fbpx
Wikipedia

Lionel Murphy

Lionel Keith Murphy QC (30 August 1922 – 21 October 1986) was an Australian politician, barrister, and judge. He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1962 to 1975, serving as Attorney-General in the Whitlam government, and then sat on the High Court from 1975 until his death.

Lionel Murphy
Murphy in 1970
Justice of the High Court of Australia
In office
10 February 1975 – 21 October 1986
Nominated byGough Whitlam
Appointed bySir John Kerr
Preceded bySir Douglas Menzies
Succeeded byJohn Toohey
Attorney-General of Australia
In office
19 December 1972 – 9 February 1975
Prime MinisterGough Whitlam
Preceded byGough Whitlam[a]
Succeeded byKep Enderby
Leader of the Government in the Senate
In office
2 December 1972 – 9 February 1975
Acting: 2 December — 19 December 1972
Preceded byKen Anderson
Succeeded byKen Wriedt
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
In office
8 February 1967 – 5 December 1972
Preceded byDon Willesee
Succeeded byReg Withers
Senator for New South Wales
In office
1 July 1962 – 9 February 1975
Preceded byJohn McCallum
Succeeded byCleaver Bunton
Personal details
Born
Lionel Keith Murphy

(1922-08-30)30 August 1922
Kensington, New South Wales, Australia
Died21 October 1986(1986-10-21) (aged 64)
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Political partyLabor
Spouse(s)Nina Morrow (née Vishegor-odsky; known as Svidersky)
Ingrid Gee (née Grzonkowski)
EducationUniversity of Sydney

Murphy was born in Sydney, and attended Sydney Boys High School before matriculating at the University of Sydney. He initially graduated with a degree in chemistry, but then went on to Sydney Law School and eventually became a barrister. He specialised in labour and industrial law, and took silk in 1960. Murphy was elected to the Senate at the 1961 federal election, as a member of the Labor Party. He became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in 1967.

Following Labor's victory at the 1972 federal election, Gough Whitlam appointed Murphy as Attorney-General and Minister for Customs and Excise. He oversaw a number of reforms, establishing the Family Court of Australia, the Law Reform Commission, and the Australian Institute of Criminology, and developing the Family Law Act 1975, which fully established no-fault divorce. He also authorised the 1973 Murphy raids on ASIO. In 1975, following the death of Douglas Menzies, Murphy was appointed to the High Court. He is the most recent politician to be appointed to the court.

On the court, Murphy was known for his radicalism and judicial activism. However, his final years were marred by persistent allegations of corruption. He was convicted of perverting the course of justice in 1985, but had the conviction overturned on appeal and was acquitted at a second trial. In 1986, a commission was established to determine whether he was fit to remain on the court, but it was abandoned when Murphy announced that he was suffering from terminal cancer.

Early life and education Edit

Murphy was the youngest of five sons, and sixth of seven children of William, a native of County Tipperary, and Lily Murphy. He was born and grew up in Sydney.[1] Though the Murphy household was Irish Catholic,[2] albeit estranged from the Church,[3] Murphy became a humanist and rationalist.

He was educated at government schools in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs, including Kensington Public School in Kensington, where he was dux after repeating his final year in 1935,[3] and Sydney Boys High School from 1936–40[4] in nearby Moore Park, graduating with A levels in English, Mathematics, and Chemistry and B levels in Physics and French.[1] After completing his secondary education, in 1941, Murphy matriculated to the University of Sydney, though he had not been successful in gaining a university scholarship awarded to the top 100 in the state. His initial scholastic performance was ordinary and he briefly considered transferring to study a Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology at the Faculty of Arts.[1]

Murphy excelled in his final year, graduating from the School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Organic Chemistry.[5] In 1943, he commenced working in the chemical industry, thereby coming under the authority of the wartime Manpower Directorate.[5]

In 1945, Murphy commenced studying law at the Sydney Law School of the University of Sydney and, in 1949, graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours.[1] While at the University of Sydney, during both his science and law degrees, Murphy was politically and socially active and was involved in the Students' Chemistry Society, the Junior Science Association, and the Science Association.[1]

In 1944, in his third year of his science degree, Murphy was elected to the Students' Representative Council but was dismissed two hours after his election victory, on a "constitutional technicality".[5] This event is said to have cemented his interest in politics and law, and he commenced participating in the university's debating society and its monthly debates the following year.[5]

Legal career Edit

Unusually, two years prior to his graduating with and possessing a law degree, Murphy passed the Barristers' Admission Board examination and was admitted to the New South Wales Bar Association in 1947.[5] After graduating from the University of Sydney Faculty of Law, Murphy took up residence in University Chambers, Phillip Street and then moved to the fourth floor of Wentworth Chambers.[3] He rapidly established himself as a labour/industrial lawyer, representing left-wing unionists.[5]

In 1960, he was appointed as a Queen's Counsel.[3]

Parliamentary career Edit

Murphy was a member of the Australian Labor Party from an early age. In the Senate pre-selection convention in the Sydney Trades Hall in April 1960, he had the backing of Ray Gietzelt but lacked factional endorsement. However, he drew first position in addressing the delegates and won support with an impassioned but well-structured and infectiously optimistic seven-minute speech on the Labor Party's historical commitment to civil liberties and human rights.[6] He was elected to the Australian Senate in 1961, and, in 1967, he was elected Opposition Leader in the Senate.[7]

Attorney-Generalship Edit

In 1969, Labor Leader Gough Whitlam appointed him Shadow Attorney-General and, when Labor won the 1972 election, he became Attorney-General and Minister for Customs and Excise.[8] One of Murphy's more dramatic actions as Attorney-General was his sudden visit to the Melbourne headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) on 16 March 1973. This came about because ASIO officers were unable to satisfy his requests for information concerning intelligence on supposed terrorist groups operated by the Ustaše in Australia. Murphy's concern about the matter was heightened by the impending visit to Australia of the Yugoslav Prime Minister Džemal Bijedić. ASIO officers claimed not to be able to locate the file with which to properly brief Murphy. Murphy's belief was that, though a security service was an important part of the Australian social fabric, like any other arm of executive government it must be accountable to the relevant Minister.[9] According to journalist George Negus, then Murphy's press secretary: "Lionel had asked for the files of the six most dangerous or subversive people in Australia". When the files arrived, Murphy found they were of several Communist Party (CPA) unionists and people such as CPA leader and peace movement activist Mavis Robertson. When he told Whitlam, they both laughed.[10]

Murphy was highly involved in the behind-the-scenes machinations and parliamentary debates around the appointment of DLP Senator Vince Gair as Ambassador to Ireland in 1974 (see Gair Affair), which preceded Whitlam's calling of a double dissolution election for May 1974.

Murphy's most important legislative achievement was the Family Law Act 1975, which completely overhauled Australia's law on divorce and other family law matters. It established the principle of "no-fault divorce", in the face of opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and many other individuals and organisations. This act also established the Family Court of Australia.[11]

Civil Celebrants Edit

 
Lois D'Arcy was the first independent civil marriage celebrant ever appointed — by Attorney-General Lionel Murphy. Her appointment is dated 19 July 1973.

Murphy used an existing provision of the Marriage Act 1961 (Section 39C) to establish the Civil Marriage Celebrant programme. Using this provision he appointed about a hundred Civil Celebrants and urged them to provide marriage ceremonies of dignity, meaning and substance for non-church people. It was an initiative opposed by the Australian Labor Party, the public servants of his department and his personal staff.

