COVER STORY ! he Honourable Justice Jenny Blokland Welcome Ceremonial Sitting Friday 9 April 2010

special sitting of the Full Attorney-General, Ms honourable Court. ACourt of the Supreme Court of the was held Delia Lawrie MLA Almost twenty years ago now, on Friday 9 April 2010 for the another female Chief Magistrate, presentation of the commission of t gives me great professional J, was promoted to her Honour, Justice Blokland, and Iand personal pleasure to rise this Bench and earned the great to welcome her Honourto the Court. on behalf of this Government respect of the Territory’s legal This article contains excerpts from to welcome the appointment of fraternity. I have no doubt your the addresses made at the sitting. your Honour, Blokland J, to this Honour will do the same. It has been a long journey from Ardrossan in South , where your Honour was born, to the present. Your Honour was educated at Modbury High School in Adelaide and subsequently completed a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Adelaide. Your Honour undertook articles of clerkship at the then Northern Territory Department of Law between 1980 and 1981.

Your Honour left shortly after completion of your articles and took up a position with the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, where you practised in the

The Affirmation I, Jenny May Blokland, do solemnly and sincerely promise, affirm and declare that I will bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors according to law, that I will well and truly serve her in the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory of Australia and that I will do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or favour, affection or ill The Hon Justice Blokland takes her Affirmation of Office in the presence of His will. Honour, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Mr. Tom Pauling AO QC.

16 www.lawsocietynt.asn.au The Hon Justice Blokland subscribes her Affirmation of Office in the presence of His Honour, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Mr. Tom Pauling AO QC. The Commission, read areas of criminal law and family law. different challenges and, following by the Master: Your Honour then moved to the the election of the present Australian Legal Aid Office where government in 2001, your Honour To the Honourable Jenny May you also practised in criminal law was appointed as Director of Policy Blokland. and family law. with the Department of Justice. Know ye that reposing full trust Your Honour was subsequently In 1987, your Honour sought and confidence in your loyalty, appointed as a Magistrate in 2002 to further your education at learning, integrity and ability, I, and then as Chief Magistrate in the University of Adelaide and Thomas Ian Pauling, Officer of 2006. undertook a masters degree in the Order of Australia, Adminis­ trator of the Northern Territory of law and course work with a minor During the course of your Honour’s Australia, acting with the advice thesis in evidence. Your Honour legal career, you have served on of the Executive Council of the also worked as a research officer numerous boards, including as a Northern Territory of Australia and part-time tutorduring that time. member of the Legal Practitioner in pursuance of section 32(1) of In 1990, your Honour returned to Complaints Committee, the Legal the Supreme Court Act 1979 do, the Northern Territory and took Aid Commission and the Criminal by my commission, appoint you, up a position as a lecturer at the Code Review Committee and as Jenny May Blokland, learned in Northern Territory University, President of the Northern Territory the law for the Northern Territory, where you taught in the areas of Criminal Lawyers Association to be a Judge of the Supreme criminal law, evidence and public between 1991 and 1994. international law, and also held an Court in the Northern Territory appointment as a Judicial Registrar YourHonourhasalso had published of Australia from and including of the Industrial Relations Court a number of articles focusing on the ninth day of April in the year of Australia. Your Honour was criminal law and the position of of our Lord, 2010 to have, hold, appointed as Dean of the Law indigenous and underprivileged exercise and enjoy the said Faculty in 1996. people in the justice system, office of Judge of the Supreme including feminist amicus brief in Court of the Northern Territory In 1998, your Honour took up the stolen generation’s litigation, of Australia under and subject to a position as general counsel published in the Aboriginal Law the provisions of the Supreme for the Office of the Director of Bulletin in 1997 and, Where Two Court Act 1979, as amended Public Prosecutions. Your Honour Worlds Collide, published in the from time to time, during good remained there until 2000 and, Alternative Law Journal in 2006. behaviour with ail rights, powers, during that time, appeared in six privileges, advantages and reported cases. Your Honour then Your Honour brings to this Bench jurisdiction thereto belonging to practised as a barrister at James a great interest and commitment or appertaining. Muirhead Chambers. to the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative Given under the seal of the After some months at the private justice. Your Honour has been a Administrator. Bar, your Honour decided to seek champion of the community courts

