Mary Gaudron
|
The Honourable Mary Gaudron QC |
|
|---|---|
| Justice of the High Court of Australia | |
|
In office 6 February 1987 – 31 January 2003 |
|
| Nominated by | Bob Hawke |
| Appointed by | Ninian Stephen |
| Preceded by | Anthony Mason |
| Succeeded by | Dyson Heydon |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Mary Genevieve Gaudron 5 January 1943 Moree, New South Wales |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 2 daughters; 1 son |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
Mary Genevieve Gaudron QC (born 5 January 1943), is an Australian lawyer and judge, who was the first female Justice of the High Court of Australia. She was the Solicitor-General of New South Wales from 1981 until 1987 before her appointment to the High Court. After her retirement in 2002, she joined the International Labour Organization, serving as the President of its Administrative Tribunal from 2011 until 2014.
Gaudron was born in Moree, in northern rural New South Wales in 1943, the daughter of working class parents Edward and Grace. Gaudron would later speak about the intense racism towards Indigenous Australians which was part of everyday life in Moree and how it influenced her strong opposition to all forms of discrimination. In 1965, Moree was the site of a violent conflict during the Freedom Ride.
In 1951, H. V. Evatt passed through Moree to campaign for the "no" case in the 1951 referendum, at which the Menzies Liberal government was attempting to alter the Constitution of Australia in order to ban the Australian Communist Party. Evatt was addressing a small crowd from the back of a blue Holden ute, discussing the upcoming referendum and the Constitution, and Gaudron, not knowing what Evatt was referring to, asked "Please sir, what's a Constitution?" Evatt explained that it was "the laws by which Parliaments were governed." Gaudron asked whether it was similar to the Ten Commandments and Evatt replied that "you could call it the Ten Commandments of government." Gaudron then asked for a copy and Evatt subsequently sent her one in the mail. Gaudron, expecting two stone tablets, was disappointed to receive only a small pamphlet. However, when the school bullies declared the pamphlet useless, Gaudron retorted that it was of great use to lawyers, and that some day she would be one.
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