Senator and barrister brawl over Julian Burnside’s tweet

Sarah Henderson has become embroiled in a heated war of words with the president of the Western Australian Bar ­Association over her push for Julian Burnside to be stripped of his titles.

Prominent lawyer Julian Burnside. Picture: AAP

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has become embroiled in a heated war of words with the president of the Western Australian Bar ­Association over her push for prominent lawyer Julian Burnside to be stripped of his titles.

WA Bar president Martin ­Cuerden SC sent a stinging letter to Senator Henderson last week, expressing the group’s concern over her criticism of Mr Burnside.

The Victorian senator in turn sent a scathing reply to Mr Cuerden on Sunday, labelling his position untenable.

Mr Burnside, a prominent human rights and refugee advocate with ties to the Greens, last month posted a tweet likening ­Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust.

The tweet has since been ­deleted and Mr Burnside has apologised for the comments. He has also abandoned his attempt to win the Liberal Melbourne heartland seat of Kooyong for the Greens.

Senator Henderson wrote to the Victorian Bar Association late last month after the tweet, arguing that Mr Burnside’s conduct could contravene the Legal Profession Uniform Conduct Rules that govern barristers and calling for the association to investigate. She has also called for Mr Burnside to be stripped of his Order of Australia.

That prompted Mr Cuerden to write to the senator on behalf of the WA Bar. In the letter, he said that while the WA Bar held no views on Israeli-Palestinian ­affairs, Mr Burnside’s tweet was “undoubtedly a matter of public interest and properly the subject of public debate and expression of opinion”.

“As a member of the Australian Senate, you have a political and moral obligation to uphold, not to undermine, the democratic liberal values on which Australian society is based,” Mr Cuerden wrote.

“Your conduct in reporting Mr Burnside to the Victorian Bar and calling for him to be ‘stripped’ of certain privileges is a matter of grave concern, as it represents an attack on freedom of speech and is therefore inconsistent with one of the most fundamental of these values.

“Further, your conduct illustrates that no matter how fundamental a right may be, it must never be taken for granted but must be jealously guarded and protected.”

In her reply to Mr Cuerden, Senator Henderson said she was “shocked and appalled” by the letter. “Your letter to me is so intemperate, and your defence of Mr Burnside’s conduct is so poorly judged, that I cannot possibly ­believe that your position as President of the WA Bar Association is tenable,” she wrote.

She said it was appalling that Mr Cuerden had not condemned Mr Burnside’s original comments.

“As a Senator of the Australian parliament, I can assure you that I will not be intimidated by the WA Bar Association, or any other ­organisation, in continuing to call out bad behaviour by members of the legal profession,” she said.

Mr Cuerden, she said, had failed to address the basis of her complaint – namely the barrister rules that oblige barristers to not ­engage in conduct that is likely to diminish public confidence in the legal profession.