Sir Ronald Wilson

Sir Ronald Wilson, AC , KBE , CMG , QC , LL.M , LL.B ( 23 August 1922- 15 July 2005) was born on 23 August 1922 . He was a distinguished Australian lawyer, judge and social activist serving on the High Court of Australia between 1979 and 1989 and as the President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission between 1990 and 1997. He died in 2005 Sir Ronald Wilson, Australian lawyer and judge File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A statue of an armoured knight of the Middle Ages For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ... The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service. The Order was established on February 14, 1975, when Queen Elizabeth II, acting in her capacity of Queen of Australia, signed Letters Patent... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in decreasing order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand... On the Orders insignia, St Michael is often depicted subduing Satan. ... Queens Counsel (postnominal QC), during the reign of a male Sovereign known as Kings Counsel (KC), are barristers or, in Scotland, advocates appointed by Letters patent to be one of Her Majestys Counsel learned in the law. They do not constitute a separate order or degree of... The Master of Laws is an advanced law degree that allows someone to specialize in a particular area of law. ... The degree of Bachelor of Laws is the principal academic degree in law in most common law countries. ... August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... High Court entrance The High Court of Australia is the court of last resort for the jurisdiction of Australia. ... The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is a national independent statutory body of the Australian government. ...

Wilson is probably best known as the author with Mick Dodson of the Bringing Them Home report into the Stolen Generation published in 1997 which led to the creation of a "National Sorry Day" and a walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2000 with 400,000 people participating. Wilson was also one of three judges sitting on the W.A. Inc. Royal Commission in the early 1990's which eventually led to former Premier Brian Burke being jailed in March 1997. Stolen Generation is the term commonly used to mean the Australian Aboriginal children who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between approximately 1900 and 1972. ... The National Sorry Day is an Australian event held yearly on May 26. ... Brian Burke was premier of Western Australia from 19 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988. ...

Early life

Wilson was born in Geraldton, in Western Australia in August 1922. His early life was marked by sorrow and hardship. When he was four years old his mother died. At the age of seven his father suffered a stroke and spent the next five years in a hospice 300 miles from home. His older brother became a father figure to him and for years the family faced financial struggles. At the age of 14, these pressures forced Sir Ronald to leave school and he took his first job as a messenger with the Geraldton Local Court. Geraldton is a town in Western Australia located 424 km north of Perth. ... Motto: Cygnis Insignis (Distinguished by its swans) Nickname: Wildflower State Other Australian states and territories Capital Perth Government Governor Premier Const. ...

In World War II, Wilson elected to join the Royal Australian Air Force where he flew a Spitfire in defense of Britain. The RAAF Roundel is based on that of the British Royal Air Force, with the central circle replaced by a Kangaroo, a symbol of Australia. ... The Supermarine Spitfire was a single seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in World War II. The Spitfires elliptical wings gave it a very distinctive look; their thin cross-section gave it speed; the brilliant design of Chief Designer R.J. Mitchell and his successors...

Education

After World War II, Wilson enrolled in the University of Western Australia finishing with a law degree in 1949. He later completed a Master of Laws degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957. University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is Western Australias oldest university, established in February 1911. ... The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn, although the former is the preferred and recognized nickname of the University) is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

Wilson was chancellor of Murdoch University between 1980 and 1995. The Ronald Wilson Prize in Law was first awarded at that university in 1993. It is awarded to the graduate who best combines distinguished academic performance in Law units with qualities of character, leadership and all-round contribution to the life of the university. Murdoch University is a university with its main campus at Murdoch, 14km south of Perth, Western Australia, along the Kwinana Freeway. ...

Early Legal Career

Wilson was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1951. He had a rapid rise in his legal career becoming Crown Prosecutor for Western Australia in 1959, eight years after starting work as a lawyer. In 1963, he was admitted as a Queen's Counsel in 1963, the youngest ever in WA. As a prosecutor, Wilson earned the nickname of the "Avenging Angel". Barristers: traditional dress. ... In the United Kingdom and countries having a similar legal system the legal profession is divided into two kinds of lawyers: the solicitors who contact and advise clients, and barristers who argue cases in court. ... Queens Counsel (postnominal QC), during the reign of a male Sovereign known as Kings Counsel (KC), are barristers or, in Scotland, advocates appointed by Letters patent to be one of Her Majestys Counsel learned in the law. They do not constitute a separate order or degree of...