The civil celebrant program is almost entirely the result of one man’s vision. Murphy himself told me the story of how he was opposed by his own staff, the public service, his fellow Members of Parliament s and officials of the Labour Party. He defied all, and, on July 19, 1973, in the dead of night typed the first appointment himself, found the envelope and stamp, walked to a post box and posted it himself. Lois D’Arcy, carries the honour of being appointed the first genuinely independent civil celebrant in Australia, and actually in all the world.[12]

Although it was a radical move at the time, the programme proved to be very successful. In 2015, 74.9 per cent of marrying couples in Australia chose a civil marriage celebrant to officiate.[13] The programme broadened to include secular funerals of substance, namings and other ceremonies which celebrated the landmarks of human existence. Murphy took an enthusiastic interest in this programme - sending telegrams of congratulation to the first several hundred couples married by civil celebrants and would often unexpectedly turn up uninvited to weddings performed by celebrants to delight in his achievement.[14]

Human Rights Bill Edit

As Attorney-General, Murphy drew up a Human Rights Bill (which lapsed with the double dissolution of 1974) giving as among the reasons: "in criminal law, our protections against detention for interrogation and unreasonable search and seizure, for access to counsel and to ensure the segregation of different categories of prisoners are inadequate. Australian laws on the powers of the police, the rights of an accused person and the state of the penal system generally are unsatisfactory. Our privacy laws are vague and ineffective. There are few effective constraints on the gathering of information, or its disclosure, or surveillance, against unwanted publicity by government, the media or commercial organisations".[15] Murphy also introduced important legislation substantially abolishing appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, removing censorship, providing freedom of access to government information, reforming corporations and trade practices law, protecting the environment, abolishing the death penalty and outlawing racial and other discrimination.

 
Atmospheric nuclear explosion in the Pacific. Murphy took the French Government to the International Court of Justice over nuclear tests at Mururoa.

Furthermore, Murphy established a systematic legal aid service for all courts, set up the Australian Law Reform Commission with Michael Kirby as its inaugural chairman and set up the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Murphy took the French Government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protest against its nuclear tests in the Pacific.[16] The French government conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear tests at Mururoa after 1966 and formally ceased atmospheric nuclear testing in 1974 as a result of public pressure facilitated by Murphy's ICJ case.[17]

Judicial career Edit

 
High Court of Australia. Murphy served as a High Court justice from 1975 to 1986.

In February 1975, Whitlam appointed Murphy to a vacancy on the High Court of Australia. He was the first serving Labor politician appointed to the Court since Dr. H. V. Evatt in 1931 and the appointment was bitterly criticised. He resigned from the Senate on 9 February 1975 to take up the appointment.[18] Murphy was the last High Court justice to have served as a Member of Parliament, and the last politician appointed to the High Court. Additionally, Murphy was one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the Court, along with Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs, H. B. Higgins, Edward McTiernan, John Latham, and Garfield Barwick.

Although it did not become a constitutional requirement until 1977, it had been long-standing convention that a Senate casual vacancy be filled by a person from the same political party. However, on 27 February 1975, the Premier of New South Wales, Tom Lewis, controversially appointed Cleaver Bunton, a person with no political affiliations, to replace Murphy in the Senate, beginning the chain of events which led to the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. These events provided the impetus for the 1977 constitutional change that ensures such an appointment cannot be repeated, although a State Government can still achieve a similar result by declining to fill a Senate vacancy. Soon after his appointment to the bench, Murphy visited Justice Menzies' old chambers in Taylor Square, which would now be his. Staring at the volumes of British law reports on the shelves behind his desk, he said, "I want all of these to go". He replaced them with decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States.[19]

Court cases and death Edit

In the summer of 1983/84, during the term of the first Hawke government, both The National Times and The Age published transcripts of telephone conversations illegally recorded from 1979-81 by the New South Wales Police.[20] Although not then authenticated, they were allegedly between Murphy and Sydney lawyer Morgan Ryan, who in 1982 faced charges of forgery and conspiracy.[21][22]

In July 1985, Murphy was initially convicted on one of two charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice, over new allegations made by Clarrie Briese, the Chief Magistrate of New South Wales, that Murphy had attempted to influence a court case against Morgan Ryan, whom Murphy referred to as "my little mate".[21] A subsequent appeal to the NSW Court of Appeals quashed Murphy's conviction on the grounds that the trial judge had misdirected the jury. A second trial was then held and, on 28 April 1986, Murphy was found not guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice.[23] After his acquittal, Murphy said, "Thank heavens for the jury system!".[1]: p.305 (2000 edition) 

Attorney-General Lionel Bowen, acting on what he said was his belief that the Justices of the High Court were minded to take some independent action to assess Justice Murphy's fitness to return to the Court, introduced legislation for a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, consisting of three retired judges, to examine "whether any conduct of the Honourable Lionel Keith Murphy has been such as to amount, in its opinion, to proved misbehaviour within the meaning of section 72 of the Constitution". (Section 72 specifies that a High Court judge may be removed only by the Governor-General and both houses of Parliament "on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity".) The terms of this inquiry specifically excluded the issues for which Murphy had already been tried and acquitted.[1]: ch.20 

The legislation establishing the Commission of Inquiry received assent in May 1986. In July, Murphy announced that he was dying of terminal cancer, and the establishing legislation was repealed.[24] The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate were given control of the Commission's documents. Murphy returned to the Court for one week of sittings. He died on 21 October 1986.[1]: ch.20 

Personal life Edit

Murphy had a distinctive profile and a large nose that was broken in a 1950 car accident in England and left largely untreated.[3]

In July 1954, he married Russian-born Nina Morrow (née Vishegorodsky; known as Svidersky), a comptometrist, at St John's Church in Darlinghurst, Sydney.[citation needed] Their daughter, Lorel Katherine, was born in 1955. In 1967, Murphy's marriage to Nina ended in divorce.[citation needed]

In 1969, Murphy married Ingrid Gee (née Grzonkowski), a model and television quiz-show compère who had been born in German-occupied Poland. They had two sons, Cameron and Blake. Cameron was President of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties from 1999 to 2013. Ingrid died in October 2007.[25]

In 2021, the ABC investigative series Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire aired an allegation that Murphy and NSW Premier Neville Wran had conspired with organised crime figure Abe Saffron to help Saffron’s relatives obtain the Luna Park lease after the 1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire, which caused the deaths of six children and an adult.[26]

Judicial quotes Edit

The history of the Aboriginal people of Australia since European settlement is that they have been the subject of unprovoked aggression, conquest, pillage, rape, brutalisation, attempted genocide and systematic and unsystematic destruction of their culture…a law aimed at the preservation, or the uncovering, of evidence about their history is a special law with respect to the people of this race.[27]

  • Freedom of religion:

Religious freedom is a fundamental theme of our society. That freedom has been asserted by men and women throughout history by resisting the attempts of government, through its legislative, executive or judicial branches, to define or impose beliefs or practices of religion. Whenever the legislature prescribes what religion is, or permits or requires the executive or judiciary to determine what religion is, this poses a threat to religious freedom. Religious discrimination by officials or by courts is unacceptable in a free society… In the eyes of the law, religions are equal. There is no religious club with a monopoly of State privileges for its members. The policy of the law is "one in, all in".[28]

The faith of members of various religions has inspired concern for others which has often been reflected in humanitarian and charitable works. However, the claim to be the one true faith has resulted in great intolerance and persecution. Because of this, the history of many religions includes a ghastly record of persecution and torture of non-believers. Hundreds of millions of people have been slaughtered in the name of god, love and peace. In the effort to uphold "the one true faith" courts have often been instruments for the repression of blasphemers, heretics and witches…Most organised religions have been riddled with commercialism, this being an integral part of the drive by their leaders for social authority and power in conformity with the "iron law of oligarchy".[29]

  • Freedom of speech:

The absence of a constitutional guarantee does not mean that Australia should accept judicial inroads upon freedom of speech which are not found necessary or desirable in other countries. At stake is not merely the freedom of one person; it is the freedom of everyone to comment rightly or wrongly on the decisions of the courts in a way that does not constitute a clear and present danger to the administration of justice.[30]

  • Trial by jury:

The Constitution s.80 states: "The trial on indictment of any offence against any law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury…" This Court has construed this section to mean that if there be no indictment there must be a jury but there is nothing to compel procedure by indictment…In a famous dissent Dixon and Evatt JJ described this construction as a mockery of the Constitution and considered that anyone charged with any serious offence against the laws of the Commonwealth was entitled to trial by jury (Lowenstein (1938) 59 CLR 556, 582).[31]

The jury is a strong antidote to the elitist tendencies of the legal system. It is "the means by which the people participate in the administration of justice" (Jackson v the Queen (1976) 134 CLR 42 at 54). The greatest respect should be given by appeal courts to jury verdicts and any attempt to downgrade the jury to a mere nominal or symbolic role should be restricted.[32]

 
Gordon Dam in South West Tasmania World Heritage Area.

