JUSTICE KIRBY'S CLARK.(Michael Kirby, Manning Clark lecture)

THERE IS MUCH to be said for Justice Michael Kirby; the only pity is that he should be obliged to say so much it for himself. We Australians, as the lucky audience of his nigh-unstoppable flows of wisdom on almost any subject under the sun, have long acknowledged him as our leading specialist in omniscience. From the catalogue of his astounding range of expertise (which was whimsically compiled by another judge) we learn with awe that even the breastfeeding of babies once attracted the benign eye of the Hon. Justice Michael Kirby, AC, CMG. Perhaps Oliver Goldsmith had Kirby in prophetic mind when he wrote

 
   ... and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew. 

In the High Court's century of existence there has been no judge like him--or not quite like him. For example, there seems to be no precedent for his public and contented acceptance of his own homosexuality. I was only one of thousands whose respect for Kirby rose when he made a clear and dignified statement of his position. That was that, we thought; end of story. But it wasn't. Nobody turned a hair when he told us, so why does he continue to go on about it? Does he remain (as was written of John Donne) "hungry of an imagined martyrdom"? Or is there another reason? Anyway, it has become boring.

Such reflections rose to mind when the Melbourne Age "Opinion" page on 27th March published what it called an "edited" report of the second Manning Clark Lecture, which Michael Kirby had delivered in Canberra the day before.

No reader could miss it. There in the centre of the page, glaring at the reader from beneath a vast black hat, was Manning, giving his most creditable imitation of a "baddie" in an old western movie. The picture (there was also a postage-stamp-sized picture of Kirby) occupied more space than the text of the report.

Comparison with Kirby's own text shows that the Age report is not a balanced account of what was actually said on the night. For example, Kirby spent nearly half his time discussing electoral-presidential shenanigans in the Congo, the Philippines and the USA. Not a mention in the newspaper.

The Age reported Kirby's routine plea for greater tolerance of homosexuals (which would have appealed to Manning); support for a Bill of Rights; the view that the ballot box can easily endorse tyranny by majority vote. Clark and Kirby undoubtedly shared this last insight. (So do I, as it happens, if only they'd move over a little and make room.)