Its powers are enshrined in the Judicial Officers Act 1986,[1] and the Commission reports to the Attorney General, presently Hon.Michael Daley MP.
It restored public confidence in the judicial system, which had been rocked by a series of scandals and allegations of misconduct in the early 1980s.
Instead, the commission now provides a means outside politics for the dispassionate consideration of misconduct by judicial officers.
As one present judge has suggested, the commission has actually improved and safe-guarded independence of the courts.
Prior to 1901, two judges, judges John Walpole Willis and Algernon Sidney Montagu, had been removed from office pursuant to the Colonial Leave of Absence Act 1782 (UK) (commonly known as Burke's Act).
The Act of Settlement 1701 (UK) provided that judges could only be removed by the Crown on an address by both houses of the British Parliament.
Chief Justice Anthony Mason explained the importance of this feature as follows: "Judicial independence is a privilege of, and a protection for, the people.
[12] That case involved a situation in New South Wales where all Stipendiary Magistrates in the Court of Petty Sessions were removed from office.
The views of the High Court on this matter have now been removed through amendments to the New South Wales Constitution.
New South Wales now provides protection to all judicial officers against arbitrary removal except through a recommendation through the commission.
On 18 November 1986, Attorney General Terry Sheahan announced a number of reforms to the New South Wales justice system.
Along with the creation of the commission, the government was to introduce a Director of Public Prosecutions, abolish the office of Clerk of the Peace, and give courts the sole control over the listing of criminal cases in the justice system.
The justice system reforms were brought about following a series of controversies concerning judicial figures in Australia in 1985.
In the Murphy case, the Australian Government enacted the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry Act 1986 (Cth) to appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate the question of whether the judge should be removed from the High Court because of the lack of an established procedure.
The initial proposal provided that the governor could remove a judge after the conduct division made a report.
This was changed to the current situation where a report is made to parliament, which then decides whether to ask the governor to remove the judge concerned.
Justice Malcolm McLelland of the Supreme Court said: "the mere establishment of an official body with the express function of receiving complaints against judges as a first step in an official investigation renders judges vulnerable to a form of harassment and pressure of an unacceptable and dangerous kind, from which their constitutional position and the public interest require that they should be protected.
It works with other bodies to provide education to judges from other Australian States as well as overseas countries.
The commission also produces bulletins and research papers on sentencing practice in New South Wales.
Allegations of corruption or the commission of criminal offences are handled by the appropriate law enforcement bodies.
[6]: p 76 The Conduct Division sits as a panel of three person and deals with any complaint referred to it by the commission.
Parliament after receiving the report may address the governor seeking the removal of the judicial officer concerned.
The conduct division has reported to parliament in respect of Magistrate Ian Lanham Ross McDougall and Justice Vince Bruce in 1998.
Bruce took action in the New South Wales Court of Appeal seeking judicial review of that decision.
The court upheld that there was no basis in law for overturning the decision, and the report was tabled in parliament.
[5] The safeguards for independence were reinforced in 1998 when the New South Wales Constitution was amended to entrench the provisions that prevent a judge being removed from office except after the preparation of a report by the conduct division of the commission.