22.01.2018
I am both honoured and privileged to take up the role of President of the Australian Law Reform Commission in this, its 43rd year. I do so acutely aware of the footsteps in which I follow and pay particular tribute to the tremendous work of my immediate predecessor, Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM, who led so many significant law reform inquiries during her tenure as President between 2009 and 2017.
Whilst there is work to be done immediately in relation to the two references currently with the Commission, there is also a broader imperative for the Commission. That imperative is to ensure that law reform retains its significance to the rule of law and the system of justice that operates within Australia.
I look forward to working with the small but dedicated team within the ALRC and with the wider legal profession on whom the Commission relies so heavily in order to perform its functions to the highest standards.
It is my fervent hope that, in the years to come, the Commission will have the opportunity to see a return to a model of law reform, as recently advocated by its inaugural President, the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, “at once substantial, instrumental and more systematic”.