Walter Campbell (judge) - Judiciary

Judiciary

In 1967, Campbell gained a position on the bench of the Supreme Court of Queensland. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Campbell would meet with other Justices in Canberra when they had been summoned to various board and committee meetings and discuss various issues facing the judiciary ranging from problems with sentencing to the difficulty of persuading eminent lawyers to enter the judiciary. The issue of lawyers being unwilling to move from the Bar to the Bench remained a concern to Campbell even after he had left the judiciary and become Governor.

In 1982, the incumbent Chief and Puisne Justices of Queensland were scheduled to retire, having reached the mandatory age of 70. Campbell became the centre of a controversy, as he was chosen to fill the Chief Justiceship instead of Jim Douglas, the favoured candidate of the Liberal Party. Joh Bjelke-Petersen admitted to choosing Campbell as a "compromise candidate" to Justice Douglas and his own preferred Chief Justice, Dormer Andrews. The retiring Chief Justice declared that he had nothing against Campbell personally, but that he found the treatment of Douglas "unjust and unsatisfactory". Campbell emerged largely unscathed from the controversy, but did clash at times with the Bjelke-Petersen government as Chief Justice, criticising the legal integrity of certain legislation when he found it necessary. He was also noted as having contributed significantly to the modernisation of the Court in Queensland during his time as Chief Justice.