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and the work done in bush courts, Territory and to wish you a warm who worked with you at NAALAS and the scope of your many judicial welcome. remember you as an excellent decisions has traversed all areas and a lively colleague and a good of the law. At the Bar, first reactions to a judicial friend. Some are here today to appointment are instructive. Upon welcome your appointment. Your mother, Joan, who is here the announcementofyourHonour’s today, has been a role model appointment the reaction of the Those were the early days in the and an inspiration to you. Your members of the Bar Association advancement of Aboriginal people mother, a kind and generous was positive and almost effusive, in the Australian justice system. woman, passed on to you a strong especially among senior members. Your Honour acquired the name work ethic and a love of learning Your Honour’s appointment to the of The Voir Dire Kid’ as a result of and education. The people of the Bench is genuinely welcomed and your feisty advocacy in the criminal Northern Territory, in turn, have supported by the Northern Territory jurisdiction. The office you worked benefited and will continue to Bar. It is an appointment based on in was the original Aboriginal benefit from the encouragement, merit, together with your Honour’s Legal Aid office in Bennett Street, belief and support your mother long experience in the law and now demolished. Your Honour’s gives you. Although your father, the wider Northern Territory residence at the time was 4 Frank, is no longer with us, he was community, with all its complexities, Hinkler Street, Fannie Bay, now a also an important influence in your over the last 30 years. development site, but in the 1980s life and it is maybe because of the a hub and social centre for those time he spent in the Territory in In the early 1980s, your Honour involved in advancing justice for the 1950s that led you to make the was articled to that then well- the marginalised. Territory your home. known duo, Geoff Clarke and Bob Hook, in the Department of Law. Your Honour was and continues The people ofthe Northern Territory You worked with the first Solicitor- to be a lover of music, a composer may trust that your Honour will General ofthe Northern Territory, of songs and an avid guitar player, discharge your judicial duties in Ian Barker QC. The building you galvanising your colleagues accordance with your oath and with worked in was the Wells Building, socially and artistically in the the utmost intellectual integrity. I now demolished and over which otherwise serious and challenging wish your Honour, your Honour’s the Legislative Assembly now role of advocating justice for the partner, Jamie, and your Honour’s stands. But your Honour was Aboriginal people in the Northern children, Anthony and Helena, young, restless and wanting to Territory. all the best in this next exciting make a real contribution to justice chapter of your lives. beyond the important legal issues You were the third democratically that confronted the new Territory, appointed president ofthe Criminal with self-government only four or Lawyers Association of the Ms Raelene Webb QC so years old. Northern Territory. Your Honour President ofthe Northern Territory was an active arid principled Bar Association Your Honour moved on to work as president and had a prominent a solicitor advocate at the North public advocacy role in relation n behalf of the members of Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid to matters of criminal justice. It Othe Northern Territory Bar Service, joining a day after Colin was during your involvement with Association, I am pleased to McDonald QC, in October 1981. the Criminal Lawyers Association congratulate your Honour, Justice To your role in Aboriginal legal at the Annual Bali Conference Blokland, on your appointment to aid your Honour brought passion, that your Honour displayed your the Supreme Court ofthe Northern empathy and enthusiasm. Those versatility as a barrel girl to the then

18 www.lawsocietynt.asn.au History is made, as for the first time the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory has two female Judges; The Hon Justice Jenny Blokland and The Hon Justice Judith Kelly

Attorney-General, the Honourable Daryl Manzie. The experience is one your Honour shares with the Honourable Virginia Bell J of the High Court of Australia, who appeared as a barrel girl in a popular 1980s television program.

