Tim Carmody

Timothy Francis Carmody (born 18 May 1956) is an Australian judge who was the Chief Justice of Queensland between 8 July 2014 and 1 July 2015. His previous roles include work as a police officer, barrister, Queensland Crime Commissioner, Family Court of Australia judge, and Chief Magistrate of the Magistrates Court of Queensland. He also presided over the 2013 Child Protection Commission of Inquiry.

As Chief Magistrate, Carmody drew media attention for his comments and actions which were perceived as supportive of the Queensland government of Campbell Newman and their policies, including their laws against outlaw motorcycle gangs, for which he faced criticism from other senior lawyers and judges. Following ongoing tensions with other members of the judiciary, he resigned as Chief Justice on 1 July 2015. He remained a Judge of the Supreme Court, sitting as a supplemental member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal before resigning his commission as a judge altogether with effect from 10 September 2019. His mother suffered a malignant brain tumour, which paralysed her and led to her death at the age of 38. after it found that he had "cut and pasted" paragraphs from an earlier judgment with different facts. He resigned from the Family Court in 2008 and returned to private practice, citing the "failure" of the new shared parental responsibility family law regime as a factor in his decision.

Carmody presided over the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry and handed down his final report on 1 July 2013. Among other findings, he concluded that it had been unlawful for the Cabinet of Wayne Goss to shred evidence gathered by the 1989 investigation of retired magistrate Noel Heiner into the management of the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre. His 121 recommendations included considering putting "toddlers in severely dysfunctional families" up for adoption and re-establishing "institutions for troubled teens". His recommendation that families receive more support to prevent children from ending up in state care was welcomed by child safety groups.

Chief Magistrate Carmody was appointed concurrently as Queensland's fourth Chief Magistrate and a judge of the District Court of Queensland on 16 September 2013, taking over from Brendan Butler who moved to full-time duties as a judge of the District Court. He was sworn in on 18 September 2013.

Juvenile criminal justice proposals In his capacity as Chief Magistrate, Carmody wrote to Attorney-General Bleijie recommending changes to the laws applying to child offenders, which were later the subject of controversy. He recommended that children lose the right to appeal against the sentence handed down by a magistrate, unless there was an error of law. He also sent a three-page email to the magistrates of Queensland, which was strongly supported by Attorney-General Bleijie, suggesting that outlaw motorcycle gang associates (colloquially known as "bikies") should not be granted bail due to the inherent risks of doing so.

The laws imposed a blanket prohibition on judges and magistrates from granting bail to outlaw motorcycle gang members, and were reported as a source of tension between the Government and the judiciary. Several people charged under the new laws had in fact been granted bail by magistrates who ruled that prosecutors had not proven that they were members of such gangs. Carmody DCJ, sitting as a magistrate, construed the newly inserted s 16(3A) of the Bail Act 1980 (Qld). Section 16(3A) of the Bail Act 1980 (Qld) created a so-called “reverse onus” which required some applicants for bail to show cause why bail should be granted.

As enacted on 17 October 2013, s 16(3A) of the Bail Act 1980 (Qld) applied to someone who “is a member of a criminal organisation”.

As Carmody DCJ accepted in Spence at , the provision was intended to operate prospectively. The application for bail in Spence v Queensland Police Service was heard on 24 October 2013. At that time, the accused was not a member of a criminal organisation, having resigned from the Hell's Angels on 8 October 2013: Spence v Queensland Police Service at . Notwithstanding this finding, Carmody DCJ held that “the intended scope of section 16(3A) is wide enough, in my opinion, to include the applicant, even if the drafting language used is slightly inapt. Accepting the contrary proposition would produce absurd, unintended results and make section 16(3A) slightly jobless”.

As Wilson J pointed out on appeal in, this decision was wrong. On its clear grammatical meaning, s 16(3A) of the Bail Act 1980 (Qld) referred to a person who “is presently a participant in a criminal organisation, that is, someone who is a participant at the time of the application”. On 8 November 2013 her Honour ruled that s 16(3A) of the Act did not refer to any of the three applicants for bail.

On 27 November 2013 s 7 of the Criminal Law (Criminal Organisations Disruption) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2013 amended s 16(3A) of the Bail Act 1980 (Qld) so that it read “is, or has at any time been, a member ...”.

On 5 November 2013, Carmody issued a Practice Direction which required that all future contested bail applications be heard in a specified Brisbane Magistrates courtroom in the afternoons, with no more than two listed each day. The move was described in the Courier Mail and ABC News as a decision that stripped other magistrates of their ability to hear the bail applications and suggested the Chief Magistrate lacked confidence in their ability to hear them in a consistent and efficient manner. It was criticised by the Bar Association of Queensland and the Australian Lawyers Alliance, with criminal lawyer Bill Potts warning that the courts and Chief Magistrate would be perceived as politicised, undermining the legal system. He also stated the judges should not use the "weight of their office to engage in the public debate or to make comments about the comparative morality or fairness" of statutes. In response, the president of the Judicial Conference of Australia, Queensland Supreme Court judge Phillip McMurdo, noted judicial comments were appropriate in certain circumstances, such as laws going to "the heart of the functioning of the judicial branch of the state". Bleijie was facing criticism for revealing details of a private conversation with President of the Queensland Court of Appeal Margaret McMurdo, after she had suggested that the Government was sexist in its judicial appointments. Sofronoff highlighted Carmody's inexperience and his overt support for the Newman Government's controversial anti-motorcycle gang laws.

