Moved by Councillor Weldon, seconded by the
Chair (the Lord Mayor) –
It is resolved that:
(A) Council note:
(i)
the
recent passing of the Honourable Mary Genevieve Gaudron, the first woman
appointed to the High Court of Australia, on Sunday 13 September 2026, aged 83
(a)
Mary
Gaudron was born in Moree, in north-west New South Wales, on 5 January 1943,
the eldest child of Edward and Grace Gaudron. Her father worked for the New
South Wales railways
(b)
growing
up in Moree, she witnessed firsthand the segregation imposed on Aboriginal
people, who were kept off the town’s buses, barred from the municipal pool,
roped off in a separate section of the picture theatre and largely kept out of
the local school. She later said that some people were treated as “more equal
than others”, and the experience shaped her lifelong opposition to
discrimination in all its forms
(c)
she won
a bursary to board at St Ursula’s College in Armidale and a Commonwealth
scholarship to the University of Sydney, graduating in law with first class
honours and the University Medal in 1965, the first woman to do so as a
part-time student
(d)
despite
her results, law firms refused her articles because it was not their policy to
take on women. She was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1968 and, in
1972, became the first woman appointed to the New South Wales Bar Council
(e)
in
1972, she appeared for the Commonwealth in the national Equal Pay Case, which
extended the principle of equal pay for work of equal value to working women
across Australia
(f)
in
1974, at the age of 31, she was appointed Deputy President of the Australian
Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the youngest person ever appointed to
federal judicial office, where she presided over the 1979 maternity leave test
case
(g)
in
1981, she became Solicitor General of New South Wales, the first woman to hold
that office in any Australian jurisdiction, and the first woman appointed
Queen’s Counsel in New South Wales
(h)
on 6
February 1987, at the age of 44, she was sworn in as a Justice of the High
Court of Australia, the first woman in the Court’s history. She served on the
Court for 16 years until her retirement in 2003
(i)
in Mabo
v Queensland (No 2) in 1992, she formed part of the majority that rejected the
doctrine of terra nullius and recognised native title in Australian law. Her
joint judgment with Justice William Deane described the dispossession of
Aboriginal people as “the darkest aspect of the history of this nation”. Those
words, and that decision, changed this country
(j)
her
judgments in cases including Dietrich v The Queen and Street v Queensland Bar
Association reflected a consistent commitment to fairness, to equality before
the law and to the rights of the individual
(k)
after
leaving the High Court, she served as a judge of the Administrative Tribunal of
the International Labour Organization in Geneva from 2003, and as its President
from 2011 to 2014
(l)
she was
the founding Patron of Australian Women Lawyers and a mentor and inspiration to
generations of women in the law
(m)
she is
survived by her daughters Danielle and Julienne and her son Patrick
(n)
Mary
Gaudron will be remembered as a trailblazer, a fierce intellect and a woman of
deep integrity and compassion, whose work made this country fairer. She will be
greatly missed
(B)
the
Lord Mayor be requested to write to the family of the Honourable Mary Gaudron
KC expressing Council’s condolences
(C)
all
persons attending this meeting of Council observe one minute’s silence to
commemorate the life of the Honourable Mary Gaudron KC and her contribution to
the law, to the rights of women and of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples, and to the Australian community.
Carried unanimously.
X113759
Note – All Councillors, staff and members of the public present stood
in silence for one minute as a mark of respect to the Honourable Mary Gaudron
KC.