[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Court_of_Australia]High Court of Australia[/url]

Doing Transition Towns in this local area brings us constantly into close contact with this community and local culture and issues. One of the things I’ve become very conscious of is the link between community resilience and culture. A resilient community is one with a strong deeply rooted culture that is widely understood and followed by the community. Some cultures bring greater resilience than others – they are not all created equal in terms of how they strengthen and give us coherence.

Also as I’ve got to know this community deeply and awarely I’ve formed a clear view that this community is in its late stages as a culturally united ethnically homogeneous religiously united community. Largely unaware I think we are facing a tidal wave of cultural ethnic and religious change that will make huge changes to who we are and our local culture here.

Because of this awareness that has been one of the central lessons that ‘thinking local’ has taught me here I paid attention to a book by US Senator Patrick J. Buchanan called The Death of the West. Yes it seems very relevant to us here.

How can we build a resilient future here in this place if outside forces are acting in a way that ‘dumps’ massive changes on us and have the potential to destroy much of what we are and have here in this place?

I’m not going to try to elaborate the arguments of the book here and they are detailed and complex but I do encourage you to read it.

However one point Buchanan raises is how the ‘culture wars’ are waged so effectively against what is a strongly established widely held culture – white traditional Christian ways.

One key answer he comes up with for the US is the decisions of the judges of the Supreme Court. The equivalent here is the High Court of Australia and its 7 judges unelected but hugely powerful in determining the cultural landscape of Australia.

Their decisions have the ability to change the cultural landscape of Australia dramatically. For example it was the High Court’s Mabo case in 1992 only 20 years ago and Wik cases that brought in native title with dramatic changes to Australian land ownership and culture. It is the High Court that brought in external affairs powers including the signing of international treaties that then become part of the laws of Australia. The rules about how you raise your own children for example has much to do with international treaty. The High Court has decided cases on our human rights the rights of corporations and recently on the right of the Australian Parliament in relation to making laws about asylum seekers coming by boat.

The 7 justices on the High Court change slowly and the Prime Minister at the time a vacancy arises has in practice the main say in who is appointed to fill the vacancy. Few if any of us know when there is a vacancy on the High Court or have any input into who gets to fill it.

Recently gays are represented on the High Court at a much higher rate than in the general population. The appointment of an activist lesbian Virginia Bell who was one of the early marchers in the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras by Kevin Rudd for example can be expected to have long-lasting effects since she sits until 7 March 2021 as one of 3 women on the High Court. Former Chief Justice Kirby was also gay.

The current Justices of the High Court are by Name; State; [b]Mandatory retirement date[/b]; Prime Minister at time of appointment:

[ul]
[li]Chief Justice Robert French; WA: 19 March 2017; Kevin Rudd (Labor)[/li]

[li]Justice William Gummow; NSW;[b] 9 October 2012[/b]; Paul Keating (Labor)[/li]

[li]Justice Dyson Heydon; NSW;[b] 1 March 2013[/b]; John Howard (Liberal)[/li]

[li]Justice Kenneth Hayne; Victoria; 5 June 2015; John Howard (Liberal)[/li]

[li]Justice Susan Crennan; Victoria; 1 July 2015; John Howard (Liberal)[/li]

[li]Justice Virginia Bell; NSW; 7 March 2021; Kevin Rudd (Labor)[/li]

[li]Justice Susan Kiefel; Queensland; 17 January 2024; John Howard (Liberal)[/li]
[/ul]