ranging from fish to lizards, rabbits and cats and dogs and once even a fruit bat, which must have been a challenge. And now you have two cats, Hermes, who I think can best be described as a cat with attitude, and Hades, who you describe as your good cat.
And, of course, you're still a great reader. One of your favourite treats is heading off for an eco-friendly, tiny house getaway, somewhere gorgeous in the bush, with a stack of really good books, or heading off to Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, and I've seen a few photos of that, also with a stack of really good books to read. And you are also a Wordle fiend with a much better track record than I have. I understand that in the past you had a passion for horses and time spent getting out on the land and riding, but in more recent times, you've taken up bike riding as well, including - and I have to say I am in awe of this - multi-day bike rides. That is very impressive, and you must be very fit, and that's probably what doing Dry July does for you. Although, I understand that this year, Dry July is going to be deferred to Dry August because of all the richly deserved celebrations this month.
Your Honour, you have already made such a difference for the better. You're compassionate. You have an ability to get to the root of a problem and solve it. You have great attention to detail and a passion and commitment for service. I know you will be an excellent judge, and you will put these qualities to work for the benefit of those who come before you in this Court. Your Honour, on behalf of the legal profession, I congratulate you on your appointment and thank you for your continued service to our community. May it please the Court.
COLLIER J: Thank you. Justice Needham, can I invite you to reply.
NEEDHAM J: Thank you, Justice Collier. My fellow Judges of this Court, Mr Attorney, Mr Izzo, Mr Toomey and Ms Warner, looking fabulous, your Excellency and Mr Wilson, judicial colleagues, and friends, thank you so much for honouring me with your presence today. To those watching online, from my family around Australia and in the US, and friends all over the world, including Canada, the US, the UK and Fiji, thank you for braving technology and time zones. I'm grateful to Judge Given, Ms McLeod SC, Mr Moses SC, Mr Kelleher SC, my sister, Emma, and to Lynne Ashpole and others I can't identify, for not providing the speakers with too many details. I would like to briefly correct the record. Mr Toomey, I never said, "Daddy, I want a pony". I was this height when I was 15, and I said, "Mum there's a really lovely off-the-track thoroughbred. Let's go and get that". A much more receptive audience.
Before I make some further brief remarks, I too would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to all Elders past and present and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future. The Gadigal are the custodians of the land on which I have worked for almost my entire life and where I have lived for the past 27 years.
The Gadigal are a people of saltwater and sandstone, and it is fitting that we acknowledge them today so close to the waters of Sydney Harbour and the sandstone cliffs and buildings that surround us. Thinking of those cliffs and the buildings constructed from them, I'm reminded that my maternal great-grandfather was a stonemason who hewed the stone used in many of the sandstones of Macquarie Street. He lived and worked in Gosford and so took the stone from unceded land of the Darkinjung people to be used in buildings which were central to the exercise of colonisation.
I doubt that he thought much about that aspect, being a man of his time. My paternal grandfather was the head of the Anglican Board of Missions and while he wrote sympathetically in his book, White and Black in Australia, published in 1935, of the loss of the Aboriginal people's traditional lands and way of life, he was also a man of his time and part of the systematic removal of the Indigenous owners of the land from their homes and from their cultural traditions. Each of my forebears was recognised in his family and in society as a good man, and in pointing out these aspects I do not at all seek to desecrate their memory, but I make this acknowledgement of country in recognition of the unthinking darkness of the past and in the hope of a brighter and more thoughtful future.
As you have heard, I have been a barrister for a long time. I have, in fact, been a barrister for longer than I have not been a barrister. My work has taken me, as you've heard, to Samoa and to Fiji and all around Australia to every state and the two mainland territories. I have been briefed by sole practitioners, small suburban and city firms, boutique and top-tier law firms, as you've heard, including by Ms Warner, and by all manner of government entities. I've had the privilege of acting in some extraordinary cases. You've heard about the reinstatement of a seeing-eye dog to her owner.