Preservation of the world's natural heritage:

Suppose that in the next few decades, because of the continuing rapid depletion of the world's forests and its effect on the rest of the biosphere, the survival of all living creatures becomes endangered. This is not a fanciful supposition… Suppose the United Nations were to request all nations to do whatever they could to preserve the existing forests. Let us assume that no obligation was created (because firewood was essential for the immediate survival of people of some nations). I would have no doubt that the Australian Parliament could, under the external affairs power, comply with that request by legislating to prevent the destruction of any forest.[33]

The world's cultural and natural heritage is, of its own nature, part of Australia's external affairs. It is the heritage of Australians, as part of humanity, as well as the heritage of those where the items happen to be.[34]

  • Constitutional prohibition of slavery:

It would not be constitutionally permissible for the Parliament of Australia or any of the States to create or authorise slavery or serfdom. The reason lies in the nature of our Constitution. It is a Constitution for a free society.[35]

The Australian Constitution "contains an implication of a free society which limits Parliament's authority to impose civil conscription".[36]

The preservation of the world's heritage must not be looked at in isolation but as part of the co-operation between nations which is calculated to achieve intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind and so reinforce the bonds between people which promote peace and displace those of narrow nationalism and alienation which promote war… The encouragement of people to think internationally, to regard the culture of their own country as part of world culture, to conceive a physical, spiritual and intellectual world heritage, is important in the endeavour to avoid the destruction of humanity.[37]

Public statements that the courts are involved in the class struggle may tend to impair confidence in the courts (and amount to criminal contempt on the Dunbabin standard) but do not constitute any clear and present danger to the administration of justice. If all those who advocate that the courts are involved in the class struggle were to be imprisoned for criminal contempt there would not be enough gaols.[38]

  • Right to vote:

Section 41 is one of the few guarantees of the rights of persons in the Australian Constitution. It should be given the purposive interpretation which accords with its plain words, with its context of other provisions of unlimited duration, and its contrast with transitional provisions. Constitutions are to be read broadly and not pedantically. Guarantees of personal rights should not be read narrowly. A right to vote is so precious that it should not [be] read out of the constitution by implication. Rather every reasonable presumption and interpretation should be adopted which favours the right of people to participate in the elections of those who represent them."[39]

The privilege against compulsory self-incrimination is part of the common law of human rights. It is based on the desire to protect personal freedom and human dignity. These social values justify the impediment the privilege presents to judicial or other investigation… It is society's acceptance of the inviolability of the human personality… The history and reasons for the privilege do not justify its extension to artificial persons such as corporations or political entities.[40]

Because the privilege is such an important human right, an intent to exclude or qualify the privilege will not be imputed to a legislature unless the intent is conveyed in unmistakable language.[41]

  • Legal professional privilege:

The privilege is commonly described as legal professional privilege, which is unfortunate, because it suggests that the privilege is that of the members of the legal profession, which it is not. It is the client's privilege, so that it may be waived by the client, but not by the lawyer… Its rationale is no longer the oath and honour of the lawyer as a gentleman… It is now supported as a "necessary corollary of fundamental, constitutional or human rights".[42]

  • Acquisition of property on just terms:

…the extinction or limitation of property rights does not amount to acquisition. The transfer of property from one person to another, not the Commonwealth, does not amount to an acquisition within par. xxxi. Unless the Commonwealth gains some property from the State or person, there is no acquisition within the paragraph."[27]

  • Control of multinational corporations:

There may be circumstances where Australia's relationship with persons or groups who are not nation States, is part of external affairs. The existence of powerful transnational corporations, international trade unions and other groups who can affect Australia, means that Australia's external affairs, as a matter of practicality, are not confined to relations with other nation states."[33]

Legacy Edit

 
Large Magellanic Cloud, containing SNR N86.

In addition to his work as a legislator, Murphy also took a lifelong interest in science, having first studied science, then law, at the University of Sydney. Justice Michael Kirby identified Murphy's later scientific reading as "a positive influence on his approach to jurisprudence".[43]

"Lionel Murphy SNR" Edit

N86 is a nitrogen-abundant supernova remnant (SNR) N86 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was dubbed the "Lionel-Murphy SNR" by astronomers at the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory in acknowledgement of Murphy's interest in science and because of SNR N86's perceived resemblance to a Canberra Times cartoonist's depiction of his large nose (prior to surgery), and a picture was hung in his office.[44]

A supernova remnant (SNR) results from the gigantic explosion of a star, the resulting supernova expelling much or all of the stellar material with velocities as much as 1% the speed of light and forming a shock wave that can heat the gas up to temperatures as high as 10 million K, forming a plasma.[45]

Murphy normally rejected public honours (such as a knighthood) but accepted this because of the symbolic resemblance to his own impact on human rights in Australian law and its lasting significance as a "signpost" to space travellers.[46] Murphy asked for a large mounted photo of SNR N86 from the scientific paper and placed it in his High Court chambers in the place where the other High Court justices usually hung a portrait of the Queen.[47]

Lionel Murphy Foundation Edit

The Lionel Murphy Foundation was co-founded by Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran, and Ray Gietzelt in 1986.[48] It funds postgraduate scholarships for students who "intend to pursue a postgraduate degree in science, law or legal studies, or other appropriate discipline" with a commitment to social justice.[49]

Judicial philosophy and legacy Edit

Mary Gaudron, who herself would become a justice of the High Court, stated at Lionel Murphy's Memorial Service at Sydney Town Hall:

There are so many words – reformist, radical, humanitarian, civil libertarian, egalitarian, democrat — they are all abstractions. My words are no better; but, for me, and perhaps for those of us who believe in justice based on practical equality, Lionel Murphy was – Lionel Murphy is – the electric light of the Law. He would take an ordinary old abstraction – like equal justice — he would expose it, he would illuminate the abstraction, he would make its form stark, and so he could then say as he did in McInnis' case, these words: "Where the kind of trial a person receives depends on the amount of money he or she has, there is no equal justice".[50][51]

Law professor Jack Goldring concluded that Murphy's approach as a High Court judge was "marked by a number of features: a strong nationalism conceding and welcoming the existence of States as political (albeit subsidiary) entities; a stalwart belief in democracy and parliamentary rule; a firm support for civil liberties; and overall a 'constitutionalism' in the classical, liberal sense of seeing a constitution as not simply a legal document, but rather as a set of values shared by the community".[52]

Notes Edit

  1. ^ Whitlam appointed himself Attorney-General for two weeks as part of "the Duumvirate" with Lance Barnard. His predecessor was Ivor Greenwood.

