Corruption campaigner never backed down from a fight
Roger Gyles 1938 - 2025
Roger Gyles was always a bit of a rock. Huge forces were ranged against him or the cause he represented, and he caught flak from all directions. But like the nuggety rugby centre for Sydney’s Newington College as he was in his youth mixing it with older and much bigger boys, he persevered and usually came out on top, proved to have been right, while the opposition faded away.
Roger Gyles was occasionally feared by his opponents, but was universally admired and respected by the legal profession as a true leader of the Bar and as a mentor to many young barristers.Credit: Lawyers Weekly
He was a NSW Supreme Court judge, a Federal Court judge, a royal commissioner and a special prosecutor and he chaired a host of other statutory positions, as well as special inquiries, mediations and evaluations. Even in his mid-70s he was in no hurry to slow down. He had become chairman of Transparency International Australia, a non-government organisation dedicated to fighting the one thing that had taken up so much of his attention during his long career: corruption.
When interviewed in 2014, Gyles was disappointed, and a little resigned, about the fact that corruption in the Australian building industry had again raised its head as the involvement of outlaw bikie gangs added a new, sinister element.
He had conducted a royal commission himself, from 1990 to 1992, into allegations of corruption in the building industry. From 2001 to 2003, the Cole Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry had uncovered more abuses in the same industry. It appeared a third royal commission would be announced, and already the politicking had begun in earnest. “It seems to me that whatever the authorities there are that have been looking at things have not been effective,” Gyles said. “You have to keep the pressure on.”
Roger Vincent Gyles was born in Melbourne on August 22, 1938, son of a businessman, Harry Gyles, and Alice (nee Vincent). He did his early schooling at Ashburton Street Public School before the family moved to Sydney when his father became company secretary of Philips Electrical. He finished his primary schooling at Gordon Public School on Sydney’s north shore and won an academic scholarship to Newington College. Entering the school in 1950, he did well academically and was in the top age bracket cricket and rugby teams. He was a sprinter and a hurdler in Newington’s athletics team. In his final year, he was a sub-prefect, a cadet under-officer and a member of the First XI. In rugby, he played in the Second XV, with a few games in the Firsts. Being a year younger than his contemporaries, he was conceding a lot.
Roger Gyles, QC, was a Federal Court judge from 1999 to 2008.Credit: Kylie Picket
In 1955, Gyles entered the University of Sydney to do arts/law. He continued cricket and rugby but with local clubs at Lindfield. He became an articled clerk in 1958 with Sly and Russell, while he finished his law course. He graduated in 1961 with first class honours and was admitted as a solicitor of the NSW Supreme Court. That year, he married a teacher, Alison Logan, with whom he was to have a son and three daughters. He was admitted to the bar in 1964. One of his first cases was assisting Bob Ellicott (later a QC and federal attorney-general) in representing Sydney Sparkes Orr, a former professor of philosophy at the University of Tasmania, who was suing the university for defamation. Gyles was mentored by Ellicott and Trevor Morling (later QC and future Federal Court judge). Gyles eventually took on cases in most jurisdictions.
In 1972, Gyles took a year off and became a lecturer in law at the University of Papua New Guinea, the year the country attained self-government under the prime ministership of Michael Somare. Returning to Australia, in 1973 Gyles was appointed junior counsel in the royal commission into allegations of infiltration of organised crime into licensed clubs, headed by Justice Athol Moffitt; and in 1974, he was junior counsel in a royal commission into maritime union corruption.
After taking silk in 1975, he acted as Master in Equity for six months. In 1976, Gyles became a member of the Commonwealth Administrative Review Council. Meanwhile, his private practice expanded. On five occasions, he travelled to London to appear before the Privy Council, which was then the ultimate court of appeal for Australian court cases. He took on cases in Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomon Islands. He was becoming involved in high-profile cases in Australia. In 1986, he was to act for Lionel Murphy in a federal inquiry into Murphy’s fitness to return to the High Court bench, following criminal proceedings in which Murphy had initially been convicted, then acquitted on appeal.
