| Justice Vince Bruce addressed the New South Wales parliament so they could hear his point of view on why he should be allowed to continue practising as a judge. This was after the Judicial Commission of NSW found his inability to perform his duties to be in the ‘serious’ capacity. Their findings meant that the matter would be dealt with in parliament. If parliament found him to be incapable of performing his duties, it would tell the Governor to dismiss him. In parliament, Justice Vince Bruce talked about his depression and how it was now under control through medication. He also believed that if he was found incapable due to his ‘mental illness’ it would send a poor message to the community regarding the work ability of those suffering from depression. The judge also believed that, because he had been in charge of some of the most complex and landmark cases in Australia, that spoke for itself about his exemplary capabilities. Below is an extract from Hansard, reporting the attendance of Justice Vince Bruce and the Judge's address. |
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| Attendance of Justice Vince Bruce at the Bar of the House | |
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PRESIDENT: JUSTICE BRUCE: Mr President, this is an historic occasion not only for me but for the honourable members of this House. This is the first occasion on which this Chamber has been placed in a position to rule upon whether a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales should be removed. Parliament may remove a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales by an address from both houses of Parliament seeking removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or proved incapacity. ….There is criticism,
and justifiable criticism, of the delay by me in delivering some judgments
which, when I got behind, I was unable to deal with because of the medical
condition from which I suffered. That …is why I am here and only
why I am here. That is the basis upon which you are being asked to make
an historic decision which will affect the relationship between the Judiciary,
the Legislature
and the Executive
of this State. ….I believe that my removal would send a message to
the people of Australia that if you have an illness from which you recover,
especially an illness about which there is widespread misinformation and
public ignorance, then you are unemployable….I have been deluged
with hundreds of letters, faxes and telephone calls from people who have
the illness, including judges who are on medication, senior practitioners
who are on medication and people from all walks of life. ….I am not ashamed. I had an illness. When it was diagnosed it was simply cured. If I can make a contribution to the community to ensure that others have the same opportunities that I had, then I will do it.
…The findings of the Conduct Division are completely irrelevant to you, except in so far as they constitute a trigger which enables both Houses of this honourable Parliament to consider the question of my removal. If they are adverse, as they were by the majority of the tribunal in my case, then you, the Parliament, may consider my removal. The findings are not that Parliament should, or that it would be proper to pass a motion affecting the position of a justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, or indeed affecting my position as a justice of that court. …I am on trial before this House for my professional life and for what I have aspired to throughout my life. I would respectfully submit it would be a gross injustice not to permit me to deal with any accusation that is made against me. ….The Chief Justice and I agreed that I would sit for only limited periods until those judgments were completed. The judgments were listed in ascending order of difficulty so that I could, for my own feeling of wellbeing, get back …and start disposing of judgments and work up to the more difficult cases…. In addition, during that time an infrequent back complaint recurred, which caused me to spend a few days or parts of days lying on the floor. In spite of that difficulty and in spite of a monumental migraine - which I will deal with later - which incapacitated me by the time we came to the hearing in the Conduct Division I had delivered not only the judgments that I had agreed with the Chief Justice to deliver, but also another judgment. I delivered that judgment on 4 May 1998. As well, I delivered 11 other judgments, some of which related to cases I had heard during the period when I should not have been sitting, and some of which did not appear on the list because I had heard them in the first three weeks of February 1998, when I returned to work following my illness. The agreement I had with the Chief Justice was that I would deliver 19 or 20 judgments by the time the Judicial Commission hearing came on. In fact I delivered not less than 30 judgments in that time, even though at that time I sat in court and I was ill. I would respectfully say that the finding that I procrastinate, which was arrived at by the majority, is just too silly for words…there is virtually no possibility that I will ever suffer from depression again. …On the basis
of the material before the Conduct Division one of Australia's most highly
regarded and respected jurists, the former President of the Court of Appeal,
concluded that it was not possible for Parliament to even consider the
possibility of removing me from office as a justice of the Supreme Court
of New South Wales. The other two members of the Court of Appeal managed
to conclude that Parliament could consider the possibility of my removal.
…The absence of depression and migraines has transformed my life.