Books and a film on Lionel Murphy Edit

  • Lionel Murphy – a Political Biography[53]
  • Five Voices for Lionel[54]
  • In the Name of Lionel[55]
  • The Judgments of Lionel Murphy[56]
  • Justice Lionel Murphy[57]
  • Lionel Murphy: A Radical Judge[58]
  • FILM: Mr Neal is entitled to be an Agitator[59]

References Edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Hocking, Jenny (1997). Lionel Murphy. A Political Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. ^ Wood, Rebecca Danielle (2008). Why Do High Court Judges Join? Joining Behavior and Australia's Seriatim Tradition (PhD). Michigan State University. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-549-84411-2.
  3. ^ a b c d e Galligan, Brian (2012). Murphy, Lionel Keith (1922–1986) (hardcopy). {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "High Achievers Lists: Judges" (PDF). Sydney Boys High School Old Boys Union. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Browne, Geoffrey. "Murphy, Lionel Keith (1922–1986)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  6. ^ Hocking (1997), pp. 67–68.
  7. ^ Hocking (1997), Chapters 7–8.
  8. ^ Hocking (1997), Chapter 12.
  9. ^ Hocking (1997), pp. 162–7.
  10. ^ McKnight, David (1994). Australia's Spies and Their Secrets. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
  11. ^ Hocking (1997), pp. 214–218.
  12. ^ Messenger, Dally. "The Power of an Idea: The History of Celebrancy". www.collegeofcelebrancy.com.au. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  13. ^ "Marriages and Divorces, Australia, 2015". www.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  14. ^ Messenger III, Dally (2012), Murphy’s Law and the Pursuit of Happiness: a History of the Civil Celebrant Movement, Spectrum Publications, Melbourne (Australia), ISBN 978-0-86786-169-3 p.41-49
  15. ^ Hocking (1997), p. 185.
  16. ^ Hocking (1997), pp. 149–173.
  17. ^ Danielsson, Bengt (1977). Moruroa, mon amour. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 0-14-004461-2.
  18. ^ Hocking (1997), Chapter 16.
  19. ^ Hocking (1997), p. 228.
  20. ^ Galligan, Brian (3 December 2012). Murphy, Lionel Keith (1922–1986). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 18 (2012 ed.). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 9780522861310.
  21. ^ a b McClymont, Kate (21 July 2017). "Lionel Murphy: Nation's most enduring judicial scandal reignited after 31 years". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  22. ^ McClymont, Kate (6 March 2021). "Bombshell corruption claim about former premier Neville Wran". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  23. ^ Ackland, Richard (24 September 2016). "Lionel Murphy misconduct inquiry: Senate president to decide on release of files". The Guardian.
  24. ^ "Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (Repeal) Act 1986". Commonwealth Consolidated Acts. Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
  25. ^ "Enigmatic smile on the landscape". The Sydney Morning Herald. 17 October 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
  26. ^ "'Set the truth free': Urgent inquiry needed into Ghost Train fire foul play claims, former police and judicial figures say". www.abc.net.au. 31 March 2021.
  27. ^ a b Cth v Tasmania (Franklin River Dam Case) [1983] 158 CLR 1, 181.
  28. ^ Church of the New Faith v Comm. Pay-Roll Tax (Vict.) [1982–1983] 154 CLR 120, 150.
  29. ^ Church of the New Faith v Comm. Pay-Roll Tax (Vict.) [1982–1983] 154 CLR 120, 160.
  30. ^ Gallagher v Durack (1983) 152 CLR 238, 248
  31. ^ Gallagher v Durack [1982–1983] 152 CLR 238, 249.
  32. ^ Chamberlain v The Queen (No 2) [1983–1984] 153 CLR 521 at 569
  33. ^ a b Cth v Tasmania (Franklin River Dam Case) [1983] 158 CLR 1, 171.
  34. ^ Cth v Tasmania (Franklin River Dam Case) [1983] 158 CLR 1,172.
  35. ^ R v Director General of Social Welfare Exp Henry (1975) 133 CLR 369, 388.
  36. ^ General Practitioners Soc v Cth (1980) 145 CLR 532, 565.
  37. ^ Cth v Tasmania (Franklin River Dam Case) [1983] 158 CLR 1, 176.
  38. ^ Gallagher v Durack [1982–1983] 152 CLR 238, 251.
  39. ^ The Queen v Pearson ex parte Sipka [1983] 152 CLR 254, 268.
  40. ^ Pyneboard v TPC [1982–1983] 152 CLR 328, 346.
  41. ^ Sorby v The Cth [1983] 152 CLR 281, 311.
  42. ^ Baker v The Campbell [1983] 153 CLR 52 at 85
  43. ^ Kirby, M. D. "Lionel Keith Murphy". The Lionel Murphy Foundation. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
  44. ^ Murphy Williams, Rosa; Chu, You-Hua; Dickel, John R.; Smith, R. Chris; Milne, Douglas K.; Winkler, P. Frank (1999). "Supernova Remnants in the Magellanic Clouds. II. Supernova Remnant Breakouts from N11L and N86". The Astrophysical Journal. 514 (2): 798. Bibcode:1999ApJ...514..798W. doi:10.1086/306966.
  45. ^ Koyama, K; et al. (1995). "Evidence for shock acceleration of high-energy electrons in the supernova remnant SN1006". Nature. 378 (378): 255–258. Bibcode:1995Natur.378..255K. doi:10.1038/378255a0. S2CID 4257238.
  46. ^ Hocking (1997), p. 248.
  47. ^ Frame, T; Stromlo Faulkner, D (2003). An Australian Observatory. Allen & Unwin. p. 173.
  48. ^ Faulkner, John (28 November 2012). . Parliament of Australia. Senator John Faulkner. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013.
  49. ^ "The Lionel Murphy Foundation". The Lionel Murphy Foundation. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  50. ^ McInnis v The Queen (1979) 145 CLR 438
  51. ^ Gaudron, Mary (1987). "Speech at the Lionel Murphy Memorial Service, Sydney Town Hall, 27 October 1986". In Scutt J. A (ed.). Lionel Murphy: A Radical Judge. Melbourne: McCulloch Publishing. pp. 258–259.
  52. ^ Goldring, John (1987). "Murphy and the Australian Constitution". In Scutt J. A (ed.). Lionel Murphy: A Radical Judge. Melbourne: McCulloch Publishing. p. 60.
  53. ^ Hocking (1997).
  54. ^ Venturini, G. (ed), 1994, Five Voices for Lionel, Federation Press, Sydney
  55. ^ Venturini, G. (ed), 2000, In the Name Lionel, Never Give In Press, Morewell Victoria, ISBN 0 646 39247 6
  56. ^ Blackshield, A.R., Brown, D., Coper, M., and Krever, R. (eds) The Judgments of Lionel Murphy Primavera Press, Sydney, 1986.
  57. ^ Coper, Michael and Williams, George, (Eds) Justice Lionel Murphy, Federation Press, Sydney 1997 ISBN 978-1-86287-262-2
  58. ^ Scutt, J.(ed), 1987, Lionel Murphy: A Radical Judge, McCulloch, Melbourne, 1987
  59. ^ FILM: Dellora D.,1991, Mr Neal is entitled to be an Agitator, 58 Minute Documentary Film, Film Art Doco Pty Ltd, Aust.

Bibliography Edit

  • Venturini, George, ed. (1994). Five voices for Lionel. Sydney: Federation Press. ISBN 1862871493.
  • Blackshield, T. (2001). "Murphy affair". In Blackshield, Coper and Williams (ed.). The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-554022-0.
  • Hocking, Jenny (1997). Lionel Murphy: a political biography. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58108-7.
  • Scutt, J. A., ed. (1987). Lionel Murphy, A Radical Judge. Melbourne: McCulloch Publishing. ISBN 0-949646-17-2.
  • Williams, J. (2001). "Murphy, Lionel Keith". In Blackshield, Coper and Williams (ed.). The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-554022-0.

