High court justice Robert Beech-Jones started his speech at a Townsville resort and casino last month with a joke.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not really sure what to talk about. So I picked up the conference brochure and discovered that I was talking about contemporary issues and the high court, which is not a bad place to start,\u201d he told the North Queensland Law Association Conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also realised that I was speaking at 9:00am on a Saturday morning after an organised gathering at a local bar. So I decided the best approach was to start you off gently but maybe wake everyone up with something a bit pointier towards the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of his speech<\/a>, those gathered at the Ville Resort\u2011Casino were certainly awake.<\/p>\n Beech-Jones spoke of Sir Samuel Griffith, a former Queensland premier and chief justice, who also became the first chief justice of the high court early in the 20th century.<\/p>\n Griffith had been \u201cremade and repackaged\u201d, Beech-Jones told the crowd, and a society which bears his name had turned him \u201cinto a warrior in the 21st century culture wars\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTo use postmodern language, Sir Samuel Griffith has been culturally appropriated; specifically, appropriated for the ideological and political ends of others,\u201d Beech-Jones said.<\/p>\n On Beech-Jones went, saying the Samuel Griffith Society promoted the \u201cominous\u201d formation of student chapters on universities; that its founding was marked by a borderline \u201cobsession\u201d with the Mabo native title case, including by hosting speakers who had said \u201cAborigines are a pretty incompetent lot\u201d; and implying that while the research it promoted in relation to the constitution sounded \u201centirely reasonable and fairly innocuous\u201d, it was anything but.<\/p>\n Beech-Jones then accused the society of attempting a US supreme court-style conservative stacking of the high court.<\/p>\n The judge painted a picture of dark forces gathering, of a Trumpian stalking horse, of the abused legacy of one of Queensland\u2019s most significant figures.<\/p>\n Justice Robert Beech-Jones. Photograph: High Court of Australia<\/p>\n He outlined how the decades-long process of stacking US courts with conservative appointees led to a series of troubling decisions, including striking down restrictions on selling firearms to people aged 18 to 21.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly a fool would think this was not the intended outcome of a sustained politicised and political process of stacking courts with supine judges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOrdinarily all this would be none of my business but these methods are being advocated for in Australia. This has made it my business and it has made it your business as custodians of the law; we are all interested in this, whether we like it or not. To adapt a phrase, they have driven into my lane and they have driven into yours.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anyone thinks this particular US style of court stacking and judicial decision-making is a good idea, then go and live there. The rule of law appears to be having an interesting time in that country.\u201d<\/p>\n Beech-Jones, who was sharing the stage with the chair of his presentation, the supreme court of Queensland\u2019s chief justice, Helen Bowskill, then finished his speech with a quote from a 2024 piece published by The Australian.<\/p>\n The piece, headlined \u201cThe legal profession\u2019s giant lurch to the left<\/a>\u201d, compared the Samuel Griffith Society to the US Federalist Society, which has been behind the push to stack its judiciary with conservatives, and suggested a \u201cquiet billionaire\u201d could help it succeed.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, there you have it,\u201d said Beech-Jones, who was appointed by the Albanese government<\/a> in 2023 from the NSW supreme court.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat would Samuel Griffith \u2026 have thought of appealing to billionaires to fund an Australian Federalist Society?<\/p>\n \u201cI do not think that question is very difficult to answer. But perhaps the better question is what do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Just do your job\u2019<\/p>\n It did not take long for Beech-Jones to find out what the protectors of the society thought.<\/p>\n \u201cJust do your job as a judge,\u201d Allan Myers KC, the president of the society, told The Australian<\/a>. \u201cThis assertion [of Griffiths being culturally appropriated] is false and no basis for it is made in the judge\u2019s address.\u201d<\/p>\n Myers said Beech-Jones had been asked to speak at the society\u2019s conference in August, but declined as he did not participate in \u201cpolitical gatherings\u201d.<\/p>\n