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

Mr Julian Burnside, whom I know slightly, hardly approaches this as an impartial observer. Yet even Mr Burnside has made the same point that I make about the Hon. Dyson Heydon: that he is a person of utterly unimpeachable integrity, a man with no politics, appointed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal by the Labor government of Mr Bob Carr, appointed to the High Court of Australia by the coalition government of John Howard. But, rather than one individual lawyer, let us remember what the Law Council of Australia had to say yesterday:

The public attacks on the commissioner being played out through the media are unacceptable and damage the basis on which tribunals and courts operate.

That is the voice of the Law Council of Australia representing every constituent body of the legal profession in Australia. That is the voice of the legal profession in this country— (Time expired).