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Angelo Vasta QC (8 January 1941 – 29 September 2021) was an Australian Queen's Counsel and judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland (1984 to 1989). He was the first superior court judge with an Italian background to be appointed in Queensland, and the second to be appointed in Australia.

Biography

Angelo Vasta was born in Innisfail on 8 January 1941. He completed his education from Melbourne University in 1964. In 1967, he moved to Brisbane where Vasta was called to the Queensland bar in 1968, appointed a QC in 1980, Chief Crown prosecutor in 1981 and appointed to the Supreme Court in 1984. He maintained a successful private practice at the Queensland Bar before retiring on 1 July 2020.

On 24 October 1988, Vasta either stood down or was stood down as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland after evidence of his friendship with the suspended Queensland Police Commissioner Terence Lewis was given at the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption which contradicted statements made under oath during a defamation case in 1986, amongst other behaviours. He was formally removed from office on 8 June 1989 by an Act of the Queensland Parliament, the only occasion since Federation that any parliament in Australia has removed a Supreme Court judge. In 2017, Robbie Katter MP introduced a private member's bill to declare Vasta's removal from office invalid and have it reversed but the bill was subsequently rejected by a parliamentary committee.

Vasta's son, Ross Vasta MP, has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2010, and previously served from 2004 to 2007.

Since 1 January 2015, another son, Salvatore "Sal" Vasta, has been a judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia with significant controversy surrounding several of his cases. Vasta's daughter-in-law, Sal's wife, is Magistrate Deborah Vasta, a Magistrate of the Magistrates Court of Queensland.

Vasta died in Brisbane, Queensland on 29 September 2021 aged 80.

See also

• List of Australian judges whose security of tenure was challenged

References

1. ^ Supreme Court Library Queensland. "The Honourable Angelo Vasta". sclqld.org.au. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
2. ^ "Vasta, Angelo, 1941- - Fryer Manuscripts". manuscripts.library.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
3. P. D. Connolly Chambers. "Mr Angelo Vasta QC". pdconnollychambers.com.au. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
4. Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee. "Honourable Angelo Vasta (Reversal of Removal) Bill 2017" (PDF). Parliament.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
5. Campbell, Enid; Lee, H. P. (2013). The Australian Judiciary. Cambridge University Press. p. 120. ISBN 9780521769167.
6. Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee. "Honourable Angelo Vasta (Reversal of Removal) Bill 2017" (PDF). Parliament.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
7. Queensland Parliament. "Honourable Angelo Vasta (Reversal of Removal) Bill 2017". legislation.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
8. Rory Callinan. "Former Supreme Court judge Angelo Vasta dies". www.abc.net.au. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
9. Green, Antony. "Bonner (Key Seat)". ABC Elections. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
10. "Magistrate Deborah Vasta". sclqld.org.au. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
11. Browne, Peter (6 August 2019). "Judging Vasta | Rebecca Ananian-Welsh". Inside Story. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
12. Supreme Court Library Queensland. "The Honourable Angelo Vasta". www.sclqld.org.au/. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
13. Publisher, Online News (29 September 2021). "Former judge Angelo Vasta dies". Herbert River Online News. Retrieved 29 September 2021.

• 1941 births
• 2021 deaths
• Judges of the Supreme Court of Queensland
• 20th-century Australian judges
• Australian King's Counsel
• Australian people of Italian descent
• Australian people of Sicilian descent
• People from Innisfail, Queensland