And I've also scuttled a warship. Last year I assisted Coroner Grahame, who I believe is here today, at an inquest into the death of an Indigenous man during a police operation, and followed that by acting for the New South Wales Commissioner of Police in the inquiry into the conviction of the Croatian Six. Such is the fine tradition of the Bar of “servants of all, yet of none”. I've acted in estates worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and I've been instructed by the Gilbert + Tobin pro bono team for the father of a young man who died far from home and whose parents were disputing how he should be put to rest in the context of his Maori heritage.
Practice at the Bar enables this kind of roving intellectual independence, and I've loved it, but now I must put my skills to a different use. My favourite songwriter, Billy Bragg, wrote of the three great attributes of a wife being intelligence, a Swiss Army knife, and charm. And if one substitutes Odgers on Evidence for a Swiss Army knife, I think those are the requirements for not only a good barrister but also a good Judge. I've already been issued the 19th edition of Odgers by the Court's very efficient library staff, and so I'm well on my way.
The Federal Court is a young Court even by Australian standards. But like other Courts in the common law world, it builds on the legacy of the English Court system which dates back to 1285, or nearly to time immemorial. And I say "nearly" because time immemorial is defined by the Statute of Westminster 1275 as being the period prior to 3 September 1189, on the basis that in 1275 it is possible that a man was told by his father of things that happened as far back as 1189, but not before.
And I use that gender-specific language intentionally. It reflects the language of the men who wrote the laws for other men to be bound by. Courts were, of course, built as institutions by men for men, perhaps not with the intention of an exclusion of women, but definitely with that effect. Women doctors, lawyers, academics, parliamentarians and, indeed, most women, spend their lives working in institutions which were not constructed for or by them.
The barriers faced by women, and by those of diverse backgrounds, and those with neurodivergence or disability, are not necessarily obvious to those for whom the institutions were designed. It may seem strange, as I sit here surrounded by a good percentage of women judges, to say that progress has been painfully slow. But women in New South Wales have been entitled to practise since 1918 with the passage of the Women's Legal Status Act. I'm concentrating on New South Wales, because I don't want to admit that we were the second-last state to let women practise.
I find it astounding that I've been a contemporary of so many of the FW2 club – and that's copyright the Honourable Ruth McColl AO SC – for the “first woman to” – in her case, to lead the New South Wales Bar Association. There are a number of members of this club here today, and I'm very happy to see you all. The Chief Justice of this court is, in that capacity, a recent member of the club.
Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, Margaret Beazley AC KC is another, the first woman judge of this court and first woman president of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. She was also my first woman barrister role model, appearing in court pregnant with her third child when I was an associate and a law student. A pregnant silk! I could hardly believe it. But there she was being highly competent, despite it. In later years, I tried to best her by being a silk whilst pregnant with twins, but I have a feeling that's as far as my FW2 credentials go.
It is, of course, the 200th anniversary of the New South Wales Supreme Court this year. But the first woman barrister in New South Wales, Ada Evans, was only admitted to that court in 1921, and she never practised. The first woman to practise in New South Wales as a barrister was Sybil Morrison, who was admitted 100 years ago.
I have at home a collection of magazines called The Girl's Own Annual, which were published between 1880 and the mid-1930s. It is a really interesting window into the way in which women viewed their own lives, akin perhaps today to browsing Instagram. In the 1924 volume, I had to search long and hard for articles on career aspirations, but I found one.
It was in between an article on butterflies as pets (I have no butterflies as pets) and instructions on how to make a cushion cover in darned huckaback (perhaps the Bar Knitting Club will get onto that) and it was above an ad for a book of Practical Helpfulness for Those Whose Nerves are Troublesome. That one may be useful to Justice Katzmann and her interest in judicial wellbeing.
The article is entitled I'm Going to Be a Nurse! Points a Would-be Probationer Should Consider. There is, unsurprisingly, nothing in that article about forcing your way as the only woman into a male-dominated world. But there is some helpful advice: that the ward bathroom is recognised as the place where a new nurse weeps. Thankfully, my new chambers comes with an ensuite.
