Rhoades and Dessau: between two warring chief justices
There were amazing scenes in Senate Estimates on Monday evening (February 24, 2025).
It emerged that Two-Wigs Willy Alstergren is incandescent over attempt by FCA CJ Debbie Mortimer to meddle in his judicial kingdom – the merged Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
Currently there’s a review of the operations and functionality of the FCFCA, under the batons of former Victorian governor Linda Dessau and family and children’s law guru, Prof. Helen Rhoades.
The report is due for completion any day now. See terms of reference.
Former Queensland solicitor Senator Paul Scarr (LNP) must have had a huge tip off and started hoeing into Sia Lagos, CEO and Principal Registrar of the Federal Court.
He wanted to know if she was aware of “a submission being made by a judge of the Federal Court of Australia to the statutory review into the merger of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia”.
Umm, ahh. Sort of knew, but not sure of the details. You almost feel sorry for Sia, and this after a bruising round with Senator David Shoebridge about not coming clean on the $100,000 + spend on shivoos for the judges and their pals.
“I’m aware that a submission was submitted. I don’t have the particulars of the circumstances …”, Sia said.
She was told about it by the CEO and Principal Registrar of the FCFCA, David Pringle.
Scarr was agitated that a judge of the Federal Court was making a submission about another court and the top registrar was out of the loop. Furthermore, Alstergren himself was in the dark.
Next witness was David Pringle himself and he was much more forthcoming, telling the sleepy senators that Two Wigs Willy was “surprised [and] concerned” about the submission.
By this stage it was clear that the source of the drama was Debbie Mortimer CJ. Willy was livid – both about the content and the process of her submission and “not having adequate visibility of the review process”.
In fact, so concerned that there was quite a bit of to-and-from between Alstergren, Mortimer, Dessau and Rhoades – and the submission was withdrawn. It was not as though submissions had been called for, the panel instead preferring to have discussions with relevant parties.
Scarr asked Sia Lagos and the Secretary of AG’s Katherine Jones on notice:
“… is it appropriate for a head of jurisdiction to make submissions about the composition, make-up, functions or powers of another court; is it appropriate for a head of a chapter III court to make submissions on matters that are fundamentally questions of policy for the executive government; and do you have any concern that the making of that submission could in any way undermine confidence in the independence or impartiality of the court by its entering into a political policy debate and expressing a view about steps that should be taken?”
Doubtless Sia was trying to keep her boss’ fingerprints away from any incrimination. The government’s Senator Don Farrell issued a statement suggesting Scarr was going overboard:
“It would be unsurprising that the Federal Court of Austraolia would be interested in the review of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.”
The back story is that Mortimer had been pressing for the Circuit Court be be-merged from the Family Court and to have a separate CJ – so there would be three heads of federal court jurisdictions. Maybe a reversion to the Federal Magistrates Court – that would be fun.
No wonder Willy was furious. Word is that he and Mortimer are no longer on speakies. BTW, Willy’s title is so long it takes up four lines on the plaque commemorating the opening of the FCFCA in Launceston.
The legal profession was never keen on the merger, with his Division 1 and Division 2 judges. It was ultimately shepherded through parliament by former AG, The Very Rev Christian Porter. Indeed, in 2019, Arthur Moses from the LCA called for Two Wigs to surrender his throne at the Circus Court.
Transcript from David Pringle’s evidence at Legal and Constitutional Affairs Estimates is here. And here’s the movie from about 1.16 in …
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Earlier in the session Sia was being exquisitely tortured by Senator David Shoebridge (Greens NSW). She had previously advised the Senate that no money was spent on parties for Federal Court judges.
In fact, it turned out to be more than $160,000 over the last three years on farewells and welcomes for the court’s judges. The national farewell tour for Chuckles Allsop alone notched up $24,676 in catering, flowers, music and incidentals.
Lagos unconvincingly tried to explain that the earlier, misleading, zero figure was the amount attributable to the agency within Attorney General’s that runs the corporate services for the court.
The agency and its public servants didn’t do any spending on celebratory knees-up. The money was coming from the court’s own budget. An ingenious answer that untimely unravelled.
Transcript from Sia Lagos’ evidence at Legal and Constitutional Affairs Estimates is here.
Who will be around the firepit at Garma?
Meanwhile, arrangements are underway for Native Title judges to head to the Garma Festival in Arnhem land.
It looks as though the judges are expected to fork out their own coin for the trip, airfares and accomodation – or at least take it out of their conference allowance.
There are “corporate” camp sites available for up to ten people at $67,321.50 and that includes a fire pit and an invitation to the “Garma Corporate Dinner”.
Here’s the email from Justice Michael O’Brien to other judges on the Native Title list.
