Queenslander to become next High Court judge

TWO of the seven judges on the High Court next year will be Queenslanders after Patrick Keane is elevated to the bench.

The honorable Patrick Keane Chief justice swearing in ceremony at the Federal Court.

TWO of the seven judges on the High Court next year will be Queenslanders after Patrick Keane is elevated to the bench.

The current Chief Justice of the Federal Court will join fellow Queenslander Susan Kiefel on the High Court bench in March when Dyson Heydon reaches the compulsory retirement age of 70.

Justice Keane will be the eighth Queenslander to serve in the highest court of land.

His appointment means a majority of four of the High Court judges will be Labor appointments.

But the 60-year-old is seen as non-partisan despite his Labor links.

In his 13-year tenure as Queensland Solicitor-General, Justice Keane served under both the Goss and Borbidge governments.

And shadow Attorney-General George Brandis described Justice Keane as a "distinguished lawyer" who had a "very illustrious reputation".

Senator Brandis, who in the past acted as a junior barrister on a number of cases with Justice Keane, also suggested the newest High Court judge would be a legal conservative when it comes to interpreting the Constitution.

"He is very much a black letter lawyer," Senator Brandis told the ABC.

"He has on occasions been quite critical in papers that he's given on judicial activism, so I think that Justice Keane will take a very lawyerly and reasonably conservative approach to his work."

In recent public statements, Justice Keane has argued against calls for a bill of rights in Australia.

He has also criticised the unnecessary complexity of some federal legislation.

However, his friend and former Queensland Attorney-General Matt Foley said Justice Keane also had a "particularly deep grasp of the law of Equity" and was willing to weigh up issues of fairness in his decisions. "He is a black letter lawyer," Mr Foley said. "But he hasn't been a judge who is stuck in the ideas of yesterday."

The Gillard Government has had both high profile wins and losses in the High Court recently, with decisions forcing an end to the Malaysia asylum seeker swap but another upholding Labor's tobacco plain packaging laws.

The incoming High Court judge is part of the so-called "pineapple mafia".

He went to university with Governor General Quentin Bryce and worked with former prime minister Kevin Rudd during the Goss government.