About
Who we are
The Diversity and Inclusion Justice Network (the Network) is the formal network of Diversity and Inclusion Advocates across Australia.
The Network is the primary mechanism through which Diversity and Inclusion Advocates receive resources and support from the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion (the JCDI), and provide feedback back to the JCDI on issues experienced within their jurisdiction.
The Network primarily focuses on recommendations for adapting court and tribunal policies and practice to enhance their responsiveness to Australia’s diverse communities, acknowledging that enabling these considerations does not provide advantage, but rather provides an assurance that all Australians are treated equally before the law and have access to justice.
The Network is composed of Diversity and Inclusion Advocates from each level of court and tribunal in every state and territory in Australia, who have been nominated by their head of jurisdiction to be responsible for issues relating to diversity and inclusion and access to justice in their jurisdiction. The Network reports periodically to the JCDI to provide updates on implementation initiatives, and issues arising, for the consideration of the JCDI.
Court and Tribunal Diversity and Inclusion Advocates
Judge Soulio was appointed to the District Court of South Australia in 2006. His Honour has been the Chair of the Migrant Resource Centre of South Australia since 2003. He was Chair of the Australian Multicultural Council between 2011 and 2014 and in that capacity was a member of the national Access and Equity Inquiry Panel which conducted an inquiry into the availability and accessibility of government services to people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Between 2011 and 2014 he also served as a member of the National Anti-Racism Partnership Strategy. Judge Soulio was previously Deputy Chair of the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council, which provided advice to government on multicultural policy, until the completion of the Advisory Council’s term in 2011.
Magistrate Anderson was admitted to legal practice in Western Australia 2000 and in Queensland in 2003. After working in private legal practice, in predominantly family law and child protection, he joined the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA) as a family and child protection lawyer in 2010. In 2014, he was appointed manager of ALSWA’s family law and child protection practice area. He was appointed as a Family Law Magistrate in Western Australia on 7 January 2019.
Justice Anne Elizabeth Bampton was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia on 14 November 2013. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Bampton was appointed as a Master of the District Court of South Australia in 2004 and a Judge of the District Court of South Australia in 2010.
Justice Bampton chaired the South Australian Indigenous Justice Committee and the South Australian Indigenous Law Students’ Mentoring Program Management Committee, as well as representing South Australia on a number of national Indigenous justice committees between 2014 and 2017. Her Honour is the Supreme Court of South Australia’s Cultural Diversity Advocate for the Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity. Justice Bampton chairs the Higher Courts Redevelopment Project Working Party, tasked with the delivery of three additional jury capable criminal courtrooms and the redevelopment of the Supreme Court civil precinct. Justice Bampton acts as a mentor to women appointed to the Step Up to the Bar Program in the Supreme Court.
Justice Berman was appointed to the Family Court of Australia on 18 July 2013. Prior to this, His Honour practised as a barrister in the area of family law and de facto relationships. Justice Berman was appointed Senior Counsel in 2010.
Judge Blake was appointed to the Federal Circuit Court of Australia on 30 January 2019.
Prior to his appointment, Judge Blake was a Partner in large law firms where he practised in the areas of Employment, Discrimination, Workplace Safety and Industrial Law matters.
His Honour was consistently recognised as a leading practitioner in these areas. He was considered to be a pre-eminent practitioner in Australia by Asia-Pacific Legal 500 in the area of Employment Law. He was year after year recognised as a leading practitioner by Best Lawyers and Doyles Guides.
Since his appointment, Judge Blake hears cases across the jurisdictions of the Federal Circuit Court including employment disputes, migration, family law, bankruptcy and administrative law.