External links Edit

  • Lionel Murphy Foundation
  • Whitmont, Debbie; Ferguson, Sarah. The Murphy Scandal. ABC Four Corners, 20 November 2017
  • Mr Neal is Entitled to be an Agitator 58 min documentary film about the life of Lionel Murphy. DVD. Dir: Daryl Dellora. Australian Human Rights Award.
  • Justice Lionel Murphy address to Press Club of Australia, 17 August 1983
Political offices
Preceded by Attorney-General of Australia
1972–1975
Succeeded by
Minister for Customs and Excise
1972–1975
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Australian Labor Party in the Senate
1967–1975
Succeeded by

lionel, murphy, english, footballer, footballer, lionel, keith, murphy, august, 1922, october, 1986, australian, politician, barrister, judge, senator, south, wales, from, 1962, 1975, serving, attorney, general, whitlam, government, then, high, court, from, 19. For the English footballer see Lionel Murphy footballer Lionel Keith Murphy QC 30 August 1922 21 October 1986 was an Australian politician barrister and judge He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1962 to 1975 serving as Attorney General in the Whitlam government and then sat on the High Court from 1975 until his death The HonourableLionel MurphyQCMurphy in 1970Justice of the High Court of AustraliaIn office 10 February 1975 21 October 1986Nominated byGough WhitlamAppointed bySir John KerrPreceded bySir Douglas MenziesSucceeded byJohn TooheyAttorney General of AustraliaIn office 19 December 1972 9 February 1975Prime MinisterGough WhitlamPreceded byGough Whitlam a Succeeded byKep EnderbyLeader of the Government in the SenateIn office 2 December 1972 9 February 1975Acting 2 December 19 December 1972Preceded byKen AndersonSucceeded byKen WriedtLeader of the Opposition in the SenateIn office 8 February 1967 5 December 1972Preceded byDon WilleseeSucceeded byReg WithersSenator for New South WalesIn office 1 July 1962 9 February 1975Preceded byJohn McCallumSucceeded byCleaver BuntonPersonal detailsBornLionel Keith Murphy 1922 08 30 30 August 1922Kensington New South Wales AustraliaDied21 October 1986 1986 10 21 aged 64 Canberra Australian Capital Territory AustraliaPolitical partyLaborSpouse s Nina Morrow nee Vishegor odsky known as Svidersky Ingrid Gee nee Grzonkowski EducationUniversity of SydneyMurphy was born in Sydney and attended Sydney Boys High School before matriculating at the University of Sydney He initially graduated with a degree in chemistry but then went on to Sydney Law School and eventually became a barrister He specialised in labour and industrial law and took silk in 1960 Murphy was elected to the Senate at the 1961 federal election as a member of the Labor Party He became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in 1967 Following Labor s victory at the 1972 federal election Gough Whitlam appointed Murphy as Attorney General and Minister for Customs and Excise He oversaw a number of reforms establishing the Family Court of Australia the Law Reform Commission and the Australian Institute of Criminology and developing the Family Law Act 1975 which fully established no fault divorce He also authorised the 1973 Murphy raids on ASIO In 1975 following the death of Douglas Menzies Murphy was appointed to the High Court He is the most recent politician to be appointed to the court On the court Murphy was known for his radicalism and judicial activism However his final years were marred by persistent allegations of corruption He was convicted of perverting the course of justice in 1985 but had the conviction overturned on appeal and was acquitted at a second trial In 1986 a commission was established to determine whether he was fit to remain on the court but it was abandoned when Murphy announced that he was suffering from terminal cancer Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Legal career 3 Parliamentary career 3 1 Attorney Generalship 3 2 Civil Celebrants 3 3 Human Rights Bill 4 Judicial career 5 Court cases and death 6 Personal life 7 Judicial quotes 8 Legacy 8 1 Lionel Murphy SNR 8 2 Lionel Murphy Foundation 8 3 Judicial philosophy and legacy 9 Notes 10 Books and a film on Lionel Murphy 11 References 12 Bibliography 13 External linksEarly life and education EditMurphy was the youngest of five sons and sixth of seven children of William a native of County Tipperary and Lily Murphy He was born and grew up in Sydney 1 Though the Murphy household was Irish Catholic 2 albeit estranged from the Church 3 Murphy became a humanist and rationalist He was educated at government schools in Sydney s south eastern suburbs including Kensington Public School in Kensington where he was dux after repeating his final year in 1935 3 and Sydney Boys High School from 1936 40 4 in nearby Moore Park graduating with A levels in English Mathematics and Chemistry and B levels in Physics and French 1 After completing his secondary education in 1941 Murphy matriculated to the University of Sydney though he had not been successful in gaining a university scholarship awarded to the top 100 in the state His initial scholastic performance was ordinary and he briefly considered transferring to study a Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology at the Faculty of Arts 1 Murphy excelled in his final year graduating from the School of Chemistry Faculty of Science with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Organic Chemistry 5 In 1943 he commenced working in the chemical industry thereby coming under the authority of the wartime Manpower Directorate 5 In 1945 Murphy commenced studying law at the Sydney Law School of the University of Sydney and in 1949 graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours 1 While at the University of Sydney during both his science and law degrees Murphy was politically and socially active and was involved in the Students Chemistry Society the Junior Science Association and the Science Association 1 In 1944 in his third year of his science degree Murphy was elected to the Students Representative Council but was dismissed two hours after his election victory on a constitutional technicality 5 This event is said to have cemented his interest in politics and law and he commenced participating in the university s debating society and its monthly debates the following year 5 Legal career EditUnusually two years prior to his graduating with and possessing a law degree Murphy passed the Barristers Admission Board examination and was admitted to the New South Wales Bar Association in 1947 5 After graduating from the University of Sydney Faculty of Law Murphy took up residence in University Chambers Phillip Street and then moved to the fourth floor of Wentworth Chambers 3 He rapidly established himself as a labour industrial lawyer representing left wing unionists 5 In 1960 he was appointed as a Queen s Counsel 3 Parliamentary career EditMurphy was a member of the Australian Labor Party from an early age In the Senate pre selection convention in the Sydney Trades Hall in April 1960 he had the backing of Ray Gietzelt but lacked factional endorsement However he drew first position in addressing the delegates and won support with an impassioned but well structured and infectiously optimistic seven minute speech on the Labor Party s historical commitment to civil liberties and human rights 6 He was elected to the Australian Senate in 1961 and in 1967 he was elected Opposition Leader in the Senate 7 Attorney Generalship Edit Further information 1973 Murphy raids In 1969 Labor Leader Gough Whitlam appointed him Shadow Attorney General and when Labor won the 1972 election he became Attorney General and Minister for Customs and Excise 8 One of Murphy s more dramatic actions as Attorney General was his sudden visit to the Melbourne headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation ASIO on 16 March 1973 This came about because ASIO officers were unable to satisfy his requests for information concerning intelligence on supposed terrorist groups operated by the Ustase in Australia Murphy s concern about the matter was heightened by the impending visit to Australia of the Yugoslav Prime Minister Dzemal Bijedic ASIO officers claimed not to be able to locate the file with which to properly brief Murphy Murphy s belief was that though a security service was an important part of the Australian social fabric like any other arm of executive government it must be accountable to the relevant Minister 9 According to journalist George Negus then Murphy s press secretary Lionel had asked for the files of the six most dangerous or subversive people in Australia When the files arrived Murphy found they were of several Communist Party CPA unionists and people such as CPA leader and peace movement activist Mavis Robertson When he told Whitlam they both laughed 10 Murphy was highly involved in the behind the scenes machinations and parliamentary debates around the appointment of DLP Senator Vince Gair as Ambassador to Ireland in 1974 see Gair Affair which preceded Whitlam s calling of a double dissolution election for May 1974 Murphy s most important legislative achievement was the Family Law Act 1975 which completely overhauled Australia s law on divorce and