Susan Kiefel 'deeply honoured' by her appointment as first female chief justice in 113 years
Justice Susan Kiefel was sworn in as Australia’s first female High Court chief justice in Canberra. Taking over from the retiring Robert French, she took the oath of allegiance at an official ceremony on Monday. With this, Kiefel becomes the only woman to succeed to the highest judicial role in more than a century.
On Tuesday, she made her pledge to the High Court. She honoured Honourable Mary Goldron, the first female to be appointed to the High Court bench. "It would not be until 1987 that a woman, the Honourable Mary Goldron, was appointed to this court," Kiefel said.
"When I came to the bar in 1975, there were very few women members of the profession. This is not the occasion to consider why this was so," she added. Speaking with Fairfax Media, she also said she was "deeply honoured by the appointment and very conscious of the responsibilities of the office of chief justice."
Leaving school at the age of 15 years, she pursued her high school studies part-time. At the same time, she was also working as a legal secretary. She studied law part-time. In 1975, she was admitted to the Queensland Bar and, 12 years later, achieved the feat of becoming the first woman in Queensland to be appointed Queen's Counsel.
Kiefel, who has sat on the High Court bench since 2007, has previously served as a judge in the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Queensland. Her appointment as Chief Justice had come in November last year.
Speaking at a lecture to the International Congress of Comparative Law in Vienna in 2014, Kiefel shed light on the advantages of having more women judges. “In a wider societal sense, these appointments facilitate the acceptance of women as persons having public authority. The importance of this acceptance should not be undervalued,” she said.
As reported by AAP (via SBS), Attorney-General George Brandis congratulated Kiefel on her appointment as Chief Justice. He said Kiefel had been “the first woman to occupy a particular office.” At the same time, he said, “But your success has had nothing to do with your gender and everything to do with your intelligence, diligence and skill.”
“As I said as I announced your appointment, yours is truly a great Australian story,” Brandis said at the ceremony. He added it was “a story to inspire women and men alike.”
Justice James Edelman will be appointed to the High Court bench. He will be taking over Kiefel’s role. With this, 42-year-old Edelman becomes one of the youngest individuals to fill a vacancy.
