News & Events

Last Friday and Saturday, I attended the 90th Anniversary dinner of the Law Council, its Annual General Meeting, and its final board meeting for the year in Canberra. The Law Council is continuing to advocate on many critical issues affecting both the profession and the administration of justice. Of particular importance, it has been robustly engaging with the Government about its concerns with the rushed passage of the Government’s proposed Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Repudiation) Bill 2023, the proposed extension of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing regime to lawyers, which presents risks to access to justice and the protection of client legal privilege, and the proposed reforms to costs in anti-discrimination matters. The Law Council is currently also running a campaign to boost legal assistance funding, as well as working to ensure that the proposed relaxation of the rules relating to foreign lawyers practicing in Australia are safe and appropriate.

There has been a spate of judicial welcomes and farewells, with more to come. Last Friday it was my great privilege to speak on behalf of the Victorian Bar at a ceremony to farewell the Honourable Justice Susan Kenny AM, who leaves the Federal Court after 26 years on that bench. Her Honour has had a remarkable judicial career, commencing in 1996 when she was the first woman appointed to the Victorian Court of Appeal. As a barrister, she appeared in nearly all the leading constitutional law cases of the 1980s and ‘90s, and her other achievements and contributions to public life are too many for me to list here. She will continue as the Chair of the Australian Electoral Commission. I thank her Honour for her service and wish her well for the next chapter of her career.