Counsel for the States started with the proposition that disputes are either industrial or not industrial. That is logically incontestable; and, as was said by counsel in Repton v Hodgson in a sentence which Jordan CJ brought to light in an essay, ‘Like Sinclair’s well-known division of sleeping into two sorts, namely, sleeping with or sleeping without a nightcap, it would seem to exhaust the subject’. But the presence or absence of the quality ‘industrial’ in a dispute is not as indisputably apparent as the presence or absence of a nightcap on a sleeper.  Read more »

To read words into any statute is a strong thing and, in the absence of clear necessity, a wrong thing …

[62] This is an appeal from the Chief Justice, which was argued by this Court over nine days, with some occasional assistance from the learned and experienced counsel who appeared for the parties. The evidence was taken and the matter argued before the Chief Justice in two days. This case involves two questions, of no transcendent importance, which are capable of brief statement, and could have been exhaustively argued by the learned counsel in a few hours.

‘George, are you sure it’s worth your while to go home?’

KIRBY J: Could you explain to me what a BMX bike is? My rather cloistered life has prevented my ever getting to know what that form of bicycle is.  Read more »

GLEESON CJ: You will explain to us how you find a matching bet?

MR S J GAGELER SC: I will, yes. That brings me to the little demonstration, your Honours. Your Honours ought have a bundle of material which is entitled “Demonstration of Online Betting”.

HAYNE J: How much of this is on the CD?

MR GAGELER: This is all on the CD, your Honour. On the CD it is——

KIRBY J: We had a Playstation shown to us in Sony and it was very exciting. Why did you not try that?  Read more »

KIRBY J: Sounds like the argument at the time about the new forms of cricket.

MR GAGELER: That is right.

KIRBY J: When new international approaches came which were linked to the new technology of television everybody said this is the end of civilisation as we know it but, in fact——

MR GAGELER: That is a very good analogy, your Honour, my learned friend from the West says it was.  Read more »

GLEESON CJ: There are some cases where people who write headnotes deserve a medal, Perre v Apand [(1999) 198 CLR 180] is one that comes to mind.

KIRBY J: What is a wuss?

MR P J HANKS QC: I think in Victoria it is a wooz.

KIRBY J: What is it?

McHUGH J: It is you when you drink only one glass of beer.

KIRBY J: I would not fall out of the window.

…

CALLINAN J: This is real Clint Eastwood, John Wayne stuff.

CALLINAN J: Mr Jackson, it seems to me that clearly the people at the party, including Ms Joslyn and Mr Berryman, went out with the intention of getting drunk.

MR D F JACKSON QC: It would be a big night, your Honour, big night.

CALLINAN J: With the intention of getting drunk and they fulfilled that intention.

MR JACKSON: Well, your Honour, young people sometimes——  Read more »