Chief Justice Susan Kiefel set to retire next month
The Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, Susan Kiefel, is retiring next month. She's the first woman to hold the nation's top judicial role.
Category
๐บ
TVTranscript
00:00 She left Sandgate State High School in Brisbane at the age of 15 at the end of year 10.
00:08 She then went to secretarial school.
00:10 She worked in a range of different offices, ranging from building societies to architecture
00:15 practices to mineral exploration outfits.
00:19 And then she started working at a barrister's chambers, typing up the legal briefs and the
00:25 legal opinions for a small number of barristers.
00:29 And she loved it.
00:30 And that inspired her to study law.
00:32 But rather than going to university, she studied via what's known as the barrister's board
00:38 system, which is no longer operational in most parts of the country.
00:43 And that's where you basically study by yourself.
00:45 You don't attend university lectures.
00:46 You study by yourself, but with the mentorship and support of barristers.
00:51 And then you pass the same exams as the university students, which she did with flying colours.
00:57 And then at the ripe old age of 21, she graduates and is admitted to the bar, the Queensland
01:04 Bar.
01:05 So what was her experience like as a young female barrister in Queensland in the middle
01:10 of the 1970s?
01:11 Well, women were a tiny, tiny minority.
01:14 I think in her year, there were only three women admitted to the bar in Queensland.
01:19 So they're a tiny minority.
01:21 And she says, look, you know, it was well known that many law firms had a practice of
01:26 not briefing women barristers.
01:29 Many clients didn't want their case to be argued in court by a woman barrister.
01:35 And she says on some occasions, you know, briefs were removed from her when it was realised
01:39 she was a woman.
01:41 But despite all those obstacles, her reputation grew.
01:46 People looked at the work she did and were very impressed and her career flourished.
01:51 She was appointed the first QC or senior counsel, first woman senior counsel or QC in Queensland
01:58 at the age of 33, which is a very, very young age.
02:01 She then went on to become only the second woman ever appointed at that time.
02:07 Second woman appointed to the Queensland Supreme Court.
02:09 She then transfers to the federal court.
02:12 Then in 2007, she's appointed to the High Court of Australia.
02:14 And then in 2017, she's the first woman to be appointed the Chief Justice of the High
02:20 Court of Australia.
02:21 So it's been an amazing career.
02:24 And Damian, the Chief Justice is perhaps best known to the public for her handling of sexual
02:29 harassment claims against retired Justice Dyson Hayden.
02:32 Now, how did she respond to those claims?
02:34 Yeah, so back in June 2020, the High Court of Australia revealed that six women judges
02:43 associates had come forward to make complaints of sexual harassment against Justice Dyson
02:48 Hayden, who had retired from the court back in 2013, before well before Susan Keefer was
02:55 made Chief Justice, by the way.
02:57 Now, in a statement from her office at the time, she said, quote, "The findings are of
03:02 extreme concern to me.
03:04 We're ashamed that this could have happened at the High Court of Australia.
03:07 We have made a sincere apology to the six women whose complaints were borne out.
03:13 We know it would have been difficult to come forward.
03:15 Their accounts of their experiences at the time have been believed."
03:19 And this independent investigation made six recommendations, all of which were implemented
03:25 by the court.
03:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]