If even top judges can get it wrong when it comes to domestic abuse then perhaps it’s time we all tried to better understand the nature of coercive and controlling behaviour.
The electorate and those involved in public governance should focus more on how judges are appointed. This is because they need to make sure that individuals of the highest quality get the job.
There are inherent shortcomings in a procedure that asks judges to make objective and rational assessments about how their own conduct, relationships or interests might appear to others
How has a former judge with an avowed commitment to judicial independence and probity found himself at the centre of a very public controversy over his own impartiality?
It is no criticism of Australia’s judiciary to say that it would be preferable, both for them and the public, if they took office after a more transparent process.
Now that women will make up 40% of High Court judges come June 2015, is gender now irrelevant? Hardly. Women have made up slightly less than 10% of all High Court judges in the court’s history.
There are fault lines in all forms of government. Democracies are as vulnerable as any other to one of them: the charm of the easy and emotionally attractive answer to multi-faceted problems. This is not…