Campbell Newman too clever by half with his Tim Carmody sideshow

WELL, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Use the oldest trick in the salesman’s play book — bait and switch — to solve the Tim Carmody problem.

WELL, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Use the oldest trick in the salesman’s play book — bait and switch — to solve the Tim Carmody problem.

When the Newman government conceived a two-for-one strategy — combine the “public welcome” for the on-the-nose Chief Justice with the swearing in of highly regarded QC Peter Flanagan as a Supreme Court justice — it looked for all the world like a piece of PR genius.

It would be sold as a show of confidence for the man Newman likes to describe as a “knockabout bloke”. The thinking was that there was no way the judges et al would snub the new boy and Carmody could be his wingman.

This morning, at 9.15am in the Banco Court, it will result in an unprecedented snub for a chief justice. Unless there is a dramatic change of heart, all but two of the court’s 27 judges — Carmody and Flanagan — will boycott the ceremony, along with most of the senior bar.

The strategy might have worked but for the fact that Carmody hasn’t even tried to win the judges over. OK, they told him before he was appointed that they didn’t want him. Carmody even complained on radio that none of them had rung to congratulate him when his appointment was announced on June 13.

But since the chief started work three weeks ago, he has gone into hiding. No knocking on the doors of his fellow judges; none of his promised “friend-or-foe” chats; just a few formal meetings with senior judge administrator John Byrne and Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo.

And while chiefs usually like to hit the ground running, it’s been noticed that he hasn’t yet sat on a case — and won’t until August 11. (The court calendar released this week says his work will cover criminal trials, civil work and appeals.)

Carmody dominated chat among those at the installation of former chief justice Paul De Jersey as Governor on Tuesday. One attendee described the feeling towards Carmody as mix of anger and pity. But when it came to Premier Campbell Newman and Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie, he said it was “hatred”.

“And it’s biblical.”

The former chief magistrate took his oath on July 8 in a private ceremony — the equivalent of being snuck in via the back door. The government was forced down this track after being warned that senior judges and lawyers might not turn up to a ceremony. The line for public consumption was that most of the judges were away in Darwin for a conference that week and, yes, we will definitely be having a ceremony for Tim in the near future.

Hindsight says it would have been better for all concerned — Newman, Bleijie and Carmody himself — if they had cut their losses then. But the promise meant they had to do something. And with Newman telling the public he wanted to “mend fences with judiciary” — straight after a hiding in a recent by-election — what better way than with a shindig for the new chief. Look at the big crowd. See everyone is getting on just fine. Nothing to see here, keep moving along.

The concern with Carmody initially was more about his statements in support of bail and bikie laws. He had seemingly come from nowhere and had only been chief beak for eight months. That appointment came after he conducted a child protection inquiry for the government. Then details emerged of his CV as a Family Court judge from 2003 to 2008 and as chief magistrate. It was an appeals horror show — cut and pastes, poor counting, out-of-whack sentencing — and not worthy of a chief justice.

It’s not as if the Attorney-General wasn’t warned. The ever-reliable legal grapevine says he even called Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant as he tried to shore up support for Carmody during his please-agree-with-me (consultation) process. Bryant told Bleijie in very clear terms that Carmody was not suitable.

Bleijie wasn’t available for an interview and Bryant played a straight bat when contacted by Legal Affairs, saying she was “not prepared to comment on any confidential conversations had with Attorneys-General”.

The continuing hostility was underlined by an extraordinary outburst from the Court of Appeal’s Justice John Muir this week. Muir got wind of the fact that the old boy’s committee for his alma mater, Nudgee College, had invited Carmody to a business breakfast on August 14 and went berserk. He asked the committee to distribute an email that likened the appointment of Carmody to “a suburban GP being selected to lead a team of cardiac surgeons performing open heart surgery’’.

Muir has got a point. Pending a form reversal to rival champion racehorse Kingston Town after he was gelded, Carmody’s elevation will forever be regarded by lawyers — and perhaps the general public — as a reward for services rendered.

But back to the two-for-one strategy. Many of the Supremes have been ringing Flanagan to say “it’s not you, we are all delighted you are coming; it all about the Chief Justice”. Dan O’Gorman SC spoke for many when he described Flanagan as “collateral damage”.

One person in a difficult position today is the new president of the Bar Association, Shane Doyle QC. While everyone expects Bleijie and Law Society president Ian Bell to offer the usual gushing praise for both Carmody and Flanagan, Doyle knows his members are happy about Flanagan and unhappy about Carmody. The gush-ometer for both men will be carefully watched as Doyle walks — and talks — that tightrope.

Carmody is only 58, so he has a potential 12 years in the job. If the polls are to be believed, the government might only have another eight months. Some even regard the appointment of the Chief Justice as a tipping point for a public that has tired of Newman’s my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing.

Newman and Bleijie have been busy correcting past mistakes on the basis they are now “listening”. Sadly, it is too late with Carmody.