H. V. Evatt

The Right Honourable  Dr H. V. Evatt  QC KStJ
Puisne Justice of the High Court of Australia
In office 19 December 1930 – 2 September 1940
Appointed by	James Scullin
Preceded by	Sir Charles Powers
Succeeded by	Sir Dudley Williams
Chief Justice of New South Wales
In office 15 February 1960 – 24 October 1962
Preceded by	Sir Kenneth Street
Succeeded by	Sir Leslie Herron
Leader of the Australian Labor Party
In office 20 June 1951 – 9 February 1960
Preceded by	Ben Chifley
Succeeded by	Arthur Calwell
Attorney-General of Australia
In office 7 October 1941 – 19 December 1949
Preceded by	Billy Hughes
Succeeded by	John Spicer
Minister for External Affairs
In office 7 October 1941 – 19 December 1949
Preceded by	Frederick Stewart
Succeeded by	Percy Spender
Member of the Australian Parliament for Barton
In office 21 September 1940 – 22 November 1958
Preceded by	Albert Lane
Succeeded by	Leonard Reynolds
Member of the Australian Parliament for Hunter
In office 22 November 1958 – 10 February 1960
Preceded by	Rowley James
Succeeded by	Bert James
Born	30 April 1894(1894-04-30) Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
Died	2 November 1965(1965-11-02) (aged 71) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Herbert Vere Evatt, QC KStJ (30 April 1894 - 2 November 1965), was an Australian jurist, politician and writer. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948-49 and helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). He was Leader of the Australian Labor Party (and thus Leader of the Opposition) from 1951 to 1960.

Evatt was formally referred to as Dr H. V. Evatt, but was informally known as "Bert Evatt" or "Doc Evatt".

Early years and education

Evatt in 1925

Evatt was born in Maitland, New South Wales, to a working-class family of British and Irish origins. He was never called Herbert: his family called him Bert, everyone else called him Doc.

After attending Fort Street High School in Sydney, Evatt won scholarships to the University of Sydney, where he graduated in 1919 with two University Medals, in Philosophy and Law. He was President of the University of Sydney Union from 1916-17.

Career

Lawyer

Evatt was unable to serve in the First World War, in which two of his brothers were killed, due to poor eyesight. He became a prominent industrial lawyer in Sydney, working mainly for trade union clients.

NSW Parliament

In 1925 Evatt was elected as an Australian Labor Party member for Balmain in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He served there until 1930.

High Court Judge

In 1930 the Scullin Labor government appointed Evatt as the youngest-ever justice of the High Court of Australia. Regarded by some as a brilliant and innovative judge, he delivered a number of minority judgements, several of which were decades later adopted by High Court majorities. Evatt could, however, be partial on the bench. Sir Owen Dixon noted in one instance how Evatt was "full of antagonism to the respondent ... Most unjudicial."^[1] It is noticeable, upon examination of the Commonwealth Law Reports for the 1930s, that when Evatt was not particularly interested in a case he generally went along with Dixon's judgment.^[2]

In 1934 Evatt played an important part in the Egon Kisch exclusion when he ruled that the Lyons Government's ban on Kisch entering Australia had been incorrectly executed and that he was free to enter the country.^[3]

In several matters, Robert Menzies, the Attorney-General in the Lyons conservative government appeared before the court where he and Evatt had several colourful exchanges on questions of law. This was the beginning of a life-long mutual dislike.

Federal Parliament

Evatt (left) and Ben Chifley (middle) with Clement Attlee (right) at the Dominion and British Leaders Conference, London, 1946

In 1940 Evatt resigned from the High Court to return to politics, and was elected federal MP for the Sydney seat of Barton. When Labor came to power under John Curtin in 1941, Evatt became Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs (Foreign Minister).

Evatt joined the diplomatic councils of the allies during the Second World War, and in 1945 he played a leading role in the founding of the United Nations. He was President of the U.N. General Assembly in 1948-49, and was prominent in the negotiations which led to the creation of Israel. He helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was also the first chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission. He became deputy leader of the Labor Party after the 1946 elections.

