The Queensland chief justice, Tim Carmody, has announced he is prepared to quit in an attempt to end dysfunction in the judiciary since he assumed the role 10 months ago.
Carmody claimed the public revelations of “disharmony between me and some judges … shine a light on serious cultural and structural problems within the judiciary”.
The chief justice, whose only move towards legal reform to date has been to set up a committee to examine televised court cases, has tied his offer to quit to obtaining a government commitment to a broader reform agenda.
This includes the establishment of a judicial commission which would be instrumental in appointing and disciplining judges - and which senior legal figures said would ironically would have prevented Carmody’s own appointment.
Carmody claims in a statement that he was the target of a campaign to oust him by other judges who resisted “change and modernisation”.
“These problems had their origins and were festering long before I was appointed to bring in needed reforms,” he said.
“Those resistant to change and modernisation have made it their primary goal to force me out, seemingly at all costs.
“I am willing to resign on just terms, not for them, not because of them, but to break the impasse we now find ourselves at. My giving up the role won’t solve these problems. I offer it in the hope to refocus the conversation on the real issues.”
Carmody promised a detailed reform agenda upon his appointment but so far had only flagged the televising of court proceedings.
He set up a committee to examine the change but then shortly after resigned, citing other commitments.
This left the related research and publications to other judges including appeal court president Margaret McMurdo, who now refuses to sit on any case with Carmody after his ill-fated role in the Cowan murder appeal.
Senior legal figures, including McMurdo, supported the call for a judicial commission, which prompted attorney general Yvette D’Ath to reveal her department was investigating the option.
Before January’s election, Labor ruled out the creation of an independent commission, committing only to a new “protocol” around judicial appointments.
Carmody told the Australian it had become “impossible” to do his job amid soured relations with other senior judges and that his departure would appear to be a “net gain to the people of Queensland”.
“I have one senior judge who won’t sit with me on any cases. I have another senior judge who secretly records a conversation with me. That makes governance and my ability to do my job impossible.”
His announcement comes after he took medical leave from court work for at least a month, citing the effect of medication for an ongoing back problem.
It also comes a day before the expected release under right to information laws of his conversation with John Byrne, in which Carmody purportedly describes his colleagues as “scum”.
Guardian Australia revealed that Carmody, days before taking leave, had a private dinner with Campbell Newman, the former premier who controversially handpicked the chief justice amid strong opposition from judges and senior legal figures.
Carmody has faced ongoing scrutiny over his performance in cases, his work rate, and his dramatic falling out with his colleagues since he took the role in July 2014. The chief justice, who earns $461,000 a year, is three years away from qualifying for a judge’s pension.
Judges in Queensland can only be forced from office for serious misbehaviour or incapacity and after a parliamentary vote.
Carmody said he would on Friday “present a clear vision for change and a pathway to a transparent, trustworthy, accountable 21st century court system we can all be confident in”.
Carmody is scheduled to give an opening address at a legal conference at a luxury resort on Hamilton Island, one of the “civic and administrative” engagements he had committed to while on medical leave from court duties.
Carmody’s announcement was welcomed by both sides of politics and senior legal figures.
Queensland council for civil liberties president Michael Cope said while Carmody’s decision was welcome “he should never have been appointed” and the former Newman government was to blame.
“Mr Carmody was disqualified from holding the office by his blatant political comments and conduct whilst chief magistrate,” Cope said.
He noted Carmody’s comments around financial compensation – being three years away from a judicial pension – and said the government should be prepared to negotiate with Carmody around that as his ability to practice as a lawyer after resigning as chief justice would be limited.
Prominent solicitor Bill Potts said it was ironic that under a judicial commission Carmody is calling for, he would never have been appointed.
“The whole idea of a judicial commission is this: when you go for a role such as chief justice … it should be free of political favour, interference or patronage … [and] it ought to be merit based,” he told Guardian Australia.
“The simple reality is the Carmody experiment … has failed comprehensively.
“It’s not just a matter of squabble between the so called legal elite. It’s also been about a person who unfortunately signally failed to inspire, lead and work at the same level as other judges, and that has been a great pity and a disappointment.”
Potts said it was “(also) ironic that the chief justice, at the moment he is appearing to place the integrity of the courts ahead of his own interest, is putting a price on it”.
Retired judge and judicial ethics expert Jim Thomas said Carmody’s resignation was “the best thing to happen to the courts in 10 months”.
It was the right thing to do “because he is plainly in the wrong job”, Thomas told ABC.
He rejected the suggestion Carmody had been “bullied” by other judges who had “kept the court running when a person wasn’t showing any leadership and wasn’t doing his share of the work”.
Thomas said Carmody emerged “in a very poor light” after his role on the appeal case of Daniel Morcombe’s murderer Brett Cowan, where “instead of writing a judgment he was out meeting a lobby group”.
His conduct during the Cowan case, from which he recused himself before an application for bias could be heard, was “arguably … getting towards misconduct” that could remove him from office.
Attorney general Yvette D’Ath said the move, which Carmody flagged with her last month, was a “significant gesture” towards resolving issues publicly played out in the judiciary.
D’Ath said the saga had tainted “the public’s view of the integrity of our courts”.
She refused to be drawn on the conduct of any of the judges including Carmody but said “the whole judiciary needs to think about the way they’ve conducted themselves with the media”.
Despite Labor rejecting calls for a judicial commission before the election, D’Ath said her department was now examining interstate models.
She told the ABC that Carmody had not specified a date of resignation but was welcome to commence negotiating terms with her office.
Shadow justice spokesman Ian Walker said it was a “gracious and generous offer” that gave an opportunity to resolve the situation.
Walker told ABC he had discussed Carmody’s appointment with former attorney general Jarrod Bleijie but refused to detail their exchange, except to say he was sure that Bleijie shared his endorsement of the chief justice’s offer to provide a circuitbreaker to the impasse in the judiciary.
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