QCAT’s Timbo Carmody back in the frame … Squire Bennett takes-up rural spread … Justice Carolyn Simpson says farewell to paradise … Uncle Doug in chains  

Timbo was the senior member alongside Dr J.R Forbes in the appeal tribunal when he made comments about a struck-off real estate agent who was wanting leave to appeal against his disqualification. 

In earlier proceedings before QCAT it emerged that Alexander Hamid Dariush-Far was using a deregistered company to purchase land from sellers for whom he was acting in order to make a profit for himself. 

Apparently, the authorities take a dim view of real estate agents who do not to disclose “important relationship facts”.  

Dariush-Far said that Timbo’s questions during the QCAT appeal hearing were “irrelevant, defamatory, racist and bigoted”. Carmody raised the question whether Dariush-Far did not disclose his involvement in the company contracted to buy the land because the sellers, who were Jewish, would not have sold the property to Iranians.  

The applicant pointed out that Carmody’s comment was without merit because the owners of the property knew he was from Iran. 

At one point Timbo said to the applicant’s counsel:

“See – see what – you could infer, from what happened here, that your client knew that [indistinct] wouldn’t sell to Iranians and therefore created a sham to prevent them exercising that choice.” 

Peter Applegarth J led the charge from the Qld Supremes. He observed that this was “unnecessary speculation” because presiding member Carmody incorrectly assumed that there had been no findings by the tribunal about Dariush-Far’s motivation. 

The motivation was clearly spelled out at first instance – the real estate agent went into the transaction hoping to make money for himself – so why was Carmody speculating about it? 

As Applegarth J said, the creation of a sham out of concern that Jewish vendors would not sell to Iranians was not part of the applicant’s case either before the tribunal or the appeal tribunal. 

There was no evidence the applicant was motivated by such a concern. 

Applegarth said Timbo’s “Jewish vendors” comment was, “unnecessary, irrelevant to the issues the parties had formulated in written submissions … and an unfortunate speculation”. 

Even though the application for leave to appeal was unsuccessful we have a feeling that this is not the first time Timbo has gone off track. 

I see that David (Bubba) Bennett QC, the former Commonwealth solicitor general, and his wife Annabelle, the ex-Federal Court judge, have forked out a lazy $4.75 million on a 20-hectare spread at Berry in cow country on the NSW south coast. 

They bought the property from Macquarie Bank infrastructure deal-maker David Roseman and his wife Sue. The Rosemans are now ensconced in London and had not long completed constructing the massive two-story weekender. 

There’s plenty of land for shooting birds, frogs, sheep and other wild animals.  

Appeal judge Carolyn Simpson had a splendid pre-Easter farewell service at the NSW Banco Court, followed by cups of tea with tasty sandwiches and cakes. 

She has been a trial and appeal judge for more than 24 years and gave the assembled troops some warm and heartfelt insights into life on the bench and she got there. 

“I joked then that I had, in the language of the then Sentencing Act, a minimum term of 12 years and an additional term of another 12 years. I have never sought parole, and now I am to be released, although not without supervision.” 

Justice Simpson started out on life’s shaky path as a country girl who first-up landed a job as a school teacher, but after five years left with a “burning ambition” to be a journalist – except no-one would employ her, which was “my first stroke of luck”.  

She embarked on the barristers admission board course conducted by the Law Extension Committee, under the auspices of Sydney Uni.  

It looks like she started the course with Leo Schofield, who fits this description: 

“He never sat for a single exam. Instead, he became a successful businessman and famous restaurant critic – he called himself a public stomach.” 

She had nothing but praise for the law extension course.  

“I am far from the first judge, and certainly not the most senior, who has qualified in law through this worthwhile facility. It is an entirely egalitarian course, not dependant on stellar ATARs. Long may it provide access to legal practice to those who otherwise would not have the opportunity to qualify.” 

There was praise too for Smiler Gleeson who was her first chief justice after she went to the trial division following 18 years at the bar n’ grill. Sitting with Smiler on the Court of Criminal Appeal was “one of the great privileges of my life”. 

“I marvelled at the decisiveness of his thinking and his clarity of expression. I yearned to emulate both, and the efficiency with which he disposed of complex factual and legal issues – I never came close.” 

Simmo herself found satisfaction in working through complex factual disputes, applying the law to the facts, and producing a judgment …  

“… still warm from the printer, to be savoured like freshly baked bread. Sheer bliss – at least until it works its way through the judicial hierarchy, when it might turn into chook food.”  

Then there were those sunny Sunday afternoons, when she was mired in the mysteries and miseries of the Civil Liability Act or the Workers Compensation Act, aware that in the other world outside people were gardening, sipping coffee and reading books they are not paid to read. 

The Judicial Commission even got a guernsey. 

“The Judicial Commission has, if I may express a view, been a resounding success. It has done nothing but good for the judiciary” – and the fears about its threat to judicial independence “have proved to be groundless.” 

Yet there is still much to be done. Justice Jacqueline Gleeson told her in the courts’ lift that in her four years as a Federal Court judge, two percent of the silks that appeared before her were women. 

“You will encounter resistance, sometimes overt, sometimes so subtle that you will hardly know where it is coming from. You will have too struggle, more than your male counterparts. But give it a go … You owe it to yourselves to give it a go, and you owe it to the next generation who will, by your efforts, find it a little easier.” 

The farewell in full is here 

Maybe his 24-hour stint in a Maldives’ lock-up may have set NSW Law Society president Uncle Doug Humphries thinking of the splendour of his status. 

He was part of a LawAsia jaunt to investigate judicial independence in the totalitarian Indian Ocean republic, a jaunt that went pear shaped when the authorities decided to lockup these meddling do-gooders.

Uncle Doug was ultimately sent packing to the safety of the Street of Shame in Sydney where he hatched the idea that he should commission and donate a Chain of Office for himself and future presidents of the NSW Law Society. 

It would be gift in perpetuity to those who reach the dizzy heights of leading the solicitors branch of the law caper. 

Doug has also issued lapel pins to be worn by Law Society councillors. Next, it would be worthwhile to explore creating a special uniform for the president, with tons of scrambled egg, aiguillette and epaulets.  

Too may adornments are never enough.