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Law Council of Australia president Arthur Moses SC has attacked a News Corp tabloid for its “unfair and sexist” front-page story yesterday, targeting the spouse travel allowances of High Court justices.
LCA is “especially disappointed”, Mr Moses wrote, that in the front-page story published Brisbane-based daily newspaper The Courier-Mail, the spouse of the High Court of Australia’s Chief Justice, Susan Kiefel AC, “has unfairly been drawn into the media report regarding travel expenses”.
“Judges and their spouses are regularly invited to attend events in Australia and overseas, which are directly related to their important and vital work, to speak to the legal profession and the broader community on a range of matters. They attend these events out of duty and service to the courts.”
The Chief Justice, in particular, Mr Moses continued, is required to undertake travel in her role at the request of the legal profession in order to address the profession across the country.
“Often her spouse is invited to attend these events. I am sure that the Chief Justice attends these events out of a sense of duty, not because she wants to be away from home,” he posited.
“I am troubled that the spouses of previous male Chief Justices have not been the subject of attention when travelling with their partner, but the male partner of our first female Chief Justice is the subject of this attention for routine travel.
“It is not appropriate that the spouses of judicial officers be drawn into these types of unnecessary and misinformed commentary which detract from the public service of our judicial officers.”
Jerome Doraisamy is the managing editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in New South Wales, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
You can email Jerome at:
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Jerome Doraisamy
