Michael Kirby (judge)

Michael Kirby is a Justice of the High Court of Australia - more simply, he is one of the judges on the highest court of Australia's legal system.

He was admitted to the New South Wales Bar (earned the right to practice as a barrister) in 1967. His first quasi-judicial appointment was the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, a body that adjudicates labor disputes, in 1975.

From 1983 to 1984, he was a judge in the Federal Court of Australia, before an appointment as President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal, the highest court in that state's legal system. He was appointed to the High Court in February 1996.

He has served on many other boards and committees, notably the Australian Law Reform Commission and the CSIRO. He received Australia's highest civil honor when he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1991.

Kirby is open about his homosexuality, having outed himself by mentioning his long-time male partner in Australia's Who's Who. He has on occasion spoken publicly about his views on the recognition of homosexual partnerships.

In 2002, he was publicly accused of pedophilia by Bill Heffernan, a government senator, who made the claims under parliamentary privilege, who provided as evidence a purported record of a government limousine driver who claimed to have chauffeured Kirby on trips to pick up underaged male prostitutes. The primary evidence to back up Heffernan's claim was a record of trips made by the chauffeur on the day, which also detailed other unrelated trips made by several senior Australian politicians. When this evidence was made public, the media quickly contacted those people (among them Tim Fischer), many of whom had records of their own that showed that they could not have taken a limousine ride with the driver on that day, as they were not in the same city. Heffernan's allegations were thus discredited and he was forced to apologise and resign his post as Parliamentary Secretary, and was censured by the Senate. Heffernan retained his Senate seat, however.