Page 554 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 2019
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distinguished career. On behalf of the opposition, I give my condolences to his wife, his children and his grandchildren.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (10.10): On behalf of the ACT Greens, I join my Assembly colleagues in expressing my condolences at the death of former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Jeffrey Miles AO. Justice Miles died last week, aged 83.
Justice Miles was appointed to head the territory’s highest court in 1985 and remained in the role until his retirement in 2002. As has been noted, he began his career as a solicitor in New South Wales in 1958 and became a barrister in 1965. In 1978 he was appointed public defender in New South Wales and, in what was no doubt a fascinating experience, he spent two years as a judge of the National Court of Papua New Guinea from 1980 until he was appointed to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1982.
During his time as ACT Chief Justice, he presided over several high-profile cases as well as negotiating the territory’s transition to self-government. Following his retirement as Chief Justice in 2002, he continued his work in the law as an acting judge in the supreme courts of both New South Wales and the ACT.
In 2005 Justice Miles led an inquiry into the 1995 conviction of David Eastman for the 1989 murder of assistant police commissioner Colin Winchester. Justice Miles would describe this inquiry as “all-consuming for several years”. He was quoted as saying:
… many years went by when never a day passed without me thinking about the Eastman case.
He told that to the Canberra Times in 2018.
On the bench, Justice Miles was known for being courteous and scrupulously fair. President of the ACT Bar Association Steven Whybrow described how Justice Miles took his position as an arbiter of the law very seriously. He said:
He was a good judge and a good administrator, and I think that all comes from him being a real servant of the law.
These sentiments were echoed by Justice Miles’s close friend John Purnell, a senior counsel who named his chamber after Justice Miles. Mr Purnell said:
He’ll be remembered as a judge who was very effective as a chief justice and as a trial judge, because he got his judgements out in a timely fashion, and very few of them were overturned on appeal.
Mr Whybrow also described Justice Miles as being prepared to give up his time to be a mentor for young lawyers. Mr Whybrow said:
He always maintained contact with the bar, he was never in the least bit reticent to talk to young barristers, and he was a lovely person.
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