Shanahan, with books

Scriveners, notaries, proctors, briefs, and bar tenders in Tasmania are amazed and alarmed at the appointment of an unknown Perth barrister as their new chief justice to replace the outgoing man of the people Alan Blow. 

The elevation of Chris Shanahan SC from Swanside’s Murray Chambers was unveiled by Van Diemen’s uber-right attorney general Guy Barnett – who hails from the Otto Abetz wing of the Hermit Kingdom’s “Liberal” Party. 

Up and down Salamanca Place citizens were scratching their heads and asking, “Who’s Chris Shanahan when he’s at home”? As if the Greg Geason drama was not enough for Taswegians, now this. 

A number of candidates withdrew before the final decision was made – including Peter Tree, Div 1 of the FCFC, and Chris Gunson SC, a former president of the Tasmanian Bar. 

Gunson withdrew on November 3 in an email to the Attorney General’s chief-of-staff saying he was concerned that the assessment panel process had been “perverted” so as to result in advice to the AG “in favour of one particular applicant”. 

“The panel involved two people who have clear conflicts of interest which should have precluded both from sitting as part of the panel and considering expessions of interest at all.” 

It is difficult to find everyone who is delighted with this misplaced elevation. An important requirement for anyone holding office in Tasmania is a command of tribal customs and knowledge. The locals we have contacted feel the appointment of this CJ is a terrible slap in the chops for the court and the profession. 

The Tasmanian Women Lawyers Association is shocked and appalled that the court’s senior puisne judge Helen Wood was overlooked for CJ – pointing out that in the 200-year history of the Supreme Court of Tasmania, only four out of 14 Chief Justices were not existing puisne judges. 

Barnett claimed that handing the job to the Western Australian was in line with the appointments protocol – yet Will Justo, the President of the Law Society says this is not so.

“… It is with some disappointment I must report that the government did not follow their own judicial appointment protocol in that the Society was not consulted regarding the appointment of the Chief Justice … We are stakeholders and, whilst the decision is a matter for the Attorney General, the Society feels strongly that the protocol should be followed and that we expect consultation on all matters relevant to our profession and legislative change.” 

Barnett: something fishy going on

The ABC is reporting that an unnamed Tasmanian judge has told the AG he is “dismayed” Shanahan was handed the job – an interstate barrister with “modest professional achievement”. 

He told Barnett that like many of his colleagues he was “astonished at the news”. 

“It is a particularly poor decision when regard is had to the fact that the senior puisne judge, Justice Helen Wood, is universally respected, recognised as one of Tasmania’s best ever judges and has a history of service to Tasmania.”

This is so even though Justice Wood is known to drag the chain on the delivery of judgments. 

Mybe it’s not quite in the leage of Tim Carmody’s appointment as chief justice of Queensland – but close. 

The judiciary in WA are running at a millions miles, lest it be thought that any of them had endorsed Shanners for the job in Taswegia. 

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Chris must have seen an advertisement for the position and put up his hand. Details of his career are sketchy: an acting commissioner of the Corruption and Crime Commission and a sessional member of the State Administrative Tribunal. 

There would have to be a big incentive for going to Hobart because Tasmanian judges appointed after July 1, 1999 are not eligible for judicial pensions. Instead they receive superannuation contributions of nine percent paid by the government. 

Michael Barker, a former Federal Court judge and now editor of the Freemantle Shipping News, wrote an article enthusiastically announcing: 

“In a rare honour, an out-of-Tassie lawyer from Fremantle has been appointed to head Tasmania’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Tasmania.” 

John Pedder’s personal lake 

He notes that the colony’s first Chief Justice, Sir John Pedder, had a lake named after him and it might be appropriate if another expanse of water could be named Lake Shanahan. 

The Perth barrister’s Wikipedia entry shows he was sent to school at Aquinas College before university in Perth, also at the University of Sydney and Kenzo Tech (aka University of New South Wales). It also says he has been a recipient of a Lionel Murphy Scholarship. 

He says he did a stint as a public servant in the Department of PM and Cabinet. He lectures in Ethics and Professional Responsibility in courses conducted by the Law Society of WA. Murray Chambers website says he also presents papers on “advoccacy” (as the later Peter Lyons called it). 

He got his SC gong in December 2004 and was vice-president of the Bar n Grill in 2006-2006. His areas of practice included mining, native title and compulsory acquisition. All ideal for Tasmania. 

He is on the other side of 66, has been a silk for 20 years and done all the right things, so he might have hoped to succeed to the top spot at the Corruption Commission or a seat on the WA Supreme or Federal Courts. Alas. 

In 2018 the University of Notre Dame held a seminar on “end of life issues”, following the release of a parliamentary report on euthanasia, Shanahan was billed as a speaker, but unfortunately there is no record of what he said. 

People in receipt of letters of advice or other documents from Shanahan are bewildered that the correspondence is adorned with his family’s crest or coat of arms. 

The Australian Bar Association issued the customary welcoming grovel. 

What has been widely neglected in all the consternation was the appointment of Kate Cuthbertson to the Tas Supremes – and this is only four months after she was appointed to the Melbourne Registry of the Circus Court. 

The selection panel comprised Major General Melick (KC-in-Waiting); the acting secretary of the Department of Justice Kirsty Bourne; Tim Cox SC, head of the local Grill Room; and Two Wigs Willy Alstergren from the FCFC, probably because he owns an island off the coast of Tasmania. 

Back in WA, the Court of Appeal has lost Sam Vandongen to the Federal Court and Hayley Cormann gets a place on the WA District Court – she is the wife of our man at the OECD in Paris, the cigar chomping Mathias Cormann. 

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Hard on the heels of the shock Shanahan announcement, the royalist Attorney General declared a new protocol to enable Tassie SCs to slide over to KCs – presumably in the sad belief that changing stripes makes someone a better barrister. 

It came into effect on December 1 and already the usual suspects are questing for their bits of paper from the Guv’nor. 

Noted republican Greg Barns SC, from Republic Chambers Hobart, is appalled saying it’s “a truly embarrassing display of snobbery and reflects the reactionary mindset of the Tasmanian Bar”. 

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Alan Blow’s retirement ceremony was captured in technicolour by YouTube. If you scroll foward you’ll find the Attorney General’s cringeworthy speech …