Between 1982 and 1984, he was a special commonwealth prosecutor following the Costigan Royal Commission on the Activities of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, which revealed a massive industry in tax avoidance, in which the trade unionists, it turned out, were only bit players.
In 1984, Gyles became a member of the Law Council of Australia. In 1986, he was elected president of the NSW Bar Association and in 1987, he became president of the Australian Bar Association. In 1989, he served a term as an acting NSW Supreme Court judge.
Roger Gyles in 1982 when he was appointed the special prosecutor on the “bottom-of-the-harbour” tax avoidance schemes.Credit: Paul Matthews/Fairfax Media
Gyles represented the Fairfax Group, whose major shareholder at the time was media magnate Conrad Black, against a takeover bid by Irishman Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media Group. In 1990, Gyles represented deputy premier Wal Murray before the Independent Commission Against Corruption under Adrian Roden, QC, inquiring into alleged improprieties in land deals on the NSW North Coast. Later that year, Gyles was appointed royal commissioner into the building industry of NSW, a mammoth inquiry in which few of the players escaped the searchlight.
Gyles came under personal attack. Militants in the building trade unions called on all their resources including friends in the media and in the wider labour establishment. Gyles was steadfast and produced a report that led to significant changes in the industry, including the establishment of a building industry task force.
In 1993, Gyles appeared before the ICAC for NSW premier Nick Greiner, who had been accused of misusing his authority in an appointment of former minister Terry Metherell. Though the ICAC commissioner Ian Temby, QC, found against Greiner, Gyles won on appeal in the NSW Supreme Court.
In 1998, Gyles became involved as counsel in the nationwide waterfront dispute. He represented the Patrick Corporation against the Maritime Union in the Federal Court and High Court; in 1999, he represented former West Australian premier Carmen Lawrence before the Marks royal commission and became a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. Among the many cases he handled was that involving financial guru Rene Rivkin, who was facing bankruptcy and major tax issues.
Roger Gyles, then president of the NSW Bar Association, in 1986. Credit: Robert Pearce
Gyles did not restrict his interests to the confines of the law. He served on numerous sporting regulatory bodies, including the Code of Conduct Commission for the NSW Cricket Association and the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where he handled the case of the wild boy of Olympic swimming, Nick D’Arcy. He was also president of the Sydney University Cricket Club and the Killara Golf Club. Gyles served for some years as a council member of the Ku-ring-gai Council of Advanced Education. He was actively involved in Community Aid Abroad for some years.
In 2000, he became an Officer of the Order of Australia (OA) for service to the legal profession and the judiciary, particularly as a royal commissioner and special prosecutor, and for services to the community.
In 2001, Gyles was appointed as an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT and appointed deputy president of the Australian Competition Tribunal in 2003. He became a presidential member of the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2005.
In 2008, having reached the mandatory retiring age of 70 for a judge, he stepped down but continued to serve as acting judge of the NSW Court of Appeal, an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT and deputy president of the Australian Competition Tribunal.
“He was for me a wonderful mentor. His fine surgical-like skills in analysing legal problems were firmly underpinned by a belief that … without the application of moral courage ... a barrister was not doing his or her job.”
One of Gyles’ protégés, Supreme Court judge Peter Hall on his send-off from the judiciary
He also undertook special inquiries including in 2008 a review of the management of the Conservatorium for the University of Sydney. In 2010, he conducted a commission of inquiry into events in HMAS Success by the chief of the ADF and he chaired a leadership tribunal in PNG to determine allegations of misconduct against Somare in 2011.
Settling into his chambers in Macquarie Street in early 2014 as chairman of Transparency International, Gyles was not inclined to sit back and ruminate. He was on a number of panels and in his 80s he was appointed the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor.
His son Lachlan Gyles, SC, with chambers nearby, was also keeping the family name well within the legal framework.
Gyles died in Sydney on March 2 after a brief hospital stay. His funeral is at St Stephens Church on March 17. He is survived by his daughters Mandy, Kirsty and Anna, his sister, Felicity, his son Lachlan, and his 11 grandchildren. His beloved wife Alison died last year.