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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-14 Daily Xml
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MATTERS OF INTEREST

JOHNSTON, MR E.F.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:29): Last Friday, politicians, judges, commissioners, lawyers, QCs, public identities and figures, friends, family and colleagues of the deceased attended the memorial service of the late Elliott Johnston QC at Elder Hall, a fitting venue for a graduate of Adelaide University, a QC, a South Australian Supreme Court judge, federal commissioner and social activist. Others in the media and the legal practice have spoken about his impressive and interesting career and achievements, and I wish to reflect on the honourable Elliott Johnston QC, the individual whose distinctive qualities made him the person so admired by so many of those whose lives he touched, and in doing so I acknowledge the biography by Penelope Debelle.

Elliott Johnston was a man whose character was defined throughout by an unstinting pursuit for social justice. This was grounded in his family, and young Elliott's experiences in the aftermath of the Great War and the Depression, where the big questions of survival, peace and justice prevailed, produced in Elliott the compassion and search for political ideas and solutions that led him to become a member of the Communist Party, a membership he held throughout his life, except for the period of his appointment as a member of the Supreme Court of South Australia.

His belief, energy and urgent desire for social justice were evident in his student days as an editor of the student magazine, On Dit, as a founding member of the Law Student Association publication, Obiter Dicta, and his founding of, and participation in, the Radical Club. His experiences in these fora and the subsequent battles with opposing university students and office bearers bear testimony to his integrity and moral strength.

These are further evidenced in his commitment to, and love and practice of, the law, especially as it pertained to the representation and protection of workers. In time, he and his law firm saw the bulk of its work in workers' compensation claims. It would be remiss of me not to point out the debts owed by the now ASU to a past secretary, Harry Krantz, then leading the South Australian branch of the Federated Clerks' Union, and the unstinting efforts of Elliott Johnston in restructuring and improving the Clerks Award.

Returning to Elliott Johnston, the price of maintaining his integrity and beliefs became apparent when he was nominated for silk, his initial nomination blocked by concerned Conservative figures. Acknowledgement of his expertise, reputation and service were put forward again to be finally and rightly recognised by appointing him QC, the appointment only coming after what amounted to a lengthy public trial. There were many who were unjustifiably concerned by his politics. Being honoured to have his name put forward, Elliott was equally concerned about not selling out his principles to become a QC.

The battle between differing beliefs and principles briefly continued again when Elliott Johnston, at the peak of his powers as a silk, was recommended in 1982 for the Supreme Court of South Australia, duly to be appointed in 1983 under the Bannon Labor government.

In 1988, and in retirement, Elliott Johnston's considerable knowledge and expertise were called upon as a commissioner in the Commonwealth Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a mammoth study still considered a landmark in Indigenous rights and welfare. Nor should we forget his prominent role in the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement as noted by the current CEO, Neil Gillespie.

The final words on Elliott Johnston QC will be those of Chief Justice of the South Australian Supreme Court, Chief Justice Doyle, who said, in part, at the 2007 Adelaide Festival of Ideas:

During his lifetime in the law, as a practitioner, as a judge and as a former judge, Elliott Johnston has striven to realise the aspiration and value that is expressed in the judicial oath to do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or affection, favour or ill will. People like Elliott Johnston are few and far between.

Vale Elliott Johnston.

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