Bret Walker

Bret William Walker AO FAAL SC (born 1954) is an Australian barrister.^[1]

Bret Walker AO FAAL SC
Walker in October 2009
Born	1954 (age 68–69)
Education	The King's School, Parramatta, University of Sydney (BA, LLB),
Occupation	Barrister
Years active	1979–present

Family

Walker is the son of an Anglican minister. His second wife is Sarah Pritchard.^[2]

Education

Walker was educated at Concord West Public School and The King's School, Parramatta. He graduated with degrees in arts and law from the University of Sydney.^[3]

Career

Walker was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1979 and was appointed senior counsel in 1993. He was president of the New South Wales Bar Association from November 2001^[4] to November 2003,^[5] having been vice-president from 1996 to 2001.^[3]

Walker is a member of the Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales, and has been editor of the NSW Law Reports since 2006.^[3] He is a patron of the State Library of New South Wales as a foundation senior fellow^[6] and has been a member of the NSW Health Clinical Ethics Advisory Panel since 2003. He was governor of the Law Foundation of NSW from 1996 to 2007, and Special Commissioner of Inquiry for the NSW government into Sydney Ferries in 2007.^[3] He was a foundation member and has been director of the Australian Academy of Law since 2007.^[3][7]

He was a leading legal counsel representing tobacco companies in their unsuccessful fight against the Australian government's plain packaging legislation.^[8][9][10]

In April 2011 Walker was appointed as the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor.^[11] In 2015 Walker said that a proposed change to Australia's citizenship laws to give the Minister for Immigration the power to strip citizenship from people who support terrorism was unconstitutional. He said this was a misquote of the INSLM 2014 report by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.^[12][13] In a 2015 interview with Lateline, Walker noted the Australian "habit of seeing a problem and passing a law about it".^[14]

In 2018–19 Walker oversaw the South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin. The report was damning of the maladministration that characterised the overseeing Murray-Darling Basin Authority, describing their decision-making as “incomprehensible” and “indefensible”.

In 2019 Walker successfully acted in the appeal to the High Court of Australia of Cardinal George Pell, whose child sex abuse convictions were overturned on 7 April 2020.^[15]

In April 2020 Walker was appointed to a Special Commission of Inquiry to "investigate all matters and agencies involved with the Ruby Princess' departure and its return to Circular Quay on March 19".^[16]

In 2021 Walker had the most appearances in the High Court of Australia, appearing 35 times; that was more than twice the number of hearings as the next busiest, Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue KC.^[17]

High Court appearances

Bell Lawyers Pty Ltd v Pentelow [2019] HCA 29

Pell v The Queen [2020] HCA 12

Workpac Pty Ltd v Rossato [2021] HCA 23

References

1. Find a Barrister, NSW Bar Association^{[permanent dead link]}
2. "Bret Walker SC, citizenship and an Abbott political step that goes too far". 19 June 2015. from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
3. Who's Who Australia – entry for Bret William Bret
4. Bar News 20 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Summer 2001/2002, p. 2.
5. Bar News 20 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Summer 2003/2004, p. 2.
6. See glass placard at Macquarie St entrance to the State Library of NSW, or see also: (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. "Australian Academy of Law - Home". academyoflaw.org.au.
8. "PM - Govt defends plain packaging in High Court 18/04/2012". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 18 April 2012. from the original on 26 November 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
9. "Home - Fairfax Media Limited". The Canberra Times. from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
10. "Finance & Political Breaking News Australia & Worldwide". afr.com. from the original on 21 August 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
11. Nathan Morrow. "Independent National Security Legislation Monitor appointed". altlj.org. from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
12. "Bret Walker: Revoking citizenship by minister unconstitutional". NewsComAu. from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
13. "Government misquoting my report to defend revoking citizenship, says Bret Walker". Guardian Australia. 16 June 2015. from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
14. "Lateline - 13/10/2015: Interview: Lawyer Bret Walker SC, the first independent monitor of national security legislation". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 13 October 2015. from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
15. "Cardinal George Pell to walk free after high court quashes conviction – latest news | Australia news | the Guardian". TheGuardian.com. 7 April 2020. from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
16. Raper, Ashleigh (15 April 2020). "Pell barrister to lead new probe into Ruby Princess fiasco". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. from the original on 15 April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
17. Pelly, Michael (12 January 2022). "Meet the High Court's busiest barrister". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 14 January 2022.