Since your early days in legal aid, Looking back, your Honour’s the Bench, and with joy that we your Honour’s career has been career has mirrored so much of welcome a new member of the diverse and you have continued Darwin’s contemporary history Bench, your Honours, I must admit, your pioneering role. You were and development. Whilst buildings it gets very difficult. The order of an academic and then dean at the you have worked and lived in have proceedings are generally similar. new Law Faculty of the Northern been demolished and earmarked The Honourable Madam Attorney Territory University. Your Honour for redevelopment, your Honour provides a well-researched was a member of the Northern has maintained your values, and well-prepared submission Territory Bar and was general passion and commitment for justice identifying the career highlights counsel forthe Office ofthe Director and truth while, at the same time, of the judge in question. The of Public Prosecutions. moving forward with change. president of the Bar then expands upon significant achievements and Appointed a Magistrate in 2002, The Bar Association applauds your personal characteristics with some your Honour became Chief appointment and its members look personal additions, obviously due Magistrate of the Northern forward to advancing the interests to the familiarity of the Bar with the Territory in 2006. In this role, your of justice in your Honour’s Court. incoming or outgoing Judge. And Honour has enjoyed a deserved No longer a Chief, but your Honour then we get to the President ofthe reputation for scholarship, may borrow from Gilbert and Law Society. What do I say? politeness and concern for all, Sullivan and say: ‘For now, lama particularly the marginalised and judge, and a good judge, too.’ As I say, it gets difficult. I had relegated. Indeed, the Northern thought, your Honours, about Territory News has recognised making somequipaboutthefactthat your Honour for several years as Mr Matthew Storey as your Honour, Blokland J, taught amongst the 120 most powerful in President of the Law Society me evidence, if ever my knowledge the Northern Territory. Although Northern Territory of that area in the law was found I note your Honour’s rating has our Honours, normally a wanting in front of your Honour, I waned recently, attributable, Ypresident of the Law Society could beg forgiveness. And then I according to the Northern Territory will only make submissions at one thought, well, in fact, because your News, to your pleasant nature, or two of ceremonial sittings such Honour did teach me evidence, bringing calm and reasonableness as this. In the six months or so I any want of knowledge on my part to the courtroom and your failure have been president; I have made in that area is only attributable to to be strident and opinionated. submissions at the retirement of myself. So I resiled from that and Whether or not your elevation to Thomas J, the swearing in of Kelly I thought arid, on reflection, your the Supreme Court will raise your J, the retirement of Angel J and Honour, thinking about the time I standing in the most powerful list, now the swearing in of Blokland have known your Honour and the we trust it will not alter those most J. While it is always with regret work you have done, I identified admirable characteristics your that we farewell a member of three characteristics that, to me, Honour displays in court. describe your Honour.

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I would also like to adopt what her Honour, Kelly J, adopted from her Honour, Thomas J, and that is, 7 hope, most of all, that I will be a wise and good Judge for the community of the Northern Territory. ’ And that is my goal.

The first, your Honour, is a legal Honour’s time on the Bench will year, and reflected in Thomas J’s intellectualism. Legal skill and ensure the continuation and farewell sittings about what she academic ability and, as usual, growth of this Court’s reputation as said about traditions, is that it says Madam Attorney has outlined the a capable and honourable Court. something special about the court highlights of that and expanded system and legal profession, that upon by the President of the Bar we stop and pause and reflect on Association but, certainly, in my The Hon Justice Jenny occasions such as this, even in the dealings with your Honour, both as Blokland instance on the occasion of the yourstudent and as your colleague, commencement ofthe most junior I would endorse that absolutely. hank you, Madam Attorney, Ms member of the Court. Having Your Honour has a high level of TWebb QC and Mr Storey for watched many of these sittings legal skill and legal intellectualism. your kind and generous remarks. I in the past and now participating do sincerely appreciate the time and fairly centrally, I respectfully agree The second attribute, your Honour, care you have taken in preparing with all of that and just add that it that I identified is a superb these welcome speeches. Please is also reminiscent of that famous administrative ability and, again, accept my heartfelt thanks. I note legal tradition of walking over hot that has been outlined by the that you do have some very well- coals. submissions already made in your placed sources. Honour’s time, in my knowledge, I am mindful of the significant as Dean of Law at the Northern I would like to express my duties and responsibilities I will Territory University, as Director of appreciation to the Chief Justice be discharging as a Judge of Policy at the Department of Justice and Judges of the Court for this honourable Court. I trust the and, most recently, of course, as welcoming me to the Court. I community and the profession Chief Magistrate. thank all of you who are present understand I have committed today for your attendance as a sign myself to doing my best in But the third and perhaps most of goodwill towards the work ofthe accordance with the affirmation I significant attribute, your Honour, Court and to my participation as have taken. is humanism. I thought about the newest member. that term and I looked up some The notion of justice is not always definitions, and there are a number My gratitude to you all is expressed clear-cut. Justice has many of definitions of that term and I in the knowledge that most people components, often competing will not go through them all here. do try to avoid being In Court. components and competing The relevant definition I found is This is the case for some lawyers elements within a single case. I am as follows: ‘A perspective that as well; voluntary attendance is looking forward to the challenge attaches importance to human almost unheard of. So, coupled of, hopefully, resolving difficult dignity, concerns and capability, with the fact of your very busy cases with the assistance of the particularly rationality.’ The lives, it is truly touching that you profession and I am grateful for the doctrine that people’s duty is to have all made time to attend this opportunity to do so. I am looking promote human welfare. non-mandatory court sitting today. forward to working with juries and I look forward to leaving the final If I can quote from my learned While there are many attributes decision on matters of guilt or not sister, Kelly J. You will understand, that can be said to make for an guilty in serious cases to members as a long-time female practitioner, excellent judicial officer, these of the community who constitute it gives great pleasure to be able three: intellectualism, administrative the jury from time to time. ability and humanism, make me to say that. But quoting from her confident in predicting that your Honour’s welcome speech last I take this opportunity to thank all