In recent years, two men who he had prosecuted for murder have had their convictions overturned namely John Button for the manslaughter of his girlfriend Rosemary Anderson who was convicted in 1963 and Daryl Beamish for the 1959 murder of Jillian Brewer. Perth serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke confessed to both murders before he was hanged for murders he was convicted for.

The convictions of both men had caused concern in legal circles for some time. Professor of Jurisprudence Peter Brett wrote a short book in 1966 arguing that the Beamish case was a "monstrous miscarriage of justice. Beamish served 15 years for murder and narrowly escaped the gallows. More recently, Perth journalist Estelle Blackburn uncovered new evidence in her book Broken Lives that led the overturning of the convictions of both Beamish and Button.

In 1969, Wilson became the Solicitor-General in Western Australia. He served in that position for ten years working for both ALP and Liberal governments. The Solicitor General or Solicitor-General is a government position in several countries, dealing with legal affairs. ...

High Court Justice 1979-1989

The Fraser Government appointed Wilson to the High Court of Australia and he was the first member of the High Court from Western Australia. On the High Court, Wilson adopted a federalist position. Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (born 21 May 1930), Australian politician and 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, came to power in the circumstances of the dismissal of the Whitlam government. ...

In the Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen case decided in 1982, Wilson was in the minority in holding that the external affairs power in the Australian constitution applied only to relationships outside Australia. The majority of the High Court found that the treaty need only apply to issues of clear international concern. The majority Federal Parliament had the power to pass the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 as a result of Australia being a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen was a significant court case decided in the High Court of Australia on May 11, 1982. ... The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (in full, An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia) is the primary constitutional text of the Commonwealth of Australia. ... The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 is a statute passed by the Parliament of Australia under the Government of former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. ... The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is a United Nations convention adopted and opened for signature and ratification by United Nations General Assembly resolution 2106 (XX) December 21, 1965, and which entered into force January 4, 1969. ...

In Commonwealth v Tasmania decided in 1983, the external affairs power was again the central issue. The new Hawke Government had used the external affairs power as the basis for passing legislation preventing the Tasmanian Government from building a hydro-electric dam on the Franklin River. Wilson considered that the external affairs power did not give the Federal Parliament authority to pass such legislation as it could obtain power to pass any form of legislation it wished by simply entering into a treaty with another power. Chief Justice Harry Gibbs and Daryl Dawson were the other judges joining Wilson in the dissenting judgement. Commonwealth v Tasmania (1983) 158 CLR 1, [1983] HCA 21 (popularly known as the Tasmanian Dams Case) was a significant Australian court case, decided in the High Court of Australia on July 1, 1983. ... Hon Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (born December 9, 1929), Australian trade union leader and politician, was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia. ... The Franklin River lies in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park in the heart of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. ... The Right Honourable Sir Harry Talbot Gibbs, GCMG, AC, KBE (born February 7, 1917; died 25 June 2005) was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1981 to 1987 after serving as a member of the High Court between 1970 and 1981. ... Sir Daryl Dawson AC KBE CB (born 1933), Australian judge and naval officer, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1982 to 1997. ...

Wilson retired from the High Court in 1989.

Commissioner 1990-1997

The Hawke Government appointed Wilson as the President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1990. With Mick Dodson, the Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner, Wilson of the National Inquiry into the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is a national independent statutory body of the Australian government. ...

Wilson and Dodson visited every state in Australia over the 17-month duration of the Inquiry and heard testimony from 535 aboriginals with 600 more making submissions. Wilson wrote after the completion of the report: "In chairing the National Inquiry (...) I had to relate to hundreds of stories of personal devastation, pain and loss. It was a life-changing experience."

The Inquiry produced a report called Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families which was tabled in Federal Parliament. It found that Australia was in breach of international law, called for a national compensation fund and recommended a national "sorry day."