other family law matters It established the principle of no fault divorce in the face of opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and many other individuals and organisations This act also established the Family Court of Australia 11 Civil Celebrants Edit nbsp Lois D Arcy was the first independent civil marriage celebrant ever appointed by Attorney General Lionel Murphy Her appointment is dated 19 July 1973 Murphy used an existing provision of the Marriage Act 1961 Section 39C to establish the Civil Marriage Celebrant programme Using this provision he appointed about a hundred Civil Celebrants and urged them to provide marriage ceremonies of dignity meaning and substance for non church people It was an initiative opposed by the Australian Labor Party the public servants of his department and his personal staff The civil celebrant program is almost entirely the result of one man s vision Murphy himself told me the story of how he was opposed by his own staff the public service his fellow Members of Parliament s and officials of the Labour Party He defied all and on July 19 1973 in the dead of night typed the first appointment himself found the envelope and stamp walked to a post box and posted it himself Lois D Arcy carries the honour of being appointed the first genuinely independent civil celebrant in Australia and actually in all the world 12 Although it was a radical move at the time the programme proved to be very successful In 2015 74 9 per cent of marrying couples in Australia chose a civil marriage celebrant to officiate 13 The programme broadened to include secular funerals of substance namings and other ceremonies which celebrated the landmarks of human existence Murphy took an enthusiastic interest in this programme sending telegrams of congratulation to the first several hundred couples married by civil celebrants and would often unexpectedly turn up uninvited to weddings performed by celebrants to delight in his achievement 14 Human Rights Bill Edit As Attorney General Murphy drew up a Human Rights Bill which lapsed with the double dissolution of 1974 giving as among the reasons in criminal law our protections against detention for interrogation and unreasonable search and seizure for access to counsel and to ensure the segregation of different categories of prisoners are inadequate Australian laws on the powers of the police the rights of an accused person and the state of the penal system generally are unsatisfactory Our privacy laws are vague and ineffective There are few effective constraints on the gathering of information or its disclosure or surveillance against unwanted publicity by government the media or commercial organisations 15 Murphy also introduced important legislation substantially abolishing appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council removing censorship providing freedom of access to government information reforming corporations and trade practices law protecting the environment abolishing the death penalty and outlawing racial and other discrimination nbsp Atmospheric nuclear explosion in the Pacific Murphy took the French Government to the International Court of Justice over nuclear tests at Mururoa Furthermore Murphy established a systematic legal aid service for all courts set up the Australian Law Reform Commission with Michael Kirby as its inaugural chairman and set up the Australian Institute of Criminology Murphy took the French Government to the International Court of Justice ICJ to protest against its nuclear tests in the Pacific 16 The French government conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear tests at Mururoa after 1966 and formally ceased atmospheric nuclear testing in 1974 as a result of public pressure facilitated by Murphy s ICJ case 17 Judicial career Edit nbsp High Court of Australia Murphy served as a High Court justice from 1975 to 1986 In February 1975 Whitlam appointed Murphy to a vacancy on the High Court of Australia He was the first serving Labor politician appointed to the Court since Dr H V Evatt in 1931 and the appointment was bitterly criticised He resigned from the Senate on 9 February 1975 to take up the appointment 18 Murphy was the last High Court justice to have served as a Member of Parliament and the last politician appointed to the High Court Additionally Murphy was one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the Court along with Edmund Barton Richard O Connor Isaac Isaacs H B Higgins Edward McTiernan John Latham and Garfield Barwick Although it did not become a constitutional requirement until 1977 it had been long standing convention that a Senate casual vacancy be filled by a person from the same political party However on 27 February 1975 the Premier of New South Wales Tom Lewis controversially appointed Cleaver Bunton a person with no political affiliations to replace Murphy in the Senate beginning the chain of events which led to the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis These events provided the impetus for the 1977 constitutional change that ensures such an appointment cannot be repeated although a State Government can still achieve a similar result by declining to fill a Senate vacancy Soon after his appointment to the bench Murphy visited Justice Menzies old chambers in Taylor Square which would now be his Staring at the volumes of British law reports on the shelves behind his desk he said I want all of these to go He replaced them with decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States 19 Court cases and death EditIn the summer of 1983 84 during the term of the first Hawke government both The National Times and The Age published transcripts of telephone conversations illegally recorded from 1979 81 by the New South Wales Police 20 Although not then authenticated they were allegedly between Murphy and Sydney lawyer Morgan Ryan who in 1982 faced charges of forgery and conspiracy 21 22 In July 1985 Murphy was initially convicted on one of two charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice over new allegations made by Clarrie Briese the Chief Magistrate of New South Wales that Murphy had attempted to influence a court case against Morgan Ryan whom Murphy referred to as my little mate 21 A subsequent appeal to the NSW Court of Appeals quashed Murphy s conviction on the grounds that the trial judge had misdirected the jury A second trial was then held and on 28 April 1986 Murphy was found not guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice 23 After his acquittal Murphy said Thank heavens for the jury system 1 p 305 2000 edition Attorney General Lionel Bowen acting on what he said was his belief that the Justices of the High Court were minded to take some independent action to assess Justice Murphy s fitness to return to the Court introduced legislation for a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry consisting of three retired judges to examine whether any conduct of the Honourable Lionel Keith Murphy has been such as to amount in its opinion to proved misbehaviour within the meaning of section 72 of the Constitution Section 72 specifies that a High Court judge may be removed only by the Governor General and both houses of Parliament on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity The terms of this inquiry specifically excluded the issues for which Murphy had already been tried and acquitted 1 ch 20 The legislation establishing the Commission of Inquiry received assent in May 1986 In July Murphy announced that he was dying of terminal cancer and the establishing legislation was repealed 24 The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate were given control of the Commission s documents Murphy returned to the Court for one week of sittings He died on 21 October 1986 1 ch 20 Personal life EditMurphy had a distinctive profile and a large nose that was broken in a 1950 car accident in England and left largely untreated 3 In July 1954 he married Russian born Nina Morrow nee Vishegorodsky known as Svidersky a comptometrist at St John s Church in Darlinghurst Sydney citation needed Their daughter Lorel Katherine was born in 1955 In 1967 Murphy s marriage to Nina ended in divorce citation needed In 1969 Murphy married Ingrid Gee nee Grzonkowski a model and television quiz show compere who had been born in German occupied Poland They had two sons Cameron and Blake Cameron was President of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties from 1999 to 2013 Ingrid died in October 2007 25 In 2021 the ABC investigative series Exposed The Ghost Train Fire aired an allegation that Murphy and NSW Premier Neville Wran had conspired with organised crime figure Abe Saffron to help Saffron s relatives obtain the Luna Park lease after the 1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire which caused the deaths of six children and an adult 26 Judicial quotes EditThis section is a candidate for copying over to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process Australian Aboriginal history The history of the Aboriginal people of Australia since European settlement is that they have been the subject of unprovoked aggression conquest pillage rape