Crack in glass ceiling

Increase in X chromosomes on Queensland Supreme Court ... Attorney General Dick's outgoing appointments ... Sir Terence O'Rort analyses the great social, cultural and gender shifts in the Queensland judiciary

Cameron Dick: one last flingDeparting Queensland Attorney General Cameron Dick has taken a hammer to the glass ceiling by appointing District Court Judge Julie Dick (no relation) as an acting Supremo and Jean Dalton SC as a fully-fledged Supremo. 

Bjelke-Beattie and Captain Bligh have always been gender friendly and gone are the days when the entire Supreme Court could be found on a Friday arvo at the long bar of Tatts or the dining room of the Queensland Club.

Bjelke-Beattie wasted no time in appointing Mrs Margaret McMurdo, Ms Margaret Wilson and Her Roziness in 1998.

They were followed in 2000 by Ms Catherine Holmes, Mrs Debra Mullins and Mrs Anthe Philipides in 2000.

Then the blokes bagged all the places until 2006, when Mrs Ann Lyons was appointed to the court.

Membership of the Supremes is open to married couples, i.e. Mr Peter and Mrs Ann Lyons, Mr Philip and Mrs Margaret McMurdo, single persons i.e. Ms Margaret Wilson and Ms Jean Dalton, and even same-named parties who are unrelated i.e. Margaret Wilson and Alan Wilson.

A happy troupe of of jurists has come together under the baton of Daphnis de Jersey CJ.

Life with Daphnis

Is it an accident that the Daubstar is at one end and that Mr & Mrs Lyons JJ are at the other end of the photo?

Sporty new snap of the CJThere was all sorts of confusion when Ann Lyons J was appointed and the Daubstar as Vice-President of the Queensland Bar 'n' Grill said a few icy words at her swearing-in:

"The bar presumes then, Your Honour, to speak with some considerable collective authority on the topic when we say that we understand completely the proportion of the challenge you have assumed by accepting appointment to this Court... It must be said that occasionally, the degree of consultation with the bar can at best be described as tokenistic... The reality is that Your Honour's appointment, as with some other judicial appointments, will only fuel the debate as to the manner in which the executive government should exercise its power of judicial appointment."

Ouch!

Let's not forget all the hullabaloo when Her Roziness was appointed to the bench. Bob Gotterson QC, then chief barman at the local grill, said that Justice Atkinson had ...

"demonstrated ability in her relatively short career as a lawyers, but not for the time and at the level necessary to demonstrate a capacity to perform the function as justice of the Supreme Court."

But, as we know, Roz has had the last laugh because she's been on the court for 13 years and she even gets to stand next to Daphnis in the official photo. Also, see my recent missive on HH. 

The Dizzo has also been flooded with female hormones ever since Bjelke-Beattie took over the reins.

Chief Judge Pasty Wolfe was appointed in 1995, Deborah Richards in 1998, Sarah Bradley in 1999, Julie Dick in 2000, Julie Ryrie in 2005, Fleur Kingham in 2006, Leanne Clare in 2008 and Katherine McGinness in 2009.

Patsy and her gang of smiling assassins

The Maggies Court has been positively awash with the whiff of Chanel No.5 going all the way back to (Lady) Di Fingleton who was first appointed chief stipendiary magistrate, then resigned, was convicted, jailed, acquitted on appeal and then re-appointed a magistrate.

Since Lady Di was appointed we've had Maxine Baldwin, Jennifer Batts, Jane Bentley, Linda Bradford-Morgan, Janelle Brassington, Bernadette Callagahan, Catherine Clements, Suzette Coates, Sheryl Cornack, Wendy Cull, Judith Daley, Pam Dowse, Elizabeth Hall, Annette Hennessy, Donna MacCallum, Kerry Magee, Leanne O'Shea, Jacqui Payne, Sandra Pearson, Catherine Pirie, Tina Previtera, Christine Roney, Kay Ryan, Bronwyn Springer, Virginia Sturgess, Anne Thacker, Stephanie Tonkin, Cathy Wadley and Joan White.

Jean Dalton Catherine HolmesWhat I want to know is whether Catherine Holmes J and Jean Dalton were separated at birth.

Sir Terence O'Rort reporting