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ofthe legal practitioners from all of personal history, has formed a generous with her encyclopaedic the diverse parts ofthe profession, really great backdrop forthe story of knowledge of literature and music both the private barristers and our lives and those of our children, that I am always grateful for. I also solicitors and those in the public Anthony and Helena, both born in acknowledge the support of my and community sectors. As a Darwin, and I thank Jamie for his brother, Peter, who cannot be here Magistrate, and previously as a many years of love and support. I today. Joan was a legal secretary practitioner, I have had a great know he has been a good friend to - noting Justice Angel does not deal to do with the Aboriginal legal many of you in the legal profession like a personal assistant - she was services in the Northern Territory, as well. I am very grateful for being a legal secretary, actually called the Legal Aid Commission and in a loving relationship and enjoy a herself a stenographer, as it was the Office ofthe Director of Public rich family life. I thank Anthony and in those days, and I learnt from a Prosecutions, both the Crown side Helena for their love and making very early age how not to treat staff and also the summary prosecution me feel so proud of them. I am, of if you want to get something done side. I thank all ofthe lawyers from course, very happy Helena is able and I, in turn, thank my secretary, those services, acknowledging that to be here today; Anthony is not. Ms Sally Glass, for her hard work, a number are posted in remote or professionalism, friendship these regional parts of the Territory For those of you who are in a last few years and, hopefully, where the need is very great. I also relationship with a lawyer or judicial ongoing. acknowledge the contribution of officer, I have found hearing the police prosecutors in both the main words ‘you’re not in court now’ to be Recently, I heard one of the centres and also remote areas a most effective line of argument. Territory’s brightest and best, Dave where the work of the summary So just use those at your will. Farquhar, say that he was proud to court that I have now left could Thanks also to my sisters-in-law, have some friends who were not barely be done without them. Helena and Nicki, for your support lawyers, and I am with him on that. today. And I thank those of my friends Some of you may know my partner whose friendships have continued and love of my life for over a quarter The other Territory connection that despite this legal life. Thanks for of a century, Jamie Gallacher. probably a lot of you do not know making it clear that you do not Jamie was born in Alice Springs is that of my father’s, who worked always want to talk about law, but during a time when his parents in the Territory in the 50s in mining you are still willing to put up with it were teaching at Areyonga and and stock work after jumping ship when it seems necessary. Thanks other parts of Central Australia. in Fremantle - yes, descendent of a for the music, the meals and the He did some of his schooling in boatperson - from the liberty ships fun. Papunya. The early teaching that provided work and travel to work of Jim and June took them all former Dutch resistance members. Finally, I would also like to adopt over the Territory, through much His stories ofthe Northern Territory what her Honour, Kelly J, adopted of the Top End as well, and this always inspired and it seemed from her Honour, Thomas J, and has brought a lifetime of enduring such a natural thing to do when an that is, ‘I hope, most of all, that I friendships, shared with our family opportunity came up to work in the will be a wise and good Judge for arid with many Aboriginal families Northern Territory. I am grateful the community of the Northern also in the Northern Territory. my mother, Joan, has travelled to Territory.’ And that is my goal. be present today. She continues to So that small part, a piece of love and inspire and is particularly

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