Paul Coe

Paul Coe (b. c1949), a Wiradjuri man, is an Australian Aboriginal activist.^[1] He was the son of Leslie Coe,^[2] and the grandson of Paul Joseph Coe and Edith Murray and the great grandson of Thomas Coe and Jessie Mary, née Waggerah (Crow).^[3]

He was active in campaigns around the 1967 referendum and the establishment in 1972 of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy,^[4] working with Pearl Gibbs, Chicka Dixon and Billy Craigie in the fight for basic human rights and justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

He played an important role at the Aboriginal Legal Service.^[4]

In 1979, as a young barrister, he took an action in the High Court of Australia arguing that at the time white people came to Australia, Aborigines were here and therefore the Court had to recognise their rights. (Paul Coe vs. Commonwealth of Australia^[1] ).

His claim was rejected on technical grounds; all of the judges except one rejected the notion that Aborigines had any rights to land.^[5] Thirteen years later the High Court of Australia accepted Coe's argument, ruling in Mabo that Aboriginal rights did survive after European arrival and were recognised under the guise of native title.

Career

Disbarment

In 1997, following proceedings in the Legal Services Tribunal, Paul Coe's name was removed from the roll of legal practitioners. The Tribunal found that Coe had sworn an affidavit which he knew to be false in a material particular. The affidavit in question was sworn in the course of family law proceedings, to which Coe was a party, and understated his salary by some $80,000.^[6]

Coe appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court of NSW Court of Appeal upheld the Tribunal's decision.

Both the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal commended Coe's role in advancing the interests of the Aboriginal community, however, the Court considered that Coe was not fit to practice, stating that the Court must be able to trust that barristers appearing before it would act in accordance with the law and would not mislead the Court.^[6]

Media reports indicate that Coe was subsequently investigated by the Bar Association of NSW for continuing to practice despite being removed from the roll. The outcome of the investigation is unknown.^[7]

Works for DST

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Bain Attwood and Terra Nullius". Sunday Profile. ABC Local Radio. 25 July 2004. http://www.abc.net.au/sundayprofile/stories/s1160553.htm. 
2. ^ "Paul's a Prefect". Dawn. June 1966. http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1960s/dawn/dawn14.html.  reveals his father was Leslie Coe, at 16 he became a prefect at Cowra High School while studying HSC. also Dawn is at [1]
3. ^ Peter Read (2006). "Coe, Paul Joseph (1902? - 1979)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition. Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130500b.htm. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Jon Faine (November 1993). Lawyers in the Alice: aboriginals and whitefellas' law (3 ed.). Sydney: Federation Press. pp. 14–21. ISBN 9781862871151. [2]
5. ^ "High Court challenged". 4 Feb 2006. http://www.eniar.org/news/MichaelConnor.html. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Coe v NSW Bar Association [2000] NSWCA 13
7. ^ Debra Jopson (10 November 2003). "Struck-off barrister under investigation". SMH. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/09/1068329423328.html. 

External links

• "A young Paul Coe sneaking into the footy - April 1959". Dawn. April 1959. http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1960s/dawn/dawn25.html. 
• "Scholarships for Cowra Children". Dawn. December 1963. http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1960s/dawn/dawn2.html.  Paul Coe was 14 in 1963, son of L. J. Coe of Erambie Station.
• "Paul Coe is the first Aboriginal boy to pass the Intermediate Certificate in Cowra". January/March 1966. http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1960s/dawn/dawn41.html. 
• Gary Foley (31 June 1994). "The Pain of Faine goes Mainly to my Brain". The Koori History Website. http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/essay_21.html. 
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KusmXsDkqWg Paul Coe talks Black Power in 1972
• Benjamin Branham. "On "Truganinny"". http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/rose/truganinny.htm.  commenting on Paul; Coe's epitath
• The National library has Biographical cuttings on Paul Coe [3]

Persondata
Name	Coe, Paul
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1949
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death