Justice Bowskill was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland on 10 July 2017. Her Honour previously served as a Judge of the District Court of Queensland from November 2014, in that capacity also sitting as a Judge of the Children’s Court of Queensland and the Planning and Environment Court. Her Honour served as the Associate to the Honourable Justice Drummond of the Federal Court of Australia in 1996, and completed articles of clerkship with Minter Ellison in 1997. Her Honour was admitted as a solicitor in January 1998, and as a barrister in July 1998. She commenced practice at the private Bar in Brisbane in July 1998. Her Honour took silk in November 2013. As a barrister, she practiced widely in public, administrative and commercial law areas, with a particular focus on Native Title law.
A Principal Member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Anne is a member of NCAT’s Appeal Panel and Guardianship, Occupational, Administrative and Equal Opportunity divisions. For two decades Anne has held senior roles in State and Commonwealth Tribunals, including as a Senior Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Deputy President of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal and Chairperson of the Government and Related Employees Appeal Tribunal. Anne taught in the Masters’ program at UNSW Law School and has significant experience in governance roles, including as a former director of the NSW Legal Aid Commission and the Communications Law Centre. Anne is the Chair of the Council of Australasian Tribunals (National).
Justice Judith Kelly completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973 and a Diploma of Education in 1976, working as a teacher in Batchelor, in the Northern Territory, from 1977 to 1982. She graduated in Law with honours from the University of Queensland in 1985 and was first admitted as a barrister in Queensland in 1986, then worked as a solicitor in the Northern Territory, becoming a partner of Morris Fletcher and Cross (later Philip & Mitaros, then Clayton Utz). She went to the independent bar, joining William Forster Chambers in Darwin, in 1996. Her practice had a focus on commercial litigation, banking and insolvency with some insurance, construction, admiralty and native title law. She was appointed Senior Counsel in 2008 and a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 2009.
Judge Culver is a judge of the District Court of NSW. She previously was Deputy Chief Magistrate, Magistrate, Crown Prosecutor, Trial Advocate and Solicitor at the NSW DPP, Senior Lawyer at the NSW Crime Commission, litigation lawyer at Mallesons Stephen Jaques and volunteer solicitor at Kingsford Legal Centre. Judge Culver was a member of the Education Committee of the Local Court of NSW and is now a member of the Education Committee of the District Court of NSW.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Michael Daly has been a Tasmanian Magistrate since 2007. Prior to his appointment his Honour was a barrister, practising in criminal, civil and administrative law.
Luke Davis was appointed as a Magistrate in 2013, and as a Youth Court Magistrate in 2016. Prior to this, Luke worked for many years as a solicitor and barrister with the Legal Services Commission of South Australia, where he began in 1991 as a Duty Solicitor to the Youth and Magistrate’s Courts as well as to Cavan Youth Training Centre, the Adelaide Remand Centre and Yatala Labour Prison, as well as Northfield Women’s Prison. Luke has had extensive experience of grass roots, social justice advocacy and has acted for clients from many different cultures and circumstances, including asylum seekers. Luke has an interest in restorative justice, Youth justice and specialist family violence intervention courts and has presented papers nationally on the role of Men’s behavioural change groups within the South Australian context. Luke has also spoken to the legal profession of his personal experience with depression and the importance of seeking help.
Judge Glancy was appointed to the District Court of Western Australia commencing on 9 January 2018.
Her Honour was appointed as Deputy President of the State Administrative Tribunal for a five year term commencing on 21 October 2020.
Prior to her appointment to the District Court Judge Glancy had spent the entirety of her legal career in public service at the State Solicitor’s Office, where she commenced as an Articled Clerk in 1993. Immediately prior to her appointment she held the position of Deputy State Solicitor.
Her Honour graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Industrial Relations) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours).
Judge Pillay was appointed to the County Court of Victoria in August 2019. Judge Pillay sits in the Common Law Division and hears trials involving work accidents, transport accidents and medical negligence.
Prior to his appointment, Judge Pillay worked as a solicitor before then signing the Victorian Bar roll in 2003 where he worked mainly in the occupational health and safety, administrative law and personal injury fields.