When I was admitted in 1990, one of the first 10 women to come to the bar, Janet Coombs, was still then practising. The New South Wales Bar Association website has a chronological listing of its women members. For reference, I was number 238; Mary Gaudron was number 21; and Jane Mathews number 23. Now women make around 26 per cent of barristers, and the most recent figures show 15 per cent of women silks. I think that may have dropped down to 14 point something with my appointment and that of Belinda Riggs. These are the numbers we're talking about. That is not enough. After more than 100 years, it is not just a matter of time until equality is reached. Things need to change.
I have very much valued my work in Royal Commission inquiries and inquests and as President of the New South Wales Bar, because I was privileged in those roles to be a small part of institutional change. Working for the Truth, Justice and Healing Council in the McClellan Royal Commission, I was advising the Catholic Church, an institution which measures its history in millennia rather than decades, when it was struggling with its history and trying to respond to the Royal Commission in a constructive way. I recall inquiring as to how long a particular custom - from memory, it was infant baptism, but Mr Kelleher SC or Ms Harrison might correct me - how long it had been in force, and I was told it was relatively recent, dating only from the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563.
Barristers were first recognised, as men learned in the law, in 1532. It is no cause for surprise that men have found the bar easier to navigate than women. As Mr Toomey and Mr Izzo have mentioned, as bar president, I was able to work with other councillors for small gains such as equitable briefing and access to childcare as well as working with the Courts on their procedures for ensuring that caring responsibilities were given the same importance as professional ones.
While these were seen at the time as changes which benefited only women, increasingly, men are availing themselves of flexibility and parenting opportunities, making the workplace fairer and more accessible to all. The way in which women face barriers which men generally do not was brought explosively into the public eye with the sexual harassment investigation in the High Court. I was asked to do some media at that time, and I was contacted as a result by a number of men who were keen to know how they could help. My advice to them remains advice to anyone who is interested in assisting our institutions to become safer and more welcoming places for women: be an ally. As a start, you could adopt the Law Council's equitable briefing policy and look around to see what practical good you can do.
That young woman who went to a school you haven't heard of, or may have a name you might find difficult to pronounce, has overcome obstacles that you may not have even noticed were there. Bring her into a case, give her some mentorship, listen to her story. I can guarantee she's at the bar because she's smart and tenacious, so please give her a go. Institutions in the process of change need strong leadership, such as that of Chief Justice Kiefel, and I'm seeing that under Chief Justice Mortimer's leadership as I'm being inducted into the mysteries of the Federal Court. Well-being and flexibility and respect are core features of this induction, something I'm pretty sure was not the case when my father was sworn in as a Judge nearly 50 years ago, and I have here on the Bench one of the Bibles on which he was sworn in as Probate Judge.
His speech at his swearing-in is striking in he did not mention his family except to note that the last judicial Needham he could find was Sir John Needham, who was a Justice of Chester in 1461 and later sat on the King's bench. Again, he was a man of his time. As Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote for Eliza Hamilton, I would like to put my mother back in the narrative. To be fair, my mother was mentioned at the swearing-in. The president of the Law Society, Mr Loxton, referred to my father's “great good fortune of a wife who is, herself, no mean lawyer.” Almost sounds Austen like doesn't it? And he said he knew this because he had worked with her within the same firm of solicitors. My mother studied law because her father advised her that after World War II, there would not be enough men to go around, and she needed something to keep herself.
She worked with the legendary Ken Tribe and then at Allen's, as we've heard, until she could not, by the standards of the day, work any more, because she had my brother Sam followed by myself and my three younger siblings, Emma, William and Matt, and she did not work in the law again. But later when we left home, she became interested in her family history, and she wrote a book on the women transported to Australia on the 1790 convict transport, the Neptune, known familiarly in our family as the Neppies, and from two of whom my family is descended. That book drew on her legal training. She investigated the circumstances in which each of the women was convicted, and noted in some cases deficits in procedure or substantive law such as a failure to take into account the presumption that a woman who committed a crime in concert with her husband did so under duress. It is a work of scholarly research in clear, concise prose, the work of “no mean lawyer”.
