George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Chisholm, it is wrong to characterise the difference of legal opinion that I have with Mr Gleeson about the effect of the direction as a breakdown of relations. Lawyers disagree with each other about the law all the time. That is why I was at pains to try and explain to your colleague Senator Collins that legal propositions are intrinsically contestable. The best evidence of that you could possibly have is to go down the road and look at the High Court of Australia, where almost half of the decisions that the High Court gives are majority decisions in which some of the justices dissent from the majority opinion of the court. At every level in the legal profession, from the most junior lawyers of the land to the justices of the High Court of Australia, lawyers have differences of view about legal propositions. That does not mean there is a breakdown of relations between them. In fact, the entire system of our law is based upon a dialectical process of argument.