From: “Justice O’Bryan (FCA)” <Justice.OBryan@fedcourt.gov.au>
Date: 29 January 2025 at 16:37:56 AEDT
To: “Justice Abraham (FCA)” <Justice.Abraham@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Banks-Smith (FCA)” <Justice.Banks-Smith@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Burley (FCA)” <Justice.Burley@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Charlesworth (FCA)” <Justice.Charlesworth@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Cheeseman (FCA)” <Justice.Cheeseman@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Collier (FCA)” <Justice.Collier@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Colvin (FCA)” <Justice.Colvin@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice E. Bennett (FCA)” <Justice.E.Bennett@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Halley (FCA)” <Justice.Halley@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Horan (FCA)” <Justice.Horan@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Jackson (FCA)” <Justice.Jackson@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Kennett (FCA)” <Justice.Kennett@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Longbottom (FCA)” <Justice.Longbottom@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice McDonald (FCA)” <Justice.Mcdonald@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice McEvoy (FCA)” <Justice.McEvoy@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Moshinsky (FCA)” <Justice.Moshinsky@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Murphy (FCA)” <Justice.Murphy@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice O’Bryan (FCA)” <Justice.OBryan@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Perry (FCA)” <Justice.Perry@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Rangiah (FCA)” <Justice.Rangiah@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Raper (FCA)” <Justice.Raper@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Sarah C Derrington (FCA)” <Justice.SCDerrington@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Shariff (FCA)” <Justice.Shariff@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Stellios (FCA)” <Justice.Stellios@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Stewart (FCA)” <Justice.Stewart@fedcourt.gov.au>, “Justice Wigney (FCA)” <Justice.Wigney@fedcourt.gov.au>
Subject: Garma Festival 2025 [SEC=OFFICIAL]
OFFICIAL
Dear colleagues on the Native Title List,
The 25th anniversary of the Garma Festival will be held at Gulkula in NE Arnhem Land on 1 to 4 August 2025. The purpose of this email is to seek an indication of interest in attending the festival. Although the festival dates occur during the August appeals month, the Chief Justice is supportive of judges on the Native Title List attending the festival as part of our judicial education, including particularly our understanding of Indigenous culture.
On its website (https://yyf.com.au/garma-festival/), the Yothu Yindi Foundation describes the Garma Festival as a 4-day celebration of Yolngu life and culture held in remote northeast Arnhem Land, showcasing traditional miny’tji (art), manikay (song), bunggul (dance) and story-telling. I have attended the Garma Festival on two previous occasions, and I would describe the festival as more than that. It is also a place of meeting between “white and black” Australia where the issues of the day are discussed in lectures and forums conducted during the festival. I have enjoyed the festival and found it very rewarding in terms of cultural knowledge.
Further information about the festival can be found on the website mentioned above. However, the important thing to understand is that all attendees sleep in tents at the Gulkula site. A tent, sleeping bag and air mattress/stretcher bed is provided for each attendee. All meals are provided at the site in a communal area.
It is a substantial commitment to attend, in terms of both time and money. It is necessary to fly to the Gove airport, which flights are operated by Air North and originate out of Darwin and Cairns. It is usually possible to get to Gove in a single day from Melbourne, but it takes most of the day. I anticipate that return flights from Melbourne will be in the vicinity of $2,500. The festival runs for 4 days, from the Friday to the Monday inclusive, although it is not strictly necessary to stay the whole 4 days. One option would be to travel up on the Thursday and return on the Monday. Another option would be travel up on the Friday and return on the Tuesday. The festival offers corporate camp sites for 10 people with a price of $67,321.50 inclusive of GST. The advantage of the corporate camp site is that tents are located together and have their own firepit. The corporate ticket also includes an invitation to the “Garma Corporate Dinner”. I believe that individual tickets are less expensive (and no corporate dinner). The bottom line is that attendance will require the use of a substantial proportion of each judge’s conference allowance (or, of course, a judge’s own funds).
Tickets for the festival go on sale on 25 February 2025 and usually sell out quite quickly. For that reason, I wanted to get an indication of interest during the next 7 days. Would you let me know by reply email if you would be interested in attending. If 10 judges are interested, we can consider the corporate camp site. If less than 10 judges are interested, we can consider individual tickets and ask that we be located in adjacent tents. More than 10 probably presents some logistical issues, and also impacts on the availability of judges for the appeals period to a greater extent, and it may be that we will have to limit the numbers to 10. That would be done in consultation with the Chief Justice.
I would be happy to answer any questions that you have (to the extent that I can).
With best regards, Michael.
Justice Michael O’Bryan
Federal Court of Australia | 305 William Street Melbourne VIC 3000