Graham Hill

Few have made a greater contribution than the late Graham Hill to improving revenue law in Australia.  His contribution was greatest in the area of practising, teaching and determining questions of revenue law.

Details of the contribution are set out in the articles noted in the Bibliography of which the following is a brief summary.

Contribution as a scholar

Educated at Fort Street Boys High School, Graham gained a maximum pass in the NSW Leaving Certificate.  He went to the University of Sydney where he gained a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws, the latter with First Class Honours, winning the University Medal in law.  His graduating class of 1962 included the now Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, Murray Gleeson, as well as Michael Kirby, now a justice of that Court and a number of others who subsequently were appointed to high judicial office.

From there he won a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard University where he was awarded a Masters degree in law.  He studied under Professor Erwin Griswold, Dean of the Faculty of Law and widely regarded as the leading tax law scholar in the US, who later became Solicitor General.  Graham then spent a year as a post-graduate student at the London School of Economics under the doyen of British tax lawyers Professor Wheatcroft.

Thus began Graham’s life long passion for revenue law.   A passion which had nothing to do with paying the least amount of tax or collecting the maximum.  It was a passion founded on the historical understanding of the fundamental importance of revenue law to a society and its citizens, and the necessity that the law be just in imposition and collection.  He fully understood how the rule of law was paramount in revenue matters.

After his return from England he began writing his seminal work: Stamp, Death, Estate and Gift Duties (New South Wales, Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory).

Justice Richard Edmonds has said this of the work:

“His Honour’s work made such an outstanding contribution to the development and understanding of the law in this country in the fields of stamp, death, estate and gift duty, that even today, the work, in a modified version devoted to stamp duty, still exists as a leading text in the field.  That that is so nearly forty years after it was first published, speaks for itself.  Many, many students, as equally many practitioners and perhaps fewer judges, only because there are fewer of them, have benefited from his Honour’s commentary and observations in this work.  I do not think I can give it higher praise than by saying that his Honour’s work on stamp, death, estate and gift duties and its successor on stamp duties is, in scholastic expertise, the composite equal of Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Duties and Dymond’s Death Duties.”

Contribution as a teacher

Graham loved teaching revenue law.  He joined Justice Russell Fox in lecturing to students in the post-graduate Master of Laws course at the Sydney University Law School.  He lectured in stamp, death, estate and gift duties, subsequently in sales tax and more recently in GST.  He became Sydney Law School’s longest serving teacher, lecturing every term, except one, for nearly 40 years.

Graham also gave lectures for such organisations as the Taxation Institute of Australia, the Law Council of Australia, the Law Society of NSW, the NSW Bar Association, the Australian Tax Research Foundation and the International Fiscal Association. 

Professor Patrick Gallagher had this to say of Graham as an academic:

“In that time, he had created an unannounced reputation as one of Australia’s leading tax academics – albeit his academic work was always ‘part-time’ – in name at least.  The quality of his teaching was exceptional and his writings and legal research (which have been fully catalogued recently by Colin Fong), in the form of papers, judgments and public addresses – not to mention the Stamp Duty service he wrote with Bill Cannon and Michael Aitken – were at the cutting edge of practical tax analysis.”

The contribution made by Graham was recognised in 2002 by the Sydney University with the conferring of the degree of Doctor of Laws.  The Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Justice Kim Santow, then said of Graham that he had “a research and publication record of which a full-time academic could be proud”.

Revenue law practitioner, Robert Richards has written of Graham:

There are few tax practitioners who would not have personally known the late Justice Graham Hill...

The reason why Graham Hill was so well known to the tax profession was because of his unparalleled accessibility.  He lectured in stamp duty and indirect taxes at Sydney University for over 40 years, there were few significant tax conferences which he did not attend and contribute to, and few tax discussion groups and the like which could not rely upon him to grace their annual dinners.”

Contribution as a tax practitioner

Graham was admitted as a solicitor in 1962 and became a partner in the law firm, Parish Patience in 1965.  He became a partner in what is now Blake Dawson five years later.

He practised as a solicitor for over ten years and became known throughout Australia as the author of the standard text on NSW stamp duty.  He specialised in all aspects of revenue law and was widely recognised as an expert in the area.

During this period as a solicitor he frequently advised other solicitors on revenue law.

Graham went to the Bar in 1976 and was appointed Queens Counsel eight years later.  Whilst at the Bar he continued the speciality in revenue law, arguing many of the leading cases.  He also extended his practice to the whole field of commercial law and equity.

Tony Slater QC and Stephen McMillan had this to say about Graham’s role as a barrister:

“What to Graham was particularly satisfying about practice as a silk was the opportunity it gave to shape the development of the law.  Judges do not make law alone; it is a product of interaction between the court and those who choose, prepare and present the cases which it falls to judges to decide.  By selecting and framing the issues tendered to judges for decision, a leading counsel such as Graham then can play a role in guiding the growth of the law, both the body of judicial precedent and the interpretation of statutes.  It gives, as Graham said, a chance to “get the law right”.”

In 1980 the then Treasurer and now the present Prime Minister, John Howard, briefed Murray Gleeson QC (the present Chief Justice of the High Court) and Graham to assist in redrafting the general tax avoidance provision in the Tax Act: a notoriously difficult task.  The result was the present Part IVA.

Contribution as a member of professional organisations

From 1970 to 1986 Graham was a State Counsellor of the Taxation Institute of Australia.  He was the State Chair in 1983-1984 and its National President in 1984-1985.  From 1985 to 1987 he served as a Counsellor of the Australian Tax Research Foundation.  From 1977 to 1988 he served as the NSW Bar Association representative on the Taxation Committee of the Law Council of Australia.

From 1997 until 2005 Graham was the patron of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association.  Cynthia Coleman, who invited him to be patron is reported as having said:

“He came to every conference, he gave a fabulous technical talk, and he always said ‘put me up in the cheapest accommodation so I can meet the most people’ - he made himself available to everybody.”

Contribution as a Federal Court Judge

Graham served as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia from 1989 to 2005.

In commenting in May 2002 on his position as a judge, Graham said:

“And, as a judge I think there is nothing more significant in what I do than to stand between the government and the citizen to ensure that the law has been obeyed.”

Graham participated in 107 Full Court judgments and 109 judgments at first instance on revenue law.  In addition he delivered over 1,000 reported judgments in non-revenue cases.

His judgments are a triumph of robust reasoning over delphic discourse.

Graham’s analysis of a legal problem is typified by his comments in Macquarie Finance Limited v Commissioner of Taxation (2004) 210 ALR 508 on the decision of the High Court in Harts case.

Justice Gzell has summed up Graham’s contribution as a judge in these words:

“Justice Graham Hill’s exceptional level of scholarship is evident throughout his judgments.  They are part of his legacy to his fellow judges, to members of the profession, and to academics involved in the taxation field.  They will be referred to often in the years to come for I doubt that any one else will emerge with the gifts he possessed to take his place and divert our attention away from the enormous contribution he made to taxation law jurisprudence in this country.”