Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Attorney-General, Senator Ellison. Is the minister aware of a paper on an independent judicial appointments commission which was presented to last Sunday’s judicial conference of Australia by two senior Australian academics? Is the minister aware of the authors of that paper saying that it is ‘a notorious fact that judicial officers have been appointed whose character and intellectual and legal capacities have been doubted and whose appointments have been identified as instances of political patronage’? Is the minister aware that, like many other countries, the United Kingdom has introduced an independent judicial appointments commission that ensures the short list given to the government is transparently selected on merit. Will the Australian government even consider reviewing its judicial appointments process?