that they be under the compulsory retirement age of 70. However, the High Court of Australia Act requires that an appointee be a Judge of a federal, state or territory court; or have been an Australian legal practitioner for at least five years. The Australian Constitution does not prevent dual citizens from sitting as High Court judges. The appointment process for Australian apex Justices is relatively uncontroversial and apolitical. Nevertheless, some appointments to the High Court display clear political influence. Three Justices had previously been conservative politicians prior to their promotion to Chief Justice; and Justices Evatt, McTiernan, and Murphy were all Labor party politicians at some stage in their careers prior to being elevated to the bench by a Labor prime minister. Composition The High Court has seven Justicesthe Chief Justice and six others. the High Court has had 44 Justices, twelve of whom have been Chief Justice. Initial composition The first High Court bench consisted of three justices; Samuel Griffith, Edmund Barton, and Richard O'Connor. According to the contemporary press, among those considered and overlooked were Henry Higgins, Isaac Isaacs, Andrew Clark, John Downer, Josiah Symon, and George Wise. Barton and O'Connor were both members of the federal parliament's government bench. Each appointee had participated in the drafting of Australia's constitution. All three have been described as relatively conservative justices for the time; and were strongly influenced in by United States law in their constitutional jurisprudence. Expansion of the court In 1906 at the request of the Justices, two seats were added to the bench; with Isaacs and Higgins being appointed. After O'Connor's death in 1912, an amendment was made to the Judiciary Act expanding the bench to seven. However, these seats were left vacant for most of 1930. Following Isaacs retirement in 1931, his seat was left empty and an amendment to the Judiciary Act reduced the number of seats to six. This however led to some decisions being split three-all. With the appointment of Justice Webb in 1946, the court returned to seven seats; and since then the court has had a full bench of seven Justices. Historical demographics The vast majority of the High Court's fifty-six appointees have been men. Seven women have been appointed in the court's history. The first female appointee to the bench was Mary Gaudron, second Susan Crennan. Three Justices on the current bench are female; Justices Kiefel, Gordon, and Gleeson.