brutalisation attempted genocide and systematic and unsystematic destruction of their culture a law aimed at the preservation or the uncovering of evidence about their history is a special law with respect to the people of this race 27 Freedom of religion Religious freedom is a fundamental theme of our society That freedom has been asserted by men and women throughout history by resisting the attempts of government through its legislative executive or judicial branches to define or impose beliefs or practices of religion Whenever the legislature prescribes what religion is or permits or requires the executive or judiciary to determine what religion is this poses a threat to religious freedom Religious discrimination by officials or by courts is unacceptable in a free society In the eyes of the law religions are equal There is no religious club with a monopoly of State privileges for its members The policy of the law is one in all in 28 The faith of members of various religions has inspired concern for others which has often been reflected in humanitarian and charitable works However the claim to be the one true faith has resulted in great intolerance and persecution Because of this the history of many religions includes a ghastly record of persecution and torture of non believers Hundreds of millions of people have been slaughtered in the name of god love and peace In the effort to uphold the one true faith courts have often been instruments for the repression of blasphemers heretics and witches Most organised religions have been riddled with commercialism this being an integral part of the drive by their leaders for social authority and power in conformity with the iron law of oligarchy 29 Freedom of speech The absence of a constitutional guarantee does not mean that Australia should accept judicial inroads upon freedom of speech which are not found necessary or desirable in other countries At stake is not merely the freedom of one person it is the freedom of everyone to comment rightly or wrongly on the decisions of the courts in a way that does not constitute a clear and present danger to the administration of justice 30 Trial by jury The Constitution s 80 states The trial on indictment of any offence against any law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury This Court has construed this section to mean that if there be no indictment there must be a jury but there is nothing to compel procedure by indictment In a famous dissent Dixon and Evatt JJ described this construction as a mockery of the Constitution and considered that anyone charged with any serious offence against the laws of the Commonwealth was entitled to trial by jury Lowenstein 1938 59 CLR 556 582 31 The jury is a strong antidote to the elitist tendencies of the legal system It is the means by which the people participate in the administration of justice Jackson v the Queen 1976 134 CLR 42 at 54 The greatest respect should be given by appeal courts to jury verdicts and any attempt to downgrade the jury to a mere nominal or symbolic role should be restricted 32 nbsp Gordon Dam in South West Tasmania World Heritage Area Preservation of the world s natural heritage Suppose that in the next few decades because of the continuing rapid depletion of the world s forests and its effect on the rest of the biosphere the survival of all living creatures becomes endangered This is not a fanciful supposition Suppose the United Nations were to request all nations to do whatever they could to preserve the existing forests Let us assume that no obligation was created because firewood was essential for the immediate survival of people of some nations I would have no doubt that the Australian Parliament could under the external affairs power comply with that request by legislating to prevent the destruction of any forest 33 The world s cultural and natural heritage is of its own nature part of Australia s external affairs It is the heritage of Australians as part of humanity as well as the heritage of those where the items happen to be 34 Constitutional prohibition of slavery It would not be constitutionally permissible for the Parliament of Australia or any of the States to create or authorise slavery or serfdom The reason lies in the nature of our Constitution It is a Constitution for a free society 35 Constitutional prohibition on civil conscription for medical or dental services The Australian Constitution contains an implication of a free society which limits Parliament s authority to impose civil conscription 36 Common heritage of humanity The preservation of the world s heritage must not be looked at in isolation but as part of the co operation between nations which is calculated to achieve intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind and so reinforce the bonds between people which promote peace and displace those of narrow nationalism and alienation which promote war The encouragement of people to think internationally to regard the culture of their own country as part of world culture to conceive a physical spiritual and intellectual world heritage is important in the endeavour to avoid the destruction of humanity 37 Theory of class struggle Public statements that the courts are involved in the class struggle may tend to impair confidence in the courts and amount to criminal contempt on the Dunbabin standard but do not constitute any clear and present danger to the administration of justice If all those who advocate that the courts are involved in the class struggle were to be imprisoned for criminal contempt there would not be enough gaols 38 Right to vote Section 41 is one of the few guarantees of the rights of persons in the Australian Constitution It should be given the purposive interpretation which accords with its plain words with its context of other provisions of unlimited duration and its contrast with transitional provisions Constitutions are to be read broadly and not pedantically Guarantees of personal rights should not be read narrowly A right to vote is so precious that it should not be read out of the constitution by implication Rather every reasonable presumption and interpretation should be adopted which favours the right of people to participate in the elections of those who represent them 39 Privilege against self incrimination The privilege against compulsory self incrimination is part of the common law of human rights It is based on the desire to protect personal freedom and human dignity These social values justify the impediment the privilege presents to judicial or other investigation It is society s acceptance of the inviolability of the human personality The history and reasons for the privilege do not justify its extension to artificial persons such as corporations or political entities 40 Because the privilege is such an important human right an intent to exclude or qualify the privilege will not be imputed to a legislature unless the intent is conveyed in unmistakable language 41 Legal professional privilege The privilege is commonly described as legal professional privilege which is unfortunate because it suggests that the privilege is that of the members of the legal profession which it is not It is the client s privilege so that it may be waived by the client but not by the lawyer Its rationale is no longer the oath and honour of the lawyer as a gentleman It is now supported as a necessary corollary of fundamental constitutional or human rights 42 Acquisition of property on just terms the extinction or limitation of property rights does not amount to acquisition The transfer of property from one person to another not the Commonwealth does not amount to an acquisition within par xxxi Unless the Commonwealth gains some property from the State or person there is no acquisition within the paragraph 27 Control of multinational corporations There may be circumstances where Australia s relationship with persons or groups who are not nation States is part of external affairs The existence of powerful transnational corporations international trade unions and other groups who can affect Australia means that Australia s external affairs as a matter of practicality are not confined to relations with other nation states 33 Legacy Edit nbsp Large Magellanic Cloud containing SNR N86 In addition to his work as a legislator Murphy also took a lifelong interest in science having first studied science then law at the University of Sydney Justice Michael Kirby identified Murphy s later scientific reading as a positive influence on his approach to jurisprudence 43 Lionel Murphy SNR Edit N86 is a nitrogen abundant supernova remnant SNR N86 in the Large Magellanic Cloud It was dubbed the Lionel Murphy SNR by astronomers at the Australian National University s Mount Stromlo Observatory in acknowledgement of Murphy s interest in science and because of SNR N86 s perceived resemblance to a Canberra Times cartoonist s depiction of his large nose prior to surgery and a picture was hung in his office 44 A supernova remnant SNR results from the gigantic explosion of a star the resulting supernova expelling much or all of the stellar material with velocities as much as 1 the speed of