‘Searing sense of justice’: Attorney General John Quigley farewells Parliament

Attorney General John Quigley has reflected on his “searing sense of justice” — including protecting victims of historical child abuse —and protecting WA from Clive Palmer’s attempt to bankrupt the State.

The Attorney, the most prolific in WA’s history, farewelled Parliament Wednesday after 24 years representing the seat of Butler — eight of those as the State’s top law official.

As a minister, he passed 92 laws.

“People ask me, ‘Well, what’s your favourite piece of legislation?’,” Mr Quigley said.

“I‘m born here on the wings of a searing sense of justice, and I wanted to get here to try and make things — from what I’ve seen in a quarter of a century in the legal profession — more just for all the people.”

“From the 92 . . . my favourite ones are all of those pieces of legislation that made it more just for my fellow citizens in Western Australia.”

Mr Quigley said that included lifting the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse, introducing the custody notification service for Indigenous people being arrested and taken into custody and ending imprisonment for unpaid fines.

The Attorney said he was proud that bikies wore shirts declaring “Mr Quigley f.... your laws” in response to legislation targeting outlaw gangs.

He shared the same sentiment towards full-page ads from Clive Palmer that labelled him an “embarrassment” after he crafted legislation that defeated his $300 billion claim against the State for mining royalties.

“(The judge that decided the case) went on to describe the bill itself as a juggernaut. ‘They’d constructed a juggernaut which destroyed everything in its path’, and it did,” Mr Quigley said.

As minister, the Attorney used rarely invoked mercy laws to free domestic violence victim Jody Gore — who had been convicted of murdering her abusive partner.

He has secured a raft of family and domestic violence legal changes, including mandating that repeated offenders be GPS tracked whilst on parole.