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Chief Justice, 22 May 1998 to 29 August 2008
Murray Gleeson (b.1938), Australia’s 11th High Court Chief Justice, was known for his exacting cross examination, dry wit, and elegant argumentation, ‘that many other lawyers could only hope to attain in their written submissions’.1
Born in Wingham, NSW, Gleeson was educated at St Joseph’s College in Sydney, where he won the Lawrence Campbell Oratory Competition in 1953 and 1955.2 He studied Arts and Law at the University of Sydney and was a classmate of future High Court Justice Michael Kirby. Gleeson graduated in 1962 with first-class honours and was called to the Bar in 1963. He married Robyn Paterson in 1965, and they had four children. Their eldest daughter, Jacqueline, was appointed to the High Court in October 2020.3
His early practice focused on commercial and taxation law, with Gleeson appearing at the High Court from his first year. He took silk in 1974 and ‘his career as a senior counsel remains second to none’.4 A leader at the NSW Bar, his senior practice expanded to take on constitutional cases. Indeed, ‘the law reports record his dominance of appellate and other High Court cases, but his standing was based equally on his impact at trial’.5 Gleeson appeared for former Prime Minister William McMahon, arguing that political debate should not be ‘subjected to judicial scrutiny under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918’.6 In 1984, Gleeson became president of the NSW Bar Association and took steps to modernise legal practice. In 1986, he was appointed an AO.
In 1988, Gleeson was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW, the first barrister to be directly appointed as Chief Justice in over 50 years. It was a difficult decade during which the Court faced several administrative challenges and increased public scrutiny. Gleeson weathered each storm with ‘his characteristic dry wit and mordant understatement’.7 He was made an AC in 1992.
In 1998, Gleeson was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia by Prime Minister John Howard. The Gleeson Court ruled on a number of important constitutional issues including industrial relations (Work Choices),8 migration,9 and, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the USA on 9/11, national security.10 The Court was characterised by an emphasis on the ‘text and structure’ of the Constitution.11 The Gleeson Court tended to characterise ‘the common law as a single Australian system of law rather than separate state systems’.12
Gleeson was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 and retired on 29 August 2008, a day before his 70th birthday, the mandatory retirement age. He has subsequently become the patron of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Australia13 and a non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.14 Gleeson was the first Chief Justice not to be knighted, with Australia dispensing with Imperial honours in 1989.
Robert Lyall Hannaford AM
South Australian-born painter, sculptor and conservationist Robert Hannaford (b.1944) grew up on his family farm before moving to Adelaide in his teens to complete his education. He worked as a political cartoonist for the Advertiser from 1964 to 1967. Though largely self-taught, Hannaford’s passion for painting was encouraged by Australian artists and mentors, Hans Heysen and Ivor Hele. In 1967 and 1968, Hannaford attended the Ballarat Technical Art School, under the control of the School of Mines, and from 1969 to 1973 was the winner of the AME Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize. Hannaford has been at the forefront of contemporary Australian portraiture, winning the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 1990, the Viewer Prize in 1991 and 1998, and was a frequent finalist in the Archibald Prize. He also painted Prime Minister Paul Keating for the HMC. In 2001, he was commissioned to paint the centenary sitting of the Australian Parliament. Hannaford’s portraits of other prominent Australians include Chief Justice Murray Gleeson, Dame Joan Sutherland and Governor-General Sir William Deane. Hannaford was made an AM in 2014 for his service to the arts.15
(Anthony) Murray Gleeson
by Robert Lyall Hannaford
2000
Oil on canvas
124 x 90 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, High Court of Australia
References
1. B Walker, ‘Gleeson, Murray (Anthony Gleeson)’, in T Blackshield, M Coper and G Williams, eds, The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, 2001, p. 305.
2. ‘A voice for the voiceless’, Joeys Jottings, St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, accessed 14 September, 2021.
3. E Byrne, ‘Jacqueline Gleeson, daughter of Australia’s former chief justice, sworn in as 55th High Court Judge’, ABC News, 1 March 2021, accessed 14 September 2021.
4. Walker, op. cit.
5. Ibid.
6. ‘Evans v Crichton-Browne’ [1981], High Court of Australia, HCA 14; 147 CLR 169, accessed 14 September 2021.
7. Walker, op. cit.
8. ‘New South Wales v Commonwealth of Australia’ [2006], High Court of Australia, HCA 52; 229 CLR 1, accessed 29 September 2021.
9. ‘Re Woolley’ [2004], High Court of Australia, HCA 49; 225 CLR 1, accessed 29 September 2021.
10. ‘Thomas v Mowbray’ [2007], High Court of Australia, HCA 33; 233 CLR 307, accessed 29 September 2021.
11. L Zines, ‘Gleeson Court’ in Blackshield et al., op. cit.
12. Ibid.
13. ‘Patron and Trustee’, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, accessed 14 September 2021.
14. The Honourable Mr Justice Anthony Murray Gleeson, GBS’, ‘The Judges’, Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, accessed 14 September 2021.
15. ‘Hannaford, Robert’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 496; ‘Robert Hannaford’, High Court of Australia; ‘Robert Hannaford: artist statement’; ‘Robert Hannaford’, National Portrait Gallery, 2018. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.