Subject to the pressures that I have been under from coming here, I now
lead a life that most people in the community are able to enjoy, and that
is a revelation for me. I shall turn to the question of depression. ..Like most members of the community, I regard it as unbelievably embarrassing that I should suffer from depression. I did not tell my family or friends that I had been diagnosed with the illness. I was so embarrassed that I was not able to tell my loved ones about the proceedings taking place before the Judicial Commission and the humiliation that that brought to me. But when publicity was inevitable, I was forced to confront that illness and confront what I regarded as the opprobrium of telling my loved ones that I had what I had always regarded as a weakness in others. Telling them and telling the world has been the most uplifting experience in my life. The support that I have had from my loved ones and the community has been overwhelming. The number of letters, phone calls and faxes from people who tell horror stories of what has happened to them and who applaud the fact that I have stood up rather than gone off into retirement has been absolutely overwhelming. It has restored my faith in the people of Australia. … I am here
fighting not only because of the pride that I have in having achieved
the position that I have achieved in this community - but for the respect
and the dignity of the millions of people in this country who have suffered
and will suffer from the same illness that I suffered from.. I took that
position (of Supreme Court Judge) not to make money, not to have a highly
paid job, but to serve the community and ensure so far as I was able that
justice was done to those who appeared before me and, so far as I could
ensure, to others. I have always endeavoured to administer justice in
accordance with the law. Since I have been a judge and up to the time
that I crashed - perhaps that is the right way of putting it - at the
end of last year with my illness, I had heard something in the order of
400 matters. In the main I had disposed of those matters promptly and
without complaint. I had disposed of them by being in my chambers for
11 or 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week. There is no suggestion
by anyone before the Judicial Commission or, so far as I am aware, anywhere
else that I was not a courteous and efficient judge. There was no suggestion
before the Judicial Commission or anywhere else that I was not an extremely
competent judge. The effect of the illness from which I suffered was that a number of the many cases that I heard during my career as a judge got behind, my illness prevented me from going back and dealing with them. That was tragic for the litigants who suffered as a result of that illness. But depression is an illness that causes tragedy not only to the people who suffer from it but also to members of their family, to people who are dependent upon them and to people on whom they depend. It ripples right throughout our community. It affects you in all aspects of your life: in your home life, your relations with people, your working life, your ability to do many things, to attend to your business affairs properly, to file business documents. It just pervades your whole life. When one comes to address it, it is a disease, an illness, an affliction which can be fixed.….There is no material before me or available to me which indicates how long it takes for judgments to be delivered. I have read in the
newspapers since my plight became public that one judgment has been delivered
after being outstanding for 34 months and that another has been delivered
after being outstanding for two years. There have been judgments outstanding
in the Court of Appeal for a year; and there have been judgments outstanding
in the Court of Criminal Appeal for 16 months. Now that is not right,
but to what is it attributable? I do not know and I do not know how many
there are, and it seems to me that a structure that makes those matters
transparent to the public is entirely acceptable in this day and age.
If there are justifications for those delays, such as overwork, the pressure
of work or illness, they can be addressed; and why should not the public
be aware of what is really happening in the system? I will be perfectly happy for my position in relation to reserved judgments to be put on the Internet tomorrow. To do that does not impact in any way on my judicial independence. …Judges have a duty to do right by those before them and by the community at large. I have tried to do that and in some respects I have failed, and for that I apologise. One thing which may come out of my disaster is that some good may be done by way of implementing a proper process by which matters are dealt with at an administrative level. If judges need time to deliver judgments they should be given that time. They should not be required to scribble them at night or on weekends when they should be doing what ordinary people do, that is, having time off to rest and recharge their batteries so that they may work efficiently and competently during proper working hours and in proper working conditions. If the dissemination of information about the workload of judges and the conditions under which they work achieves that end, it is a highly desirable outcome. ..So far as I am aware in the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales - and the new Chief Judge is endeavouring to put in place a system which will achieve this - there is no system now that records the judgments that individual judges have outstanding, or how long those judgments have been outstanding. .…Those problems may result from a judge having too much work to do or being involved in a major case. As I have said repeatedly, I do not regard that as an invasion of my judicial independence. The public is entitled to know what judges are doing and how long it takes them to do it. If that means that overwork or indolence is exposed, then so be it. If it is seen that resources are required or procedures need to be changed so that the workload can be better managed, they should be provided and judges should stand up and say, "We are doing too much work, the system is wrong, we need more judges, we need different procedures" - whatever is necessary to achieve the result that the courts deliver justice promptly and properly to the people of this State. Mr President, honourable members, thank you for giving me the opportunity to put the truth before you. If there is nothing further you require, may I have your leave to withdraw? The PRESIDENT: JUSTICE BRUCE: |
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See page five of Hansard record for full transcript
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