Leader of the Opposition

In 1949 Labor was defeated by Menzies's new Liberal Party and Evatt went into opposition. When Ben Chifley died in 1951 Evatt was elected Labor leader without opposition. At first his leadership went well and he campaigned successfully against Menzies's attempt to amend the Constitution to ban the Communist Party. Many moderates in the Labor Party believed this was both bad politics and bad policy because of the active communist opposition to Labor within trade unions and because of the threat to national security posed by communists.

Evatt's failure to win the 1954 federal election led him to blame the Catholic-dominated Industrial Groups in the party for sabotaging his campaign. He was also convinced that Menzies had conspired with the security services to bring about the defection of a Soviet diplomat (see Petrov Affair) as a means of discrediting him.

After the elections, Evatt launched a public attack on "The Groupers" which precipitated a disastrous split in the party, with most of the "Groupers" leaving or being expelled. The disaffected formed the Democratic Labor Party, which directed its preferences against Labor at subsequent elections. This, together with an obsessive hatred of Menzies which led him into many tactical errors, cost Evatt the 1955 and 1958 federal elections, at both of which Labor was heavily defeated. During the 1958 election campaign Evatt made a dramatic offer to resign as leader if the DLP would return to the party, but the offer was rejected.

NSW Supreme Court Judge

H. V. Evatt

In 1960 the Labor government in New South Wales appointed Evatt Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, an appointment which was widely seen as a means of giving him a dignified exit from politics. His career as Chief Justice was undistinguished and erratic, lacking the legal insight he had exhibited as an academic and High Court justice. Tom Hughes, a leading Sydney barrister and former Liberal Attorney-General, has claimed that all of the judgments Evatt gave in this period were co-authored with a judicial colleague.^[4]

Breakdown and retirement

In 1962 Evatt suffered a nervous breakdown and retired from the bench. He died in Canberra in November 1965. Recent biographies of Evatt agree he became increasingly eccentric towards the end of his career. In their 1995 television documentary Doc, Pat Fiske and David McKnight explained what they described as Evatt's "deteriorating mental functioning" as due to arteriosclerosis.^[5]

Literary works

During his life he had a varied career as a writer covering such topics as law and labour history. His book on the politics of the Rum Rebellion is still considered highly relevant, although others such as Michael Duffy disagree with Evatt's view.^[6] He contributed an article on "Cricket and the British Commonwealth" to the 1949 edition of the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack.

His publications include:

• H. V. Evatt, Australian Labour Leader: The Story Of W.A. Holman and the Labour Movement, 1954
• H. V. Evatt, The King and His Dominion Governors, 1936
• H. V. Evatt, The Royal Prerogative, 1930 (this was his LLD thesis)
• H. V. Evatt, Rum Rebellion: A Study of the Overthrow of Governor Bligh by John Macarthur and the New South Wales Corps, 1943

Honours

• In 1924 Evatt was awarded the degree LLD, for his dissertation on prerogative powers of Governors in the British legal system.
• The Evatt Foundation,^[7] a research institute for the labour movement, is named in his honour.
• The suburb of Evatt, which lies in the Belconnen district of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, is also named in his honour.
• One of the high schools (Maitland Boy's High School) in his home town of Maitland, was briefly renamed Evatt High School in his honour, before being renamed Maitland High School when it became unisex some years later.
• In November 1965, the NSW State Government opened Evatt Park in Lugarno. The park is still used frequently for recreation.
• The United Nations Youth Association of Australia runs an annual national schools debating trophy competition named the Evatt Trophy Competition in honor of Evatt.

References

Bibliography

• No Ribbons or Medals: the story of "Hereward" an Australian counter espionage officer, Valdemar Robert Wake, Jacobyte Books 2004

Further reading

• Buckley, Ken et al. (1994), Doc Evatt, Cheshire, Melbourne
• Crockett, Peter (1993), Evatt: A Life, Oxford University Press, Melbourne
• Dalziel, Allan (1967), Evatt. The Enigma, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne
• Makin, Norman (1961), Federal Labour Leaders, Union Printing, Sydney, New South Wales, Pages 140-145.
• Renouf, Alan (1983), Let Justice Be Done. The Foreign Policy of Dr H.V. Evatt, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia (Queensland)
• Tennant, Kylie (1970), Evatt. Politics and Justice, Angus and Robertson, Sydney

External links

• Evatt Collection