Sir Maurice Hearne Byers CBE, QC (10 November 1917 – 17 January 1999) was a noted Australian jurist and constitutional expert.
[5][2] In April 1974, Byers provided a legal opinion supporting the Whitlam Labor government's argument that Senator Vince Gair had ceased to be eligible to remain a senator from no later than 20 March, the day the Irish Government had accepted his appointment as Ambassador to Ireland, which is an office of profit under the Crown.
[7] Byers appeared regularly in the High Court, including as counsel in the following notable cases: Maurice Byers played a role in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, which brought his former colleagues Gough Whitlam and (now Sir) John Kerr into conflict in the most dramatic way.
Kerr rang Whitlam on 19 October, asking permission to consult with the Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Garfield Barwick (who was himself a former Liberal politician and Attorney-General, and who happened to be Bob Ellicott's cousin).
Contrary to Whitlam's express instruction, Kerr met with Barwick and asked him for a written opinion, which was provided on 10 November, and which concurred with Ellicott's view.
Later that day, the Senate granted Supply, an election was called for 13 December, and Parliament was dissolved in a double dissolution.
On 17 November, Maurice Byers' opinion was leaked to The Australian Financial Review, and it acutely embarrassed both Kerr and Barwick.
Byers said parts of the Ellicott opinion were "clearly wrong" and said "the mere threat of, or indeed the actual rejection of, Supply neither calls for the ministry to resign nor compels the Crown's representative thereupon to intervene".
The leak undermined the justification Kerr had given for his action, and led to him disclosing the advice he had taken from the Chief Justice, contrary to his Prime Minister's instruction.
Maurice Byers was Leader of the Australian Delegation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law in 1974, and then from 1976 to 1982.
[2] Maurice Byers was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours.