Background
Tony Fitzgerald was born in a cottage at Sandgate, Queensland.
Tony Fitzgerald was born in a cottage at Sandgate, Queensland.
He attended high school at Street Patrick"s College, Shorncliffe and later the University of Queensland, initially studying engineering and then switching to law. He graduated in 1964 with an Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the bar that same year.
The report from the inquiry led to the resignation of the Premier of Queensland Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and the jailing of several ministers and a police commissioner. He was the youngest person to be appointed as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. In 1975, Fitzgerald became a Queen's Counsel. He was a judge in the Federal Court of Australia from 25 November 1981 to 30 June 1984.
Fitzgerald presided over the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in the Queensland government.
He was officially known as the chair of the Commission of Inquiry into Official Corruption in Queensland from 1987 to 1989. While undertaking the Fitzgerald Inquiry, he and his family received death threats which were taken seriously by police.
In 1990 and 1991, Fitzgerald also chaired the Commission of Inquiry into the Conservation, Management and Use of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, which is the highest ranking court in the State of Queensland.
He also served as the first President of the Court of Appeals Division, from 16 December 1991 until his retirement from that court on 30 June 1998.
He was a judge on the Court of Appeals Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1998 to 16 March 2001. Fitzgerald has been the chairperson of both the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Institute for Law, Ethics and Public Affairs, as well as being the inaugural chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast. After retiring in 2001, Fitzgerald worked primarily as a mediator and arbitrator.
In July 2009, following the Gordon Nuttall scandal and public criticisms of contemporary governance in Queensland, Fitzgerald revealed his relocation to New South Wales was due in large part to the 1998 election of the Beattie Labor government.
He has made several scathing comments regarding the Queensland government led by Campbell Newman. This included criticism of new laws targeting bikies and sex offenders, as well as the appointment of Tim Carmody as Chief Justice of Queensland.