The report was welcomed by aboriginal Australians but widely criticised by conservatives. Anthropologist Ron Brunton said the claims of genocide were an "embellishment." Prime Minister John Howard refused to issue an apology instead stating his regret. The Parliaments of NSW, Victoria and South Australia have passed motions apologising for the treatment as has the Northern Territory parliament . The first National Sorry Day was held in 1998 and atteracted widespread participation while in 2000, 400,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbor Bridge in support of reconciliation. Dr Ron Brunton is an Australian, he is currently the Director of Encompass Research Pty Ltd and a Director of the Board of the public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Commission for a five year term from 1 May 2003. ... John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), is an Australian politician and the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, coming to office on 11 March 1996 and winning re-election in 1998, 2001 and 2004. ... The National Sorry Day is an Australian event held yearly on May 26. ...

Carmen Lawrence appointed Wilson as one of the three eminent jurists conducting the W.A. Inc Royal Commission. The Royal Commission was chaired by Geoffrey Kennedy and the third member was Peter Brinsden. In its 1992 report, the Royal Commission found "The commission has found conduct and practices on the part of certain persons involved in government in the period 1983 to 1989 such as to place our government system at risk." It was particularly critical of the behaviour of former Premier Brian Burke who was subsequently convicted for two years on charges of fraudulent behavior in 1994. Dr Carmen Lawrence Dr Carmen Mary Lawrence (born 2 March Australian politician, became the first directly elected Federal President of the Australian Labor Party in 2003, after a meteoric rise in politics followed by several spectacular falls. ...

Church and social leadership

Throughout his life, Wilson was an active participant in first the Presbyterian Church and then the Uniting Church formed after the merger of the Presbyterians, Methodist and Congregationalist Churches in Australia. He held a range of senior positions in the Church including:

• Moderator of Assembly, Presbyterian Church in Western Australia (1965)
• Moderator, WA Synod, Uniting Church in Australia (1977-1979)
• President of the Assembly, Uniting Church in Australia (1988-1991)
• Deputy Chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (1991-1994)
• President, Australian Chapter, World Conference on Religion and Peace (1991-1996)

Wilson was the first layperson to be the President of the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia. He was particularly concerned with encouraging the broad Australian community to gain an understanding of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history. Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... Logo of the UCA The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was formed on June 22, 1977 when the Methodist Church of Australasia, Presbyterian Church of Australia and Congregational Union of Australia came together under the Basis of Union document. ... Australian Aborigines are the main indigenous people of Australia. ...

In retirement, he traveled widely to Aboriginal and church events, and was an active member of a refugee education scheme near his home.

Honours

Throughout his life, Wilson was honored for his contribution to Australian society. In 1978 he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to the community. On the Orders insignia, St Michael is often depicted subduing Satan. ...

In 1979 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for services to the law. In 1988 Sir Ronald was made Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC) for services to the law. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in decreasing order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand... The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service. The Order was established on February 14, 1975, when Queen Elizabeth II, acting in her capacity of Queen of Australia, signed Letters Patent...

Family

Sir Ronald married Leila Smith in April 1950. They had five children and nine grandchildren.

Reports

• National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from their Families, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Sydney 1997 ISBN 0642269548

• Royal Commission into Commercial Activities of Government and Other Matters, Report of the Royal Commission into Commercial Activities of Government and Other Matters WA Government Printer Perth Western Australia 1992 2 volumes commonly known as the W.A. Inc Royal Commission

References

This article is based on a range of written and online references as outlined below.

Online Refererences

• Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) report on death

• Biographical synopsis on High Court page

• Tributes to Wilson after his death published by the ABC on 17 June 2005

• Alan Ramsey article in the Sydney Morning Herald on Wilson's role in WA Inc Royal Commission

• AAP Report on Wilson's funeral published in Sydney Morning Herald 22 July 2005

• Opinion piece by Christopher Pearson critical of Wilson's performance in the Bringing Them Home report The Australian retrieved on July 23, 2005

• Obituary of Wilson published in the Australian on 18 July, 2005

Written References

• Crown Content Pty Ltd Who's Who in Australia 2005 North Melbourne 2005 page 1999

• See the written reports cited above.

• Estelle Blackburn, Broken Lives Hardie Grant South Yarra 2001 ISBN 1876719796 has details of the Beamish and Button cases.

• Peter Brett, The Beamish Case Melbourne University Press 1966 outlines his concerns about the Beamish case

• H. P. Lee and George Winterton, Australian Constitutional Landmarks Cambridge Univesity Press 2003 ISBN 052183158X pages 269, 270