We received a complaint alleging that an officer made flippant and careless comments about the relationship of a person present in the courtroom in support of a litigant, that caused offence.

We listened to the audio recording of the hearing. At the commencement of the proceeding the Officer said good morning to the litigant and asked who was in attendance with them. The litigant responded, ‘my mother’ and the Officer commented, ‘Your mum, good morning. The last time I said, is that your mother?’ The lady said, ‘No, I’m his girlfriend, so I don’t make those comments anymore.’

We dismissed the complaint because we found that the Officer’s conduct did not infringe the standards of conduct generally expected of judicial officers. We noted that judicial officers are human, and their court craft may reflect human and personal qualities, including being momentarily light-hearted. Further, the comment was made in the context of the Officer identifying persons present in the courtroom in support of the parties. We were satisfied that a reasonable community member would consider the Officer’s explanation as to why they were careful not to make assumptions about the relationship between people to be acceptable.

The risk of personalised comments causing offence