WA Bar president Mark Cuerden backs down from defence of Julian Burnside

The president of the WA Bar Association has walked back his defence of Julian Burnside QC.

Julian Burnside QC. Picture: AAP

The president of the WA Bar Association has walked back his defence of Julian Burnside QC following a backlash over the association’s fight with Liberal senator Sarah Henderson.

Mark Cuerden SC on Wednesday wrote to senior legal figure and the national chairman of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Mark Leibler, stopping short of an outright apology but conceding he and the Bar Council had not understood the “anti-Semitic” nature of Mr Burnside’s tweet that originally raised the senator’s ire.

“Having reflected and having gained a better understanding of the impact the use of such language may have, I wish to make it completely clear that the WA Bar cannot, does not, and will not support the use of anti-Semitic language,” Mr Cuerden wrote in his letter to Mr Leibler.

The surprise war of words between Mr Cuerden and Senator Henderson has been the talk of Perth legal circles since the correspondence was made public in recent days.

Senator Henderson had called for Mr Burnside to be stripped of his QC status and Order of Australia after the prominent human rights lawyer sent a tweet equating Israel’s treatment of Palestine to Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jews. Mr Burnside has since deleted the tweet and apologised.

Senator Henderson’s decision to write to the Victorian Bar Council, urging it to investigate Mr Burnside’s conduct, prompted a surprise entry into the fray by Mr Cuerden and the WA Bar Association. He wrote to Senator Henderson last week, accusing her of undermining freedom of speech and democratic liberal values in calling for Mr Burnside to lose his QC status and Order of Australia.

That in turn drew a stern response from Mr Leibler, senior partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler, who expressed his “personal and professional astonishment” over Mr Cuerden’s criticism of Senator Henderson. “I am genuinely baffled that, as president of the WA Bar Association, you would see it as appropriate to rebuke an Australian senator for suggesting that a high-profile member of the profession, who makes an undeniably anti-Semitic comment via social media, should face professional consequences,” Mr Leibler wrote.

In response, Mr Cuerden wrote that he and the Bar Council had not understood at the time that Mr Burnside’s tweet was “a recognised form of anti-Semitism”. “I wish to make it clear that the language of Mr Burnside’s comments was highly offensive and such as to warrant public condemnation,” he wrote.

“Your letter does, if I may say so with respect, eloquently and fully explain why comments such as those made by Mr Burnside are so deeply offensive to the Jewish community.”

Mr Leibler replied, saying he hoped and trusted the WA Bar Association president now appreciated the issue had nothing to do with freedom of speech.

“People can speak as freely as they wish in this country, but when public figures promote ideas that are anti-Semitic, racist or otherwise offensive, their suitability to hold positions of influence is called into question. That is what this issue is about.”

Senator Henderson said she was pleased the WA Bar Association had realised its “most serious error of judgment”.