light and forming a shock wave that can heat the gas up to temperatures as high as 10 million K forming a plasma 45 Murphy normally rejected public honours such as a knighthood but accepted this because of the symbolic resemblance to his own impact on human rights in Australian law and its lasting significance as a signpost to space travellers 46 Murphy asked for a large mounted photo of SNR N86 from the scientific paper and placed it in his High Court chambers in the place where the other High Court justices usually hung a portrait of the Queen 47 Lionel Murphy Foundation Edit The Lionel Murphy Foundation was co founded by Gough Whitlam Neville Wran and Ray Gietzelt in 1986 48 It funds postgraduate scholarships for students who intend to pursue a postgraduate degree in science law or legal studies or other appropriate discipline with a commitment to social justice 49 Judicial philosophy and legacy Edit Mary Gaudron who herself would become a justice of the High Court stated at Lionel Murphy s Memorial Service at Sydney Town Hall There are so many words reformist radical humanitarian civil libertarian egalitarian democrat they are all abstractions My words are no better but for me and perhaps for those of us who believe in justice based on practical equality Lionel Murphy was Lionel Murphy is the electric light of the Law He would take an ordinary old abstraction like equal justice he would expose it he would illuminate the abstraction he would make its form stark and so he could then say as he did inMcInnis case these words Where the kind of trial a person receives depends on the amount of money he or she has there is no equal justice 50 51 Law professor Jack Goldring concluded that Murphy s approach as a High Court judge was marked by a number of features a strong nationalism conceding and welcoming the existence of States as political albeit subsidiary entities a stalwart belief in democracy and parliamentary rule a firm support for civil liberties and overall a constitutionalism in the classical liberal sense of seeing a constitution as not simply a legal document but rather as a set of values shared by the community 52 Notes Edit Whitlam appointed himself Attorney General for two weeks as part of the Duumvirate with Lance Barnard His predecessor was Ivor Greenwood Books and a film on Lionel Murphy EditLionel Murphy a Political Biography 53 Five Voices for Lionel 54 In the Name of Lionel 55 The Judgments of Lionel Murphy 56 Justice Lionel Murphy 57 Lionel Murphy A Radical Judge 58 FILM Mr Neal is entitled to be an Agitator 59 References Edit a b c d e f g h Hocking Jenny 1997 Lionel Murphy A Political Biography Cambridge Cambridge University Press Wood Rebecca Danielle 2008 Why Do High Court Judges Join Joining Behavior and Australia s Seriatim Tradition PhD Michigan State University p 64 ISBN 978 0 549 84411 2 a b c d e Galligan Brian 2012 Murphy Lionel Keith 1922 1986 hardcopy a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help High Achievers Lists Judges PDF Sydney Boys High School Old Boys Union Retrieved 6 January 2018 a b c d e f Browne Geoffrey Murphy Lionel Keith 1922 1986 The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Retrieved 8 January 2023 Hocking 1997 pp 67 68 Hocking 1997 Chapters 7 8 Hocking 1997 Chapter 12 Hocking 1997 pp 162 7 McKnight David 1994 Australia s Spies and Their Secrets St Leonards NSW Allen amp Unwin Hocking 1997 pp 214 218 Messenger Dally The Power of an Idea The History of Celebrancy www collegeofcelebrancy com au Retrieved 7 October 2021 Marriages and Divorces Australia 2015 www abs gov au Australian Bureau of Statistics 30 November 2016 Retrieved 14 September 2017 Messenger III Dally 2012 Murphy s Law and the Pursuit of Happiness a History of the Civil Celebrant Movement Spectrum Publications Melbourne Australia ISBN 978 0 86786 169 3 p 41 49 Hocking 1997 p 185 Hocking 1997 pp 149 173 Danielsson Bengt 1977 Moruroa mon amour Ringwood Victoria Penguin Books Australia ISBN 0 14 004461 2 Hocking 1997 Chapter 16 Hocking 1997 p 228 Galligan Brian 3 December 2012 Murphy Lionel Keith 1922 1986 Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 18 2012 ed Melbourne Melbourne University Press ISBN 9780522861310 a b McClymont Kate 21 July 2017 Lionel Murphy Nation s most enduring judicial scandal reignited after 31 years The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 9 January 2023 McClymont Kate 6 March 2021 Bombshell corruption claim about former premier Neville Wran The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 9 January 2023 Ackland Richard 24 September 2016 Lionel Murphy misconduct inquiry Senate president to decide on release of files The Guardian Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry Repeal Act 1986 Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Australasian Legal Information Institute Retrieved 11 February 2008 Enigmatic smile on the landscape The Sydney Morning Herald 17 October 2007 Retrieved 11 February 2008 Set the truth free Urgent inquiry needed into Ghost Train fire foul play claims former police and judicial figures say www abc net au 31 March 2021 a b Cth v Tasmania Franklin River Dam Case 1983 158 CLR 1 181 Church of the New Faith v Comm Pay Roll Tax Vict 1982 1983 154 CLR 120 150 Church of the New Faith v Comm Pay Roll Tax Vict 1982 1983 154 CLR 120 160 Gallagher v Durack 1983 152 CLR 238 248 Gallagher v Durack 1982 1983 152 CLR 238 249 Chamberlain v The Queen No 2 1983 1984 153 CLR 521 at 569 a b Cth v Tasmania Franklin River Dam Case 1983 158 CLR 1 171 Cth v Tasmania Franklin River Dam Case 1983 158 CLR 1 172 R v Director General of Social Welfare Exp Henry 1975 133 CLR 369 388 General Practitioners Soc v Cth 1980 145 CLR 532 565 Cth v Tasmania Franklin River Dam Case 1983 158 CLR 1 176 Gallagher v Durack 1982 1983 152 CLR 238 251 The Queen v Pearson ex parte Sipka 1983 152 CLR 254 268 Pyneboard v TPC 1982 1983 152 CLR 328 346 Sorby v The Cth 1983 152 CLR 281 311 Baker v The Campbell 1983 153 CLR 52 at 85 Kirby M D Lionel Keith Murphy The Lionel Murphy Foundation Retrieved 11 February 2008 Murphy Williams Rosa Chu You Hua Dickel John R Smith R Chris Milne Douglas K Winkler P Frank 1999 Supernova Remnants in the Magellanic Clouds II Supernova Remnant Breakouts from N11L and N86 The Astrophysical Journal 514 2 798 Bibcode 1999ApJ 514 798W doi 10 1086 306966 Koyama K et al 1995 Evidence for shock acceleration of high energy electrons in the supernova remnant SN1006 Nature 378 378 255 258 Bibcode 1995Natur 378 255K doi 10 1038 378255a0 S2CID 4257238 Hocking 1997 p 248 Frame T Stromlo Faulkner D 2003 An Australian Observatory Allen amp Unwin p 173 Faulkner John 28 November 2012 Adjournment Ray Gietzelt AO Parliament of Australia Senator John Faulkner Archived from the original on 3 May 2013 The Lionel Murphy Foundation The Lionel Murphy Foundation Retrieved 17 September 2013 McInnis v The Queen 1979 145 CLR 438 Gaudron Mary 1987 Speech at the Lionel Murphy Memorial Service Sydney Town Hall 27 October 1986 In Scutt J A ed Lionel Murphy A Radical Judge Melbourne McCulloch Publishing pp 258 259 Goldring John 1987 Murphy and the Australian Constitution In Scutt J A ed Lionel Murphy A Radical Judge Melbourne McCulloch Publishing p 60 Hocking 1997 Venturini G ed 1994 Five Voices for Lionel Federation Press Sydney Venturini G ed 2000 In the Name Lionel Never Give In Press Morewell Victoria ISBN 0 646 39247 6 Blackshield A R Brown D Coper M and Krever R eds The Judgments of Lionel Murphy Primavera Press Sydney 1986 Coper Michael and Williams George Eds Justice Lionel Murphy Federation Press Sydney 1997 ISBN 978 1 86287 262 2 Scutt J ed 1987 Lionel Murphy A Radical Judge McCulloch Melbourne 1987 FILM Dellora D 1991 Mr Neal is entitled to be an Agitator 58 Minute Documentary Film Film Art Doco Pty Ltd Aust Bibliography EditVenturini George ed 1994 Five voices for Lionel Sydney Federation Press ISBN 1862871493 Blackshield T 2001 Murphy affair In Blackshield Coper and Williams ed The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 554022 0 Hocking Jenny 1997 Lionel Murphy a political biography Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 58108 7 Scutt J A ed 1987 Lionel Murphy A Radical Judge Melbourne McCulloch Publishing ISBN 0 949646 17 2 Williams J 2001 Murphy Lionel Keith In Blackshield Coper and Williams ed The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 554022 0 External links EditLionel Murphy Foundation Whitmont Debbie Ferguson Sarah The Murphy Scandal ABC Four Corners 20 November 2017 Mr Neal is Entitled to be an Agitator 58 min documentary film about the life of Lionel Murphy DVD Dir Daryl Dellora Australian Human Rights Award Justice Lionel Murphy address to Press Club of Australia 17 August 1983 The Hon Justice Lionel Murphy QC SpeechesPolitical officesPreceded byGough Whitlam Attorney General of Australia1972 1975 Succeeded byKep EnderbyMinister for Customs and Excise1972 1975Party political officesPreceded byDon Willesee Leader of the Australian Labor Party in the Senate1967 1975 Succeeded byKen Wriedt Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lionel Murphy amp oldid 1173031821, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.