Jayne Jagot’s High Court appointment a win for diversity, says Mark Dreyfus

The High Court of Australia has come a long way since it appointing its first woman justice, Mary Gaudron, in 1986.

New High Court justice Jayne Jagot. Picture: John Feder

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has used the ceremonial sittings to welcome judge Jayne Jagot to the High Court of Australia to promote diversity as a central tenet of judicial selection, along with broad consultation.

“Your Honour’s appointment is of particular historical significance,” Mr Dreyfus said during the ceremony in Canberra on Monday. “Today, for the first time since Federation, women make up a majority on the bench of our highest court.

“A court that reflects the community it serves is a better court.

“Diversity is a strength – on the bench, and in the law more generally.”

Justice Jagot, a former Federal Court of Australia judge, is the seventh woman to be elevated to the High Court. Her appointment followed “an extensive consultation process with all state and territory attorneys-general, the shadow attorney‑general, the heads of the Federal Courts and state and territory Supreme Courts, state and territory Bar associations and law societies, Nat­ional Legal Aid, Australian Women Lawyers, the National Association of Community Legal Centres and deans of law schools,” Mr Dreyfus said.

Mr Dreyfus and Justice Jagot both acknowledged the presence at the sittings of retired judge Mary Gaudron, the first woman appointed to the High Court, in 1987.

“The fact that I am the seventh woman to be appointed, that I join a bench where the Chief Justice is a woman and that a prominent theme of the public remarks made on my appointment was not so much that I am a woman, but that my appointment meant that for the first time this court has a majority of women, shows how far we have come in those 3½ decades,” Justice Jagot said.

She stressed her humble beginnings as the child of British migrants, public school education and the opportunities available to excel in her adopted homeland.

Australian National University legal academic associate professor Heather Roberts said Mr Dreyfus had delivered “unambiguous affirmation of the value of diversity”. Dr Roberts has studied speeches at superior court ceremonial welcomes in Australia and said Monday’s was the first time an attorney-general had ever “led with the importance of diversity in the judiciary”.

“No attorney has ever led with a statement as bold and decisive,” Dr Roberts said. “That’s a massive signal of his future intentions in terms of judicial appointments.”

She said it was disappointing the High Court did not generally live-stream such sittings, with the exception of the elevation of its first woman Chief Justice, Susan Kiefel, in 2017. “If we are to have a judiciary that is accountable to the public, letting the Australian public know who our judges are is extremely important and streaming these ceremonies is an important step in that.”