Whilst at the Victorian Bar, Judge Pillay appeared in a number of complex matters including appearing in the first case of damages brought by an asylum seeker for injuries sustained while detained on Manus Island in February 2014. He also represented numerous statutory bodies including the Medical Panels Victoria, the Nurses Board of Victoria, the Victims of Crimes Assistance Tribunal and the Legal Aid Commission.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Anthony Gett was appointed a Magistrate in January 2013 and thereafter spent three years in Far North Queensland, which included presiding in regional indigenous communities in Cape York and the Torres Strait Islands. Prior to becoming a Magistrate, he was admitted as a barrister and spent almost thirteen years at the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions as a federal prosecutor.
For some eight of those years as a Federal Prosecutor he worked mainly in the prosecution of child exploitation offences. He appeared as counsel in the prosecution of such offences in all courts from the High Court of Australia to the Magistrates Court of Queensland. He has presented papers at numerous international and domestic conferences on child exploitation offences, including as a keynote speaker to the Council of the European Union in 2012 in Copenhagen.
More recently in 2015 and in 2016, Deputy Chief Magistrate Anthony Gett travelled to various parts of Indonesia on nine occasions as part of an Australian Government assistance program for judicial co-operation and capacity building with that country’s judicial officers. Deputy Chief Magistrate Anthony Gett has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian-based International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law since 2004 and in 2019 he won that society’s President’s Medal.
Anne Goldsbrough has been a Victorian Magistrate since 1996. She has undertaken all areas of the court’s work at a number of Magistrates’ Court locations, including the Children’s Court. Anne was the Supervising Magistrate for Family Violence and Family Law from 2002-2007 and oversaw the development and introduction of the Courts’ specialist Family Violence Court Division. In 2009, Anne was appointed as a Part-Time Law Reform Commissioner for the Australian Law Reform Commission’s inquiry into family violence. She was appointed as the magistrate with responsibility for the Multicultural and Diversity Portfolio in 2011. She contributes regularly to ongoing legal and judicial professional development both inside and outside the court, and to a range of community information and education programs.
Michelle Howard is a Senior Member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT). She has held full-time appointments at QCAT since 2009, initially as a Member and more recently as a Senior Member.
Admitted as a lawyer since 1986, Michelle holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws (Public Law). She formerly worked in private practice as a solicitor and in government roles, across broad jurisdictional areas. She previously held appointments as a Member of the Guardianship and Administrative Tribunal (2000-2006), the Mental Health Review Tribunal (2002-2005), and the Children Services Tribunal (2005-2006). For some four years Michelle was the Public Advocate, Queensland (2006-2009), a role in which she advocated for systemic change to law, policy and service provision to protect the rights and interests of vulnerable Queenslanders from diverse backgrounds who have impaired decision-making capacity.
Justice Robert Mazza was educated at St Louis School, Claremont and the University of Western Australia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1980 and was admitted to practice in 1981. His Honour practised predominantly in the area of criminal law.
In 2002 he was appointed as Deputy President of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal. In 2004 he was appointed as a judge of the District Court of Western Australia.
In 2010 his Honour was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and in 2011 he became a judge of the Court of Appeal.
Justice Mazza was formerly the President of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administrators (AIJA) and is currently a trustee and governor of the University of Notre Dame Australia.
Associate Judge Verity McWilliam was sworn in as the Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory on 26 June 2017. Her Honour was admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2002, and interspersed with her employment as a solicitor, she served as the Associate to Justice Finn in the Appeal Division of the Family Court of Australia, and Justice Beaumont and Justice Madgwick in the Federal Court of Australia.
Her Honour was called to the NSW bar in 2006, where she developed a diverse practice across the areas of commercial/equity, criminal, employment, environmental/planning, public law and torts. Her Honour also lectured variously in public law, federal constitutional law and litigation at the University of NSW from 2010 until 2017, and in public law at the University of Sydney from 2010 to 2012.
