RubensteinKim, ‘Rethink Needed as New High Court Justice Appointment Seems to Maintain Gender Imbalance’, Canberra Times (Canberra), 12 December 2014.
2.
HobbsHarry, ‘Finding a Fair Reflection on the High Court of Australia’ (2015) 40(1) Alternative Law Journal13.
3.
MallesonKate, ‘Justifying Gender Equality on the Bench: Why Difference Won't Do’ (2003) 11(1) Feminist Legal Studies1, 14.
4.
See GilliganCarol, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, 173 (Harvard University Press, 1982); Menkel-MeadowCarrie, ‘Portia in a Different Voice: Speculations on a Women's Lawyering Process’ (1985) 1 Berkeley Women's Law Journal39.
5.
HunterRosemary, ‘Can Feminist Judges make a Difference?’ (2008) 15(1–2) International Journal of the Legal Profession7.
6.
WilliamsGeorge, ‘High Court Appointments: The Need for Reform’ (2008) 30(1) Sydney Law Review163, 166.
Australian Constitution 1901 (Cth) s72. See also High Court of Australia Act 1979 (Cth) ss 6–7 which provides scant additional detail in requiring that an Attorney-General ‘consult’ in making appointments and provides that in order to be eligible for appointment a person must be enrolled as a legal practitioner for at least 5 years.
9.
Williams, above n 6; WintertonGeorge, 'Appointment of Federal Judges in Australia (1987) 16Melbourne University Law Review185.
NelsonFelicity, ‘Do we need quotas for female judges?’, Lawyers Weekly, 27 April 2015.
14.
Other Australian courts lower in the judicial hierarchy have adopted reforms to appointment practices which have seen the adoption of more transparent practices – although they vary between jurisdictions, examples include published selection criteria, provision to express interest, and interviews with candidates. See SackvilleRonald, ‘Judicial Appointments: A Discussion Paper’ (2005) 14Journal of Judicial Administration117.
15.
Hobbs above n 2.
16.
BlackshieldAnthony, ‘The Appointment and Removal of Federal Judges’ in OpeskinBrianWheelerFiona (eds), The Australian Federal Judicial System (Melbourne University Press, 2000) 410, 428.
HunterRosemary, ‘Fear and Loathing in the Sunshine State’ (2004) 19(44) Australian Feminist Studies145, 153.
19.
HamiltonBarbara, ‘Criteria for Judicial Appointment and “Merit”’ (1999) 15QUI Law Journal10.
20.
Malleson, above n 3, 14.
21.
Gilligan above n 4.
22.
Malleson, above n 3, 14.
23.
Ibid.
24.
MackKathyAnleuSharyn Roach, ‘Women in the Australian Judiciary’ in EastealPatricia (ed), Women and the Law in Australia (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2010) 370, 385.
25.
CooneySean, ‘Gender and Judicial Selection: Should there be More Women on our Courts?’ (1993) 19Melbourne University Law Review20.
26.
DavisRachelWilliamsGeorge, ‘Reform of the Judicial Appointments Process: Gender and the Bench of the High Court of Australia’ (2003) 27Melbourne University Law Review819, 844.
27.
Ibid844.
28.
KenneySally J, Gender and Justice: Why Women in the Judiciary Really Matter (Routledge, 2013) 67.
29.
ThorntonMargaret, Otherness on the Bench: How merit is gendered (2007) 29(3) Sydney Law Review391, 413.
30.
For discussion of the way in which Australian ‘femocrats’ engaged with the state with a view to effecting feminist policies see: EisensteinHester, Inside Agitators: Australian Femocrats and the State (Temple University Press, 1996); and SawerMarian, Sisters in Suits: Women and Public Policy in Australia (Allen & Unwin, 1990).
31.
BurtonPamela, From Moree to Mabo: The Mary Gaudron Story (UWA Publishing, 2010), 249.
32.
Ibid.
33.
SteketeeMike, ‘Gaudron not a token, Hawke says’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), 10 December 1986, 3.
AlbrechtsenJanet, ‘The High Court is no place for gender polities’, The Australian (Sydney), 16 December 2008.
49.
Ibid.
50.
Rubenstein, above n 1.
51.
SzegoJulie, ‘Tony Abbott's “women problem” goes beyond the man’, The Age (Melbourne), 1 January 2015; SwanJonathan, ‘Tony Abbott's woman problem migrates to his ministry’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), 13 September 2013.
See CoxLisa, ‘Michelle Gordon to replace her husband on the High Court’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), 14 April 2015; GarberStefanie, ‘Judge takes husband's seat on High Court,’Lawyers Weekly, 15 April 2015.
55.
RackleyErika, Women, Judging and the Judiciary: From difference to diversity (Routledge, 2012) 194.
56.
OECD recently acknowledged Australia's gender balance in its Senate (38.2% women) as one of the best in the world while the number of women in the Lower House remained relatively stagnant (26.7% women). Conversely, the number of Commonwealth women ministers (17.2%) not only points to a lack of progress in gender diversity, but revealed that Australia is now lagging behind other OECD countries on this indicator. See Government at a Glance 2015 (OECD Publishing, 2015) <http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/gov_glance-2015-en>.
57.
See AIJA's gender statistics, compiled March 2015. These are illustrative of the continuing struggle to improve gender diversity in Australia's judiciary. Despite the ‘almost equal’ composition of the High Court, women made up 35% of Commonwealth judges. The ACT was the only state or territory where women make up more than half of the judiciary, with 55% of judges. In SA women make up 28% of the state's judges, Tasmania 30%, NSW 34%, Victoria 37%, NT 32%, and 28% in WA <http://www.aija.org.au/online/JudgesMagistrates.pdf>.
