Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about a giant of a man and a giant of the legal world in New South Wales. I speak of the Hon. Murray Herbert Tobias AM RFD KC, who passed away on 4 March this year. At Murray's funeral, his daughter and grandsons spoke beautifully about Murray the dad and grandad. I can only speak of him in my capacity of having briefed him on many occasions when he was a silk and I was a junior solicitor. His kindness to and support and encouragement of me will always be appreciated.

Murray was one of the first practitioners in the planning and environmental law jurisdiction in our state. Having been admitted to practice in 1964, he then took silk in 1978, finishing his career on the bench. At his funeral, Her Excellency the Hon. Margaret Beazley, Governor of New South Wales, spoke of his support for women at the bar, particularly his support for her when, in the early 1970s, there was very little mentoring and support of our pioneering female barristers. I know the Hon. Justice Sandra Duggan has always spoken of his mentoring of her and how she owes so much of her career and success to Murray.

Others at his funeral included legal luminaries Tim Hale SC, Malcolm Craig KC, Peter McClellan AM KC and the clerk of the leading Land and Environment Court floor in Sydney, Michele Kearns. Murray was a prolific letter writer, having recently written to one of his grandchildren, 'Stand straight, meet the challenges of life, be sensitive to others, conduct yourself with integrity and humility. Vale, Murray Tobias. (Time expired)