Chief Judge Morris was appointed to the Local Court in the Northern Territory in 2010. Prior to that her roles included appointments as Deputy Coroner, Executive Director of Racing, Gaming and Licensing and Deputy CEO of the Department of Justice in the Northern Territory. She was named the NT’s Children’s Lawyer of the Year in 1999 and formerly worked as a barrister and solicitor with the NT Legal Aid Commission, predominantly in crime.
Chief Judge Morris is the Chair of the Board of the NT Legal Aid Commission and maintains positions on, amongst others, the National Domestic Violence Bench Reference Committee and the Courts Technology Committee. As well as degrees in Law and Arts from the University of Sydney, she has a Graduate Certificate in public sector management, is a graduate of the ANZSOG Executive Fellows Program and holds an Executive Certificate in Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare from Georgetown University.
Judge Catherine Muir was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in February 1991. In the following years, she developed a broad range of experiences as a solicitor including as a criminal defence solicitor/ advocate with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Legal Service and as a solicitor in commercial litigation and insolvency. At the Bar, her Honour established a broad civil and commercial practice acting for a wide range of clients. In 2015-2016, her Honour assisted in the Commission of Inquiry into the closing of the Barrett Adolescent Centre, and acted for the Special Purpose Liquidators in the Queensland Nickel public examinations. In November 2016, she was appointed as a judge of the District Court of Queensland, the Childrens Court of Queensland and the Planning and Environment Court of Queensland.
Justice Perry was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 23 September 2013. Prior to this appointment, Justice Perry had practiced at the Bar since 1992. In 2004, Her Honour was appointed Queen’s Counsel. Justice Perry has held positions on numerous professional bodies including the Administrative Review Council and the New South Wales Bar Association Human Rights and Equal Opportunity committees, and is a squadron leader with the RAAF Legal Specialist Reserves. Her Honour is also a member of the JCCD and chaired the specialist committee that prepared the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals published in 2017 by the JCCD. Her Honour holds a LL.B (Hons) from the University of Adelaide and a LL.M and PhD in international law from the University of Cambridge.
Malcolm Schyvens was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1997. Malcolm holds degrees in law and commerce from the University of Tasmania. Malcolm is a past president of the Law Society of Tasmania (2007– 2008), having been in private practice in Hobart for 11 years. He was also a part-time member of the Guardianship and Administration Board (Tas), the Forensic Tribunal (Tas) and a Director of the Centre for Legal Studies in Hobart. He also held the position of President of the Board of Cosmos Inc (2003–2008), Tasmania’s largest provider of day services for persons with an intellectual disability. Malcolm was appointed as the Deputy President of the Guardianship Tribunal of New South Wales in October 2008 and was subsequently appointed as President of the Tribunal in September 2011. Upon the establishment of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) on 1 Jan 2014 he was appointed as a Deputy President of NCAT and the Division Head for Guardianship. He is a member of the NSW Law Society’s Elder Law and Succession Committee and is currently the Convenor of the Council of Australian Tribunals, NSW Chapter and Chair of the Australian Guardianship and Administration Council.
Mr Reynah Tang, AM is a full time member at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and is Deputy Head of the Legal Practice List. He is the Member (Diversity) of VCAT’s Member Advisory Group, which was established in 2020 to support the President and Vice Presidents of VCAT to make strategic decisions. In 2013, he served as the President of the Law Institute of Victoria, a director of the Law Council of Australia and was a founder and inaugural president of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association, a national association focused on promoting cultural diversity in the law and legal profession. In 2019, Mr Tang became a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the law and professional legal associations.
Magistrate Louise Taylor was appointed to the ACT Magistrates Court in September 2018. Immediately prior to her appointment Louise was the Deputy CEO of Legal Aid ACT. She is a former senior prosecutor with the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions as well as the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. She was a long time Chair of the Women’s Legal Centre ACT, a past member of the ACT Domestic Violence Prevention Council and former Chair of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Women. Louise is a member of the Law Council of Australia’s Indigenous Legal Issues Committee as well as an associate of the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW. Louise is a Kamilaroi woman born and raised in inner city Sydney.
