Julian Burnside

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Julian William Kennedy Burnside QC (born June 9, 1949) is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He is known for his staunch opposition to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and has provided legal counsel in a wide array of high-profile cases.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Professional career 2.1 Cases in which Burnside has been involved 3 Bibliography 3.1 Books 3.2 Published Papers 3.3 Edited 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Burnside was born in Melbourne to Kennedy Byron Burnside and Olwen Lloyd Burnside. His father was a prominent Melbourne neurosurgeon. Burnside attended Melbourne Grammar School, graduating with a range of scholarships and prizes.^[1] He then decided to study law and economics at Monash University, with aspirations to eventually work as a management consultant. While at university, Burnside showed immense talent for the study of law and successfully competed in Moot Court competitions (mock court). He was selected to represent Monash at an international competition in New Zealand, which he won and was named best speaker. After a conversation with the Chief Justice of New Zealand who had adjudicated, Burnside was persuaded that he should pursue a career as a barrister. In 1972, he completed his Bachelor of Economics, and in 1973 he was awarded his Bachelor of Laws by Monash Law School.

[edit] Professional career

Burnside was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1976, and appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1989. His early work focussed primarily on commercial law. He represented some of Australia's wealthiest people, including Alan Bond and Rose Porteous.^[2] Due to these high profile cases, he became well known in the legal and broader community as a commercial lawyer. As Burnside describes it, until the late 1990s he primarily "acted for the big end of town".^[3]

In 1998, Burnside surprise some people by acting for the Maritime Union of Australia in its battle with Patrick Corporation during the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute, one of Australia's most severe and longest industrial relations controversies. The matter went to the High Court of Australia, which eventually found in favour of the Union, albeit with certain conditions. Burnside describes this case as one of his most memorable, and has stated that it convinced him that the survival of reasonable and responsible union representation is crucial if there is to be justice in the workplace.^[4] His involvement in the dispute is portrayed by Rhys Muldoon in the 2007 ABC miniseries Bastard Boys.

From the late 1990s onwards, Burnside began to undertake more and more pro bono legal work on a range of human rights-related issues. He acted for Victoria's chief civil liberties organisation in an action against the Australian Government over the Tampa crisis and vehemently criticised the John Howard's Government for its mandatory detention of asylum seekers arriving in Australia. With his wife, artist Kate Durham, Burnside set up Spare Rooms for Refugees and Spare Lawyers for Refugees, programs which provide free accommodation and legal representation for refugees in Australia.

Burnside has also acted in a number of major litigations on behalf of Indigenous Australians. Most notably, he acted for Bruce Trevorrow, a member of the Indigenous stolen generation, in which Trevorrow sued the South Australian Government for having removed him from his parents. For the first time in Australian legal history, an Australian government was found liable for such conduct, and the court awarded $500 000 in damages to Mr Trevorrow.

In 2004 Burnside was awarded the Human Rights Law Award by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and sponsored by the Law Council of Australia for his pro-bono legal work for asylum seekers and for his work in establishing Spare Lawyers for Refugees.^[5] Also in 2004, he was elected an Australian Living Treasures. In 2007 he received the Australian Peace Prize from the Peace Organisation of Australia.

Burnside has also written several successful publications on law, human rights and philology. In addition to his work in the law, he is a patron of numerous arts organisations. He regularly commissions classical music compositions and sculptures, and is Chair of two arts organisations.^[6]

[edit] Cases in which Burnside has been involved

• Defending Alan Bond
• Interrogating John Laws and Alan Jones as counsel assisting the Australian Broadcasting Authority's 'cash-for-comment' inquiry.
• Assisting the Maritime Union of Australia defeat Patrick Stevedores in the High Court (see also 1998 Australian waterfront dispute). His role in this case was dramatized in the ABC miniseries Bastard Boys.
• Acting for the Ok Tedi natives against BHP.
• Acting for Rose Porteous in numerous actions against Gina Rinehart
• Acting for Liberty Victoria in the Tampa litigation.
• Taking class actions against Esso for the gas explosion at Longford, Victoria.
• Acting for Bruce Trevorrow successfully claiming compensation for damage as a member of the Stolen Generation against the state of South Australia.
• Represented Mary Kostakidis in litigation against SBS.^[7]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books

• Matilda and the Dragon (Sydney : Allen & Unwin, 1991, ISBN 1-86373-127-X) - A children's book illustrated by Bettina Guthridge
• From Nothing to Zero: letters from refugees in Australia's detention centres ((ed.) Melbourne: Lonely Planet, 2003, ISBN 1 74059 668 4)
• Wordwatching: Fieldnotes of an Amateur Philologist (Melbourne : Scribe, 2004, ISBN 1-56025-840-3)
• Watching Brief: Reflections on Human Rights, Law and Justice (Melbourne : Scribe, 2007, ISBN 9781921215490)

[edit] Published Papers

• Information technology : Internet - legal issues (Melbourne : Leo Cussen Institute, 1998, ISBN 0863945201)
• Spare rooms for refugees with Kate Durham (electronic resource - archived on ANLarchived on ANL)

[edit] Edited

• From nothing to zero : letters from refugees in Australia's detention centres written by Meaghan Amor and Janet Austin (Melbourne : Lonely Planet, 2003, ISBN 1-74059-668-4) - a book of letters written by asylum seekers held in Australia’s detention camps.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Julian Burnside's web page