PM Transcripts

7,11
PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA1 SEPTEMBER 1987
The Government will recommend the appointment of the
Honourable Mr Justice James Henry Muirhead as Royal
Commissioner to head the joint Commonwealth, State and
Northern Territory Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths
in Custody.
All States and the Northern Territory have given their
support to the Royal Commission and to Mr Justice Muirhead's
appointment as Commissioner. The Government is pleased that
he is available to conduct this inquiry into a matter which
is of major concern to the Aboriginal community and to all
Australians. Mr Justice Muirhead is presently an acting Judge of the
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. He served in the
AIF from 1943 to 1946 and, following completion of his
Bachelor of Laws at the University of Adelaide, was admitted
to the Bar in 1950. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in
1967. He then served on the South Australian Local and
District Criminal Court and the Supreme Court of Papua New
Guinea and acted as Director of the Australian Institute of
Criminology. In. 1974 he became a Justice of the Supreme
Court of the Northen Territory and has acted as Chief
justice. He has also been a Judge of the Federal Court and
an Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Cocos
( Keeling) Islands.
The Commission is required to present its report by 30
1988. June
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