Cheers … New appointments to the High Court announced from Canberra … Serious buttressing of brain power … Lads and lasses from New South Wales in the ascendency … The correct order restored … From High Court watcher Montague Gummov
Gageler’s appointment is hardly a surprise and Beech-Jones’ is overdue. Both were bright boys from the boonies who excelled in the exquisite finery of the law.
Vic’s Bar is understood to be incandescent, despite the anticipated lubrications.
Actually, Beech-Jones could also claim to be the first Tasmanian on the High Court, as he hails from the small mining town of Savage River before doing law and science at ANU and moving to Sydney, and Newtown. He is married to stellar playwright Suzie Miller – recently featured on Justinian’s couch.
Hobart’s Andrew Inglis Clark, a founding father, missed out on the High Court because he died too soon, as did Bill Zeeman from the Tassie Supremes via Amsterdam – after whom the famous Zeeman ashtray remains as a memorial.
Mark Dreyfus had the task of strengthening the Saloon’s talent pool following The Christian era, which saw lunar right elements at Vic’s Bar and Little Winston Howard arm twisting and log-rolling for their special interest appointees.
The only state never to produce a High Court judge is the convict-free paradise of South Australia. Why is that so?
One of Beech-Jones’ colourful cases, that may have been forgotten in all the excitement, was the Joe Gersten matter.
Joe, a former Florida politician, wound up on Australian shores after failing to be reelected back home.
The Los Angeles Times reported that he “fled” to Australia, seeking refugee status, because of a sex and drugs scandal.
The Miami New Times filled in the exciting contours:
“Gersten’s calamitous fall began April 29, 1992, when he reported to police that his ice-blue Mercedes-Benz had been stolen from his Hardee Road home in Coral Gables. The next morning police spotted small-time drug dealer Kenneth Elswick driving the car in Miami and arrested him. Elswick in turn led investigators to Claudia Lira, a prostitute who helped him rob Gersten at knifepoint while the commissioner allegedly was having sex and smoking crack with hooker Tracy Sheehan in a ramshackle drug den on NE 31st Street, just east of Biscayne Boulevard. Another eyewitness, Robert Maldonado, corroborated their story, saying the Mercedes had been taken from the crackhouse — not Gersten’s home. The scandal quickly erupted and dominated local news for weeks. Gersten fueled the headlines with allegations he was being set up by political foes.”
He said he was stitched up by crooked Florida politicians.
[That’s enough, Ed.]
He had various struggles with the Law Society of NSW over his trading ticket.
The Florida authorities wanted to feed him to the alligators on a contempt charge. In the stand-off he had Robert Beech-Jones at his side, but Leslie Katz wasn’t having a bar of it.
David Jackson took it to the High with no better result.
Happily, Immigration Minister Fabulous Phil Ruddock was ready with Joe’s visa.
Gersten told the Sun-Herald:
“I can get up in the mornings now without having a gut-wrenching feeling in my stomach about when they are going to deport me.”
That’s all for now. More as it comes to hand.