Catherine Crawford: Shunted Perth Magistrate loses bitter fight over relocation by Children’s Court President

An exiled Perth Children’s Court magistrate whose “unilateral” removal sparked an explosive trial and a High Court challenge has lost her appeal bid. Catherine Crawford and the court’s President Hylton Quail “fell into disagreement” in 2020, and she found herself no longer exclusively or predominantly handling children’s cases as she would have preferred. Instead, she mainly worked with adult accused and offenders in magistrates courts. Judge Quail said in writing that was in line her being among dozens of other dually-appointed magistrates who split their time between the jurisdictions. But in a letter flagging the move with Attorney General John Quigley, Judge Quail said Ms Crawford was “difficult to manage”, had a “poor relationship” with staff and caused “disharmony” within the court. That prompted Ms Crawford to eventually take her boss to WA’s Supreme Court — where she accused Judge Quail of “harassing, intimidating and bullying behaviour”. The trial abruptly ended when Ms Crawford withdrew her claim before she could be cross-examined. The State Government then amended the Children’s Court Act to grant the sitting President “absolute discretion” to move magistrates to manage workload. Ms Crawford applied to the High Court to challenge the validity of those law changes but the bid was batted away. She then turned to the Federal Court, arguing that giving those wide powers to the head of the Children’s Court threatened the judicial independence and impartiality of the court. “It is inappropriate for that decision to be reposed on one person and to be unilateral,” her barrister Patricia Cahill SC argued. On Tuesday, chief justice Debra Mortimer and justices Michael O’Bryan and Angus Stewart dismissed the appeal. “In the absence of any constitutional challenge to the dual appointment regime itself ... there is no independent and substantive constitutional argument for the Court to address,” they wrote.