Justice Hament Dhanji was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW on 20 September 2021.
Justice Dhanji graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts degrees before beginning his career as a solicitor for Legal Aid NSW.
He was admitted as a legal practitioner in 1990 and practiced as a solicitor at the Legal Aid Commission of NSW before being called to the Bar in 1997. He took silk in 2010.
He was a barrister in private practice at Forbes Chambers engaged predominantly in criminal defence work. In addition to first instance work across the range of criminal matters including complex corporate crime matters he had a substantial appellate practice. He appeared as lead counsel in a number of important cases in the High Court and appeared in approximately 350 cases in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
In addition to his defence work Justice Dhanji also conducted prosecutions on behalf of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, appeared as counsel assisting the coroner and represented clients before the Police Integrity Commission and the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Justice Wood was appointed to the Supreme Court of Tasmania on 9 November 2009. Prior to this appointment Her Honour served as a Magistrate, and was the first woman appointed to that role in Tasmania. Previously, Justice Wood practised in criminal law as Crown Counsel with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and later in civil litigation as a barrister and solicitor with a Hobart law firm. Her Honour has a longstanding interest in human rights and equal opportunity matters, having served as Chairperson of the Sex Discrimination Tribunal (1996-1999) and the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal (1999-2009).
Deputy President Jan Redfern PSM is Division Head of the Migration & Refugee Division. Ms Redfern was appointed as a Deputy President of the Tribunal and as Division Head on 21 March 2016 for a term of seven years. Ms Redfern has previously served the AAT as a Senior Member from 2009 to 2014. She served as Principal Member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s Guardianship Division and Appeal Panel from 1 January 2015 and before that as a legal member and then Deputy President of the NSW Guardianship Tribunal. Prior to these appointments Ms Redfern held a number of senior executive positions with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission from 1999 to 2008. In 2007 she was awarded a Commonwealth Public Service Medal for outstanding service to corporate and financial services regulation and enforcement. Ms Redfern was previously in private practice for a number of years and was a partner of a national law firm for 10 years.
Ian Irving was appointed a Judicial Registrar of the Supreme Court of Victoria in March 2016. Ian served as Judicial Registrar for the Court of Appeal from 2016 to 2020. Since 2020 Ian has been responsible for supervising the work of the Court’s ADR Centre.
Ian was a registrar of the Federal Court of Australia from 2005-16 where he was the National Registrar responsible for specialist case management and mediation of the Court’s native title cases. Ian also coordinated the Federal Court’s national mediation practice.
From 2006-11 Ian was deputy registrar of the Australian Competition Tribunal.
Ian commenced legal practice in 1996. In 2001 he joined the Kimberley Land Council where he was Principal Legal Officer until 2005.
What we do
The Diversity & Inclusion Justice Network:
- implements frameworks and initiatives recommended by the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion (JCDI), as appropriate to each jurisdiction;
- develops good practice strategies to manage issues relating to diversity and inclusion in Australia’s judicial system, including but not limited to:
- interaction between Australia’s diverse communities and Australian courts and tribunals, in Federal and State and Territory jurisdictions, and in areas of criminal, civil and family law
- attitudes to Australia’s judicial system among Australia’s diverse communities – identifying any areas of concern for Australia’s social cohesion
- perceived and actual barriers to justice experienced by Australia’s diverse communities.
- access to interpreting and translating services in Australia’s judicial system
- experience of Australia’s diverse communities as jurors, litigants, or consumers of court information
- troubleshoots issues that individual Diversity and Inclusion Advocates encounter;
- engages in two-way communication with the JCDI regarding implementation of initiatives to improve access to justice, including identification of issues not already considered by the JCDI;
- provides support and resources (through the Secretariat) to Diversity and Inclusion Advocates to assist in implementation of diversity and inclusion-related projects in their respective jurisdictions; and
- facilitates sharing of knowledge and information to promote good practice across courts and tribunals in all jurisdictions.