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Big foreign travel bills for judges
By Paul Whittaker
July 03, 2004
HIGH Court judges spent more than $200,000 in taxpayer funds travelling overseas with their spouses to attend law conferences over the past 12 months, despite complaining of a "striking increase" in their workload.

The seven judges who sit on the nation's highest court did not let a backlog of claims by asylum-seekers interfere with their quest to gain legal knowledge internationally.

Destinations for the jetsetting judiciary included Paris, London, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Auckland.

The High Court's 2002-03 annual report refers to the "striking increase" - 217 per cent - experienced by the court in the number of matters filed, compared with the previous year.

The number of constitutional writs filed increased from 300 to 2131, with almost all of these applications relating to migration matters.

A Freedom of Information request by The Weekend Australian shows that the judges have lived it up at exclusive hotels and resorts around the globe while attending legal conferences and other court-related events with their spouses.

The judges, in addition to their base salaries of $333,100, receive an open-ended entitlement to first class overseas and domestic official travel with their partners.

Chief Justice Murray Gleeson, who earns $367,060 a year, was the biggest spender, accumulating a bill of $44,577.45 on trips to six cities.

The Chief Justice is almost a law unto himself when it comes to overseas travel. He is not required to seek authorisation and need only inform the Prime Minister - as a courtesy - that he is leaving the country.

Like his colleagues, he simply submits his expenses to the Attorney-General's Department for clearance on his return.

The new figures come as the High Court enjoys a five-week winter recess, with two of its members - justices Michael McHugh and Ian Callinan - enjoying the northern summer and 30C-plus temperatures at the Australian Bar Association biennial conference being held this weekend in Florence, Italy.

The judges also received a two-part pay rise this week of almost 9 per cent.

With pensions set at 60 per cent of a judge's base salary for life, this takes High Court judges' packages to as high as $570,000.

Justice McHugh, the only judge not to travel overseas in the past year, was due to deliver last night the opening address of the ABA conference, titled The Strengths of the Weakest Arm, at the stunning Palazzo Vecchio, once home to Cosimo I de' Medici.

Justice Gleeson's most expensive trip, costing $19,614.39, took him to Paris and Johannesburg in March to attend the Bicentenary of the French Civil Code conference and the official opening of the Constitutional Court of South Africa by President Thabo Mbeki.

The 15-day trip included stopovers in Singapore and London, where Justice Gleeson stayed at London's swank Brown's Hotel in Mayfair at a cost of more than $700 a night.

The trip followed a $6000-plus four-day visit by Justice Gleeson and his wife, Robyn, to Auckland in January to attend the Supreme and Federal Court Judges' Conference.

The conference included a cruise to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a birdwatcher's paradise 30km east of Auckland, where delegates were able to view the Auckland Anniversary Day Yacht Race before enjoying a picnic lunch and a guided tour of the 220ha sanctuary for rare and endangered species.

The second-biggest spending traveller on the court was Queensland's Justice Callinan, who, accompanied by his wife Wendy, amassed a bill of $34,097.60 during a month abroad in the US and South Africa.

In March and April, Justice Callinan spent more than two weeks as the Judge-in-Residence at the Law School of the University of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Justice Callinan then made his way alone to Cape Town for the World Bar Conference. He stayed at the luxurious $350-a-night waterfront Table Bay Hotel, which looks out to notorious Robben Island, the maximum-security jail for political prisoners that housed Nelson Mandela during apartheid.

Justice Michael Kirby and his partner, Johan van Vloten, ran up a bill of $23,896.78 during a whirlwind two-week trip in November last year, which included stops in Bangkok, London, Amsterdam and Los Angeles.

Approval was given for Justice Kirby to travel to Europe, accompanied by his partner, for the purpose of delivering a series of lectures on judicial activism organised by the Hamlyn Trust .

After arriving in London, they flew on to Amsterdam where they stayed with Mr van Vloten's family in the Dutch town of Dordrecht before Justice Kirby flew back to Britain to complete a busy round of lectures, meetings and dinner engagements with leading legal and academic figures.

The frugal Justice Kirby was meticulous in keeping receipts for his travel on public transport, but had to declare incurring a pound stg. 1.60 expense to purchase a London Underground ticket he was forced to surrender.

Justice Kirby and Mr van Vloten flew home to Sydney via Los Angeles, where they spent a night at Hollywood's famous Roosevelt Hotel before flying home to Sydney.

Justice Gleeson declined to respond personally to the figures, but the court's official spokesperson provided a "no comment" answer to questions asking them to justify the cost of such travel.


WOW......YOU JUST DON'T KNOW PEOPLE! AFTER FOLLOWING SO MUCH OF JUSTICE KIRBY'S DECISIONS IN THE HIGH COURT, READING THE MATTERS AND TRANSCRIPTS......I NOW KNOW HIS GAY!!!! NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.