From Australia’s Jewish Past
Sir Philip David Phillips – an outstanding and respected lawyer gifted with an exceptional memory
Sir Philip David Phillips
Another child born to Morris and Rebecca Phillips was Philip David, who was born on 22 March 1897 in Prahran, Melbourne.
His younger brother, Arthur Angell Phillips, became a literary critic and schoolteacher. They were the nephews of Marion Phillips, whose story was published in J-Wire on 23 July.
Philip was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and the University of Melbourne, having graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Hons in 1921 and a Law degree in 1922. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 31 January 1916 and served on the Western Front as a gunner in the 8th Artillery Brigade. In June 1917 he was transferred to the 3rd Divisional Signal Company. Near Corbie, France, on 30 March 1918 Lance Corporal Phillips braved enemy shell-fire to repair telephone lines and won the Military Medal. Returning to Australia, he was discharged from the A.I.F. on 1 June 1919.
Philip’s education was not over and he returned to university and received first-class honours and four prizes. In 1922 he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victori, signing the Bar roll on 21 March 1923. In December of the same year, he married an architect and they had two daughters and were divorced in 1949. Soon after his divorce, he married again.
Although Philip practised at Melbourne’s Selborne Chambers, he did not want his career to be that of a full-time barrister. He took up part-time lecturing in the University of Melbourne Arts and Law faculties and remained a faculty member for many years. He had a wide interest in human affairs and, this was represented by his active participation in the Institute of Public Administration, the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand, the League of Nations Union, and the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria. He commented on public affairs in Melbourne’s daily newspapers including the Age, Argus, and Herald. He participated in public debates and was a member and chairman of the editorial board of the Austral-Asiatic Bulletin from 1941 to 1946. He became a prominent member of the Nationalist Party and was very much influenced by (Sir) Frederic Eggleston a fellow lawyer, politician, diplomat, and controversialist. At the invitation of (Sir) Robert Menzies, Philip chaired from 1934 to 1937 the Victorian Transport Regulation Board and was deputy-chair from 1940 to 1945 of the Commonwealth Liquid Fuel Control Board. He served from 1946 to 1951 as a member of the South Melbourne Council.
Phillips, or ‘P.D.’ as he was widely known in the legal profession, had taken silk on 14 February 1946 and soon became a leader of the Australian Bar. Together with the federal attorney-general Bert Evatt and the solicitor-general, (Sir Kenneth Bailey) a close friend of Philips, the three became a counsel team briefed for the Commonwealth in the Bank Nationalisation Case from 1948 to 1949. It was also called the Bank of New South Wales v Commonwealth with a decision of the High Court of Australia (upheld on appeal to the Privy Council) that invalidated Chiefley’s government legislation that attempted to nationalise the private banking sector. Philip appeared frequently in constitutional, industrial, tax, commercial, and other civil cases in the High Court of Australia, in addition to maintaining an extensive civil practice before the Supreme Court of Victoria where perhaps his most notable appearance was in the case of McDonald v. Cain in 1953 whereby the Country Party’s application to the Supreme Court for an injunction to restrain the presentation of Cain’s government’s electoral reform bill for royal assent was successfully opposed. Joining again with his friend Kenneth Bailey, Phillip appeared for the Commonwealth in the Secord Uniform Tax Case in 1957. His familiarity with American, and constitutional law was reflected in his teaching and scholarly writing. He was known for his persuasion to take a particular course of action to allow or dismiss an appeal.
Phillip was widely read and gifted with an exceptional memory. If he had any failings, they probably arose from his extraordinary capacity to talk, never worrying about criticism and insensitive to insults, always seeming to know when he had said enough. He was renowned for taking a keen interest in his appearance. He was good company in social circles although some were put off by his underdeveloped sense of humour, fondness for aristocratic forms of speech, and tendency to be self-opinionated and arrogant.
He retired from practice in 1958 and returned to the University of Melbourne as a special lecturer in law, finally retiring in 1970. For the next decade, he conducted the law school’s mock court program, bringing his considerable talents in introducing students to the world of advocacy.
In 1960, Philip resumed public office when the Menzies government appointed him Chairman of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, a post he held until 1966. He was, however, invited by (Sir) Henry Bolte in 1963 to conduct a royal commission into the sale of consumption of liquor. This pushed him, the bon vivant, into the limelight and gave him the opportunity, which he enthusiastically grasped, to apply his interests in the law and personal freedom, economics, public administration, social policy, and, the methodology of social research. He provided three detailed reports and his recommendations were promptly enacted by the government liberalising Victoria’s liquor laws. He was, however, unable to bring himself to recommend relaxing the laws concerning Sunday drinking!
Philip continually throughout his adult life, contributed to the scholarly literature of law, economics, and public administration, with articles in the Australian Quarterly, the Economic Record, Public Administration, Res Judicatae, the Melbourne University Law Review, and the Australian Law Journal. In 1964 he was appointed a C.M.G. (Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George) and received a knighthood in 1967. Throughout his career, he held positions of company director, took on the presidency of the Royal Victorian Bowls Association, and was a member of the Alcoholism Foundation of Victoria. He enjoyed tending his garden playing bowls and making furniture. He died of heart disease at his home in Eltham on 19 September 1970.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Laurence W Maher; Victorian Law Society; University of Melbourne, Victorian State Library
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