Buri Kidu

Sir Buri Kidu, KBE (8 August 1945 – 30 January 1994) was the first national Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea.

Biography

Buri Kidu was educated at Toowoomba Grammar School, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, where he was School Captain and at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland (LLB, 1970). His entire professional life was spent in Papua New Guinea. He was a Legal Officer in the Department of Law (1971–72), Acting Crown Prosecutor and Crown Prosecutor (1972), Senior Legal Officer (1972–74), Acting Crown Solicitor and Crown Solicitor (State Solicitor after Papua New Guinea Independence, 16 September 1975) (1974–76), Acting Secretary of Justice (1977), Secretary of Justice and Principal Legal Officer to the National Executive Council (Cabinet) (1978–79), Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department (1979–80) and Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea (1980–93).

Appointment and term as Chief Justice

Sir Buri was appointed Chief Justice in 1980 by the Government of Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, who took office after the Government of Prime Minister Michael Somare had been defeated in a no-confidence motion in Parliament following the Rooney Affair, an early crisis of judicial independence during which the first Chief Justice, Sir Sydney Frost, an Australian, and three expatriate puisne justices resigned (see Law of Papua New Guinea).

During his term as Chief Justice Sir Buri secured independent financing of the judiciary, with a separate appropriation bill, so that its budget was not in the control of the Justice Minister from time to time. Indeed, during Sir Buri’s ten-year (plus three years) term of office as Chief Justice the superior courts of Papua New Guinea rigorously maintained an independent role for the courts vis-à-vis the executive and the legislature — a position which Lady Kidu (now Dame Carol Kidu) feels was vital in the decision of the Wingti Government to oust him as Chief Justice in 1993 when his statutory ten-year term had elapsed. at the age of 48, five months after the elapse of his term of office as Chief Justice.

Lady Kidu entered Parliament in 1997 as Member for Moresby South and became Minister of Community Development. Lady Kidu was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 and is now Dame Carol Kidu.