The head of the 1989 Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in Queensland, Tony Fitzgerald, urged Carmody "not allow his ambition to subvert his personal integrity". However, in the aftermath of the resignation and concerns expressed by President of the Bar Association of Queensland, Peter Davis QC, the Society expressed its own concerns about the process.

The announcement of Carmody as Chief Justice came after he had served in the role of Chief Magistrate for nine months. The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties described the appointment as "a throwback to the corrupt era of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen", recalling when Terry Lewis was appointed police commissioner over better-qualified senior police.

The then-President of the Bar Association of Queensland, Peter Davis QC, resigned in protest over the appointment process. Davis stated that private conversations he had held with Bleijie and Bleijie's staffer had been leaked and distorted,

The Australian Bar Association warned that the independence of the Queensland judiciary was "under threat". The Queensland Law Society, which had initially "warmly welcomed" the appointment, stated that a tainted appointment process risked undermining "the confidence of the profession and the community in individual appointments which then flows on to the larger institution of the courts". He added that he was hurt that neither the Bar Association nor any current Supreme Court judge had offered him their support. He also stated that while he may not be the "smartest lawyer in the room", there was more to being a Chief Justice than being a black letter lawyer, and he did not intend to compete with other Supreme Court judges for "intellectual rigour".

Carmody expressed an intention to emulate his predecessor in the role, Paul de Jersey.

Regarding his relationship with current Supreme Court judges he stated, "I wish I didn’t have to go and see [current judge] Justice Byrne and say ‘Hi, I’m your chief justice. Are we friend or foe?’ But I will and I’ll do that because that's what leaders do". After beginning to schedule "friend or foe" interviews with all Supreme Court judges, Carmody took three weeks' leave.

Subsequent reactions While conceding his own personal dislike of Carmody, barrister Tony Morris QC described much of the criticism against Carmody as being "sour grapes" and that Carmody would be capable of undertaking the role.

In a speech given at the North Queensland Bar Association's Bi-Annual Court of Appeal Dinner on 18 June 2014, one of the sitting senior judges on the Queensland Court of Appeal, Justice John Muir, called on Carmody to withdraw from his promotion to Chief Justice due to the lack of support from other Supreme Court judges. The newspaper speculated that Carmody was urged to refuse the appointment to Chief Justice and that a compromise was suggested, whereby Carmody would take a lesser promotion such as judge of the Supreme Court. Retired District Court judge Brian Boulton criticised Carmody's detractors, emphasising that judicial appointments were a matter for the executive and that Carmody had experience in other areas to his predecessor. Other shortlisted candidates included other sitting Supreme Court judges, such as Court of Appeal judge Hugh Fraser and Senior Judge Administrator John Byrne.

Chief Justice Carmody was sworn in as Chief Justice in a private ceremony on 8 July 2014, the first time a Chief Justice's swearing in had occurred this way in almost a century.

A public welcoming ceremony was held on 1 August 2014, to coincide with the swearing in of Peter Flanagan as a Supreme Court judge. Although this was described by The Australian as an attempt to avoid a boycott by sitting Supreme Court judges out of respect for Flanagan, the boycott proceeded with no judges apart from Carmody and Flanagan in attendance. The newly appointed head of the Bar Association of Queensland, Shane Doyle QC, stated that the controversy over the appointment was "in the past" and that Carmody would have the Association's support. A Guardian Australia analysis of the 2015 February judges' sitting calendar showed that Carmody was the least active Supreme Court judge, scheduled to hear cases for 12 weeks between February and July 2015, with seven weeks on his own; other judges except Senior Judge Administrator were to hear at least 15 weeks in that time, with 12 on their own. Carmody subsequently removed his schedule from this calendar, and instead commenced a separate "Chief Justice's Engagements" calendar.

Valedictory remarks of Justice Wilson At a ceremony to mark his retirement on 26 March 2015, Justice Alan Wilson made a speech criticising Carmody's performance as Chief Justice, stating that he had "lost all respect" from most of the Supreme Court judges. Wilson made a series of allegations about the Chief Justice. He stated that Carmody's public calls for civility and courtesy in the legal profession were hypocritical given that he privately referred to his judicial colleagues as “snakes” and “scum”.

Carmody, who had been overseas during Wilson's speech, subsequently wrote an open letter to the Bar Association of Queensland and the Queensland Law Society. In it, he described Wilson's remarks as "graceless" and defended his integrity. When she learned of this, President McMurdo emailed Carmody to note that she was "deeply concerned" and that he should disclose the meeting to Cowan's defence lawyers. The Chief Justice stated that although he believed the application had no merit and the allegations of bias, he was acting "in the best interests of this court and overall public confidence in the administration of justice" The Chief Justice also labelled the allegation of bias as "absurd and extraordinary". Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called for the disagreements within the judiciary to end. The meeting related to who would sit on the Court of Disputed Returns if the result for the electoral district of Ferny Grove was challenged, and involved hostility and explicit language. While on leave he offered to resign on 25 May 2015 on "just terms" and on the condition that the State Government agreed to a court reform agenda, such as implementing a judicial commission. His offer was welcomed by Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath as putting the judiciary before himself. In June 2015 he acted as Governor of Queensland despite being on sick leave from his normal role as Chief Justice.

Carmody resigned as Chief Justice on 1 July 2015 but remained a Judge of the Supreme Court, sitting as a supplemental judicial member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Later career Carmody continued as Supreme Court judge and supplementary QCAT member until he resigned from the bench with effect from 10 September 2019. His resignation was announced by Attorney-General Yvette d'Ath on 17 July 2018.