Eulogies at the memorial service of Oct. 29, 1986 for Lionel Murphy : lawyer and Australian Labor Party politician, 1962-1975, Federal Attorney-General, 1972-1975 and Judge of the High Court of Australia, 1975-1986, held at the Lionel Murphy Library in Canberra / Patrick Brazil and others.

1986

62782

Murphy, Lionel, -- 1922-1986.

Politicians -- Biography -- Australia.

Memorial service.

Judges -- Biography. -- Australia.

Law reform -- Australia.

Attorneys general -- Australia.

Speakers at the memorial service include:

1. Patrick Brazil, Head of the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Dept.

2. Gavan Griffith, Solicitor General.

3. Gough Whitlam, Prime Minister of Australia, 1972-75, and former Federal Attorney-General.

4. Lionel Bowen, Deputy Prime Minister, 1972-75, and former Attorney General.

Open access.

Recorded on October 29, 1986 in Canberra, A.C.T.

Lionel Murphy, lawyer and politician, was born in 1922 in Kensington, Sydney, and educated at Sydney Boys High and the University of Sydney, graduating first with a science degree then following his admission to the N.S.W. Bar in 1947 he graduated in law in 1949. He specialised in industrial cases and became a QC in 1960. He was elected in 1962 as a Federal Australian Labor Party Senator for NSW and later became the Opposition leader of the Senate in 1967 where he was responsible for introducing to the Senate the American system of all-party committee hearings. When Whitlam won power in 1972, Murphy was made Attorney-General as well as Minister for Customs and Excise and used his position to introduce long-awaited reforms in human rights and equal justice. These included the introduction of the Family Law Act, the Law Reform Commission, the Legal Aid Office, and the Human Rights Commission, which were to transform Australia into a more egalitarian society. However, the speed of the introduction of his reforms aroused public controversy, as did acts such as initiating a Federal Police raid of ASIO's Melbourne office because of their refusal to release security information to him. He was later embroiled in the Morosi and Loans Affairs that plagued other key Labor ministers. In 1975 he was appointed to the High Court of Australia, appalling the conservative Court's Chief Justice Garfield Barwick. Subsequently Murphy's reforming zeal set the trend amongst other High Court judges to view Commonwealth powers as superceding State rights and the view that the Constitution guarantees civil libertarian and communal rights. In 1984 he was accused by NSW Chief Magistrate Clarrie Briese of attempting to subvert a case involving one of Murphy's friends. This effectively removed him as a High Court judge for two years while these claims were being investigated and reviewed. He returned to the High Court In 1986, having successfully been exonerated from the Briese affair. On Oct. 21 1986, having delivered his final two judgments, he died an hour later of cancer.

Oral History Collection.

1 sound disc : digital.