Queensland’s judges revolting

Queensland Supreme Court judges and many of the state’s elite barris­ters are expected to boycott today’s public “welcoming ceremony’’ for Chief Justice Carmody and new Supreme Court judge Peter Flanagan QC The problem seems to be that Queensland’s judges and a majority of barristers are ALP voters and/or appointees and Carmody and Flanagan aren’t. In his first public comments on the appoint­ment, high-profile barrister Peter Callaghan SC told The Australian the time had come for his colleagues to get back to work.

“I wish him (Chief Justice Carmody) well and it’s time to move on and return our attention to the legal carnage of the (Premier Campbell) Newman and (Attorney-General Jarrod) Bleijie government,” said Mr Callaghan, the president of the Law and Justice Institute.

Legal carnage of a duly elected government…hmmm I wonder which way he votes? Newman needs to hold his ground and get rid of as many ALP appointees as he can and replace them with apolitical judges or, at the very least, not ALP card carriers.  Beattie and Bligh and completely changed the makeup of the courts so why can’t Newman? And, in due course, can we have the judges investigated by the CJC.  They are, after all, campaigning to have a Chief Justice removed for ideological reasons and are showing extreme bias that must come across in their day to day operations on the bench.