Judge ponders bankers’ diverse and rich use of the F-word

Jonathan Beach felt bankers’ “rich and diverse” language was key to his ruling on a rate-rigging case. He went into some detail.

Star Westpac trader Col Roden’s “use of the “f**k” word and its derivatives was rich and diverse,” said Justice Beach.

A Federal Court judge’s half-page exposition on the use of the “F” word by Westpac’s traders is one of the more bizarre features of a ​643-page judgment, in which the bank was found to have engaged in unconscionable conduct by trying to rig the bank bill swap rate.

Jonathan Beach’s analysis became necessary after tapes played in last year’s trial recorded Westpac trader Colin “The Rat” Roden saying he was going to “f**k” the rate.

Philip Crutchfield QC, for ASIC, argued that the word “in this context” meant manipulate.

“And Mr Roden used it a number of times,” he said.

Justice Beach began his treatise by saying that “linguistic Darwinism” had favoured the English language, with its natural advantage springing from its capacity to create vocabulary and unashamedly appropriate it, but also its “diverse and rich deployment”.

“The f**k word and its use by the traders in the present context is a classic example,” he expounded in today’s judgment.

“It has been used as both a transitive and intransitive verb.

“It has been used in an active sense and a passive sense.

“It has been used in the past tense and the future tense.

“It has been used as an adjective.

“It has been used as a noun including as a verbal noun.

“Someone even tried to use it as an adverb.

“Occasionally it has been deployed not in any context that a formal grammarian would encourage, but simply to reflect an emotional response.

“Sometimes disappointment or exasperation, sometimes pleasant surprise or even admiration.

“Sometimes criticism, sometimes positive reinforcement.

“Even more occasionally, it has been used to indelicately communicate the thought that caution was being thrown to the wind.

“Clearly, the f**k word and its derivatives are not terms of art in the finance industry.

“Nevertheless, their use in otherwise polite conversation appears to have been well understood by the colourful interlocutors.”

Truer words have never been spoken.