12 Facts About Stephen Estcourt

Stephen Estcourt left the Court in 1994 to establish the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal for the Tasmanian Government.

Stephen Estcourt "took silk" in 1998 and as Queen's Counsel practiced extensively in the civil and criminal jurisdictions of the Supreme Court of Tasmania and in the Federal and High Courts of Australia.

Stephen Estcourt was President of the Law Society of Tasmania in 1988 and between 2003 and 2007 was President of the Tasmanian Independent Bar.

In 2001 Stephen Estcourt was appointed part-time Deputy President of the Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal and sat all over Australia hearing chiefly visa refusal and deportation cases.

Stephen Estcourt left the AAT in 2004 as a result of philosophical objections to Attorney General Philip Ruddock's apparent oversight and appointment practices.

In September 2011, Stephen Estcourt was cited in Australian Parliament by the Prime Minister of Australia in response to a question from the member for Stirling and by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship in response to a question from the member for McEwen relating to asylum seekers.

In 2022, Stephen Estcourt was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of the Kingdom of Tonga.

Stephen Estcourt was President of the ABA during the infamous arrest and detention of Gold Coast doctor Mohammed Haneef and famously said when informed by The Sydney Morning Herald of Immigration Minister Andrew's cancellation of Haneef's visa after a Brisbane magistrate had granted him bail "He can't do that", an opinion ultimately shared by the full Federal Court of Australia.

That rumour was judicially debunked by Justice Evans in State of Tasmania v Johnston, but prior to that the Hobart Mercury newspaper falsely reported that Stephen Estcourt had declined to be interviewed about the matter by Tasmania Police.

Stephen Estcourt sued the Mercury and its reporter Sue Neales for defamation and the settlement in Estcourt's favour involved what was at the time the largest judgement for damages for defamation in Tasmanian legal history, as well as fulsome official and personal apologies from the editor.

In 2022, Stephen Estcourt was one of the four judges who heard the appeals relating to the 2021 Tongan general election.

In 2011, Stephen Estcourt was a Tasmanian State Finalist for the Australian of the Year awards.