I, on the other hand, am not at all constrained in noting in public how much I value and rely on the support of my family. I had a loving relationship with both of my parents, and I miss both of them very much. I still think of things I would like to tell them daily, such as, "Guess who's a Judge now?" I speak almost weekly with my siblings Sam, Emma and Bill, and their families, thanks to the wonder of Zoom, and that is a product of our parents's legacy and the strength of the bonds of the family that they built. As you've heard, my three children are here today, and I'm immensely proud of the kind and interesting humans they have become. I know that their father, Joe, is as proud of them as I am.
My daughter, Stella, is a talented Ceramic Artist and Pottery Teacher. She is fierce and funny, and my world is so much better for having her in it. She is stepping out into her life as a young adult, and I am looking forward to seeing where she will go. I should note that since I dragged her to welcomes and swearings in during her school holidays when I was President, she has firmly held the view that I should have one of my own. Not for the boring speeches but for the morning teas. So let's hope it's everything you've dreamed of.
My sons, Ronan and Angus, are in their final year at school and are smart and amusing and loving, and I'm proud to be bringing up such excellent young men. Ronan is considering a career in software development and Angus in environmental science. The wig stops here. I'm excited to think of the possibilities that lie in wait for them after the HSC. So after morning tea, it's back to study. I hope that your chosen careers, whatever they may be, will be as interesting and exciting as mine has been.
I would also like to acknowledge my professional mentors. I had excellent training as my father's associate, as Mr Toomey has noted, learning from his lucid writing style and his insistence that one should always first look at the legislation. I had wonderful tutors, Stephen Walmsley, who I'm happy to say is here today, and the late Lindsay Foster, a Judge of this court. I joined the 13th Floor of St James Hall on the encouragement of some of my lecturers at UTS, and I had a happy professional home there. And I'm sorry that Terry Tobin KC, our floor leader for so many years, is unable to attend today.
It is nicely fitting that my last case at the Bar was leading Simon Chapple SC, whom I led probably more than anyone. I enjoyed working with him notably in our case in Samoa but not against him because he knows me too well and knows how I think. He is now the lucky employer of my Executive Assistant, Belinda Anderson, who has run my life with a mixture of efficiency and fun for the last four years. A lot of the credit for feeding people in Chambers does go to Belinda. To her and to my Clerk, Eugenie Crosby, and her predecessors and our excellent junior staff, I'm very much indebted for making my working life happy and productive.
My floor colleagues have provided me with wonderful friendship and support, and I will miss you all. It's trite to say that the Bar is a collegiate way to practice. I note, in particular, Fiona McLeod SC and her family who have come from Melbourne for this ceremonial sitting. I'm happy to have gained Fiona as a friend while we faced headwinds in our respective leadership roles in our State Bar associations. Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson wins the prize for furthest distance travelled having changed her plans and flown back from Sweden. Thank you, sister.
But this room is full of friends from Summer Hill - sorry - Summer Hill share house days, from my studying and teaching days at UTS, from Mothers Group and Darlo Public School, and High School Mums, Pilates practitioners, neighbours, Wordlers, triviateers, my bike wife, and many lawyers who have made the journey from instructors and colleagues to friends. And I would be here forever if we named you all. So I'm particularly happy to see so many women practitioners, and indeed children of women practitioners - enjoy the morning tea - who've come along today to welcome me.
As my second favourite songwriter, Taylor Swift, said - don't laugh. She's amazing - "I've had the time of my life fighting dragons with you". As much as I will miss the Bar, its camaraderie and its intellectual stimulation, I am already enjoying this new post-dragon-fighting chapter and I am looking forward to being part of a different institution undergoing a change for the better. Thank you.
COLLIER J: Thank you, your Honour. As Justice Needham has already mentioned, the Federal Court will be putting on morning tea. We're about to adjourn. The Court Officer will give you the details of where to go. I look forward to seeing you all there.
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