Dear Colleagues, It is possible you have seen the email distributed by Bruce McClintock SC about the Bar Council election. If not the email is readily available on the Internet because, unsurprisingly in light of its tone and content, it has now been picked up by the media. The McClintock email is lengthy, but accuses the Political Neutrality ticket of distributing ‘propaganda’ and asserts that David Bennett QC is both the leader of a ‘hard right wing faction’ and an extremist. The email expresses support for other candidates in this election. It seems necessary to make a brief comment about this. The literature distributed in support of the Political Neutrality ticket is not ‘propaganda’. Every assertion about the public statements and policy positions of the Bar Council has been fully referenced, and the minutes of Bar Council (which are accessible through ‘In Brief’) demonstrate that none of these policies or media releases were ratified by meetings of the Bar Council. Whether it is appropriate for the Bar Association to conduct itself in an overtly political fashion is something about which minds differ. That is why the role of the Bar Association is an issue in this election. My personal view is that the Bar Association has no business commenting on climate change, children in detention, and other idiosyncratic issues. Instead there should be an impartial focus on serving its membership. It is not ‘right wing’ (or ‘left wing’ for that matter) to take this view about the role of the Bar Association. The references in the McClintock email to the Political Neutrality ticket as a ‘hard right wing faction’ are quite bizarre. Our goal is to put ideology to one side. For this reason, and with one or two exceptions, I have no idea what political parties the members of our ticket would generally vote for in Federal, State and Local elections or what opinions they have about matters unrelated to the Bar Association. It is not correct that Bennett QC or John Hyde Page (or anybody else) is seeking to foist a particular set of post-nominals on the Inner Bar. We believe post-nominals should be a matter of personal choice. This position has already been adopted in a number of other jurisdictions, and this position has been preserved by a Labor government in Victoria. It cannot be accurately described as ‘hard right wing’ or ‘extreme’. Nor is there any proposal for the Attorney General to be given the power to appoint senior counsel, as McClintock SC suggests. Sincerely,Jeff Phillips SC