Page 207 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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rugby, his service to cricket was extensive as an administrator, a representative team manager, a player and more.
There have been many tributes from those who knew Mr Madden personally, those who knew him professionally, and those who knew him, of course, through sporting interests. All described him as a great mentor. They described his passion as a supporter, and also his empathy and his astuteness as a judge.
Mr Madden was a compassionate man of service through and through. He contributed greatly to the legal fraternity, the sporting community in Canberra and more. I wish to pass on the opposition’s condolences to his wife of 47 years, Katie; his children, David, Peter and Phillip; his daughters-in-law, Andrea, Nicole and Amy; grandchildren, Kahlea, Isabelle, Jacinta, Raphael, Jessica, Elianna, Stephanie, Alexander, William and Georgina. By all accounts he was an honourable public servant, a strong community advocate and a cherished family man. He was a great citizen.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (10.09): I join with my colleagues, on behalf of the ACT Greens, to express my condolences at the death of former magistrate Shane Madden. Mr Madden died of a heart attack in November last year, aged 73. As has been noted, he served as a magistrate from December 1996 until retirement in July 2009. He was the ACT’s first Children’s Court magistrate in 1999, and also the inaugural circle sentencing magistrate.
As a magistrate, he has been described by the Law Society as:
… a thoroughly decent, fair minded Magistrate who showed compassion and respect for Aboriginal offenders and their elders, and who was patient with and welcoming of younger practitioners.
I am sure many nervous young practitioners were very grateful for that generosity in their time.
One of Magistrate Madden’s most important tasks as a magistrate was being the coroner on duty when the implosion of the Royal Canberra Hospital killed schoolgirl Katie Bender on 13 July 1997. Mr Madden had only been months into his job as a magistrate. The inquest into the 12-year-old’s death lasted 118 days, and it is reported to have had a lasting impact on Mr Madden.
Prior to his appointment as a magistrate in December 1996, Mr Madden worked at the Director of Public Prosecutions office, when it was still a part of the commonwealth DPP. Mr Madden was a part of the senior leadership team when the ACT DPP was formed under the first director, Ken Crispin QC, in 1991. He has been described by the ACT Bar Association president Steve Whybrow as “a fine trial advocate whose dark emerald robes and pinstripe pants were a defining sartorial feature”.
Outside the law, as has been noted, Mr Madden’s passion was rugby union. Well known in Canberra’s rugby union community, Mr Madden was made a life member of the ACT Brumbies in 2008. He officiated as an ACT Rugby referee in more than
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