Duncan Kerr

Duncan James Colquhoun Kerr SC (born 26 February 1952)^[1] is an Australian Senior Counsel and former politician.

Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Kerr was educated at the University of Tasmania, where at one stage he was President of the Tasmania University Union and has degrees in both law and social work. Kerr was the Labor candidate in the Division of Braddon in the Australian federal election, 1977, losing to future Premier of Tasmania Ray Groom.

Kerr served in the Australian House of Representatives as Member for Denison from 11 July 1987 to 19 July 2010. Prior to entering politics, Kerr acted as Crown Counsel in the Tasmanian Solicitor-General's Department, as lecturer in constitutional law and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Papua New Guinea, and as Principal Solicitor for the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service.

Kerr served as Minister for Justice from 1993 to 1996, and briefly as Attorney-General in 1993. Prime Minister Paul Keating's original choice for Attorney-General in 1993 had been Michael Lavarch, but Lavarch's re-election was delayed by the death of an opposing candidate for the seat of Dickson; Kerr held the portfolio in the interim until Lavarch won the resulting supplementary election. Kerr served as Attorney-General for 26 days.

Kerr was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry from 1996 to 2001. Following the 2001 election he considered a move to the Tasmanian state parliament; however, this did not proceed due to the desire of then-leader Simon Crean and the party's central office to prevent a by-election. Another factor that worked against Kerr's move to Tasmanian state politics were media reports suggesting that he was about to replace Deputy Premier Paul Lennon. This was angrily denied by Premier Jim Bacon who threatened to resign if Lennon was forced to leave as Deputy Premier.

Prior to his appointment to the Rudd Ministry, Kerr was Co-Convenor of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform, a cross-party group that advocates harm minimisation as being more effective, more cost-efficient and less harmful than zero-tolerance when it comes to dealing with drug use.

Kerr is the author of Annotated Constitution of Papua New Guinea (1985), Essays on the Constitution (1985), Reinventing Socialism (1992) and Elect the Ambassador; Building Democracy in a Globalised World (2001).

Kerr was leading Counsel in the High Court case Plaintiff S157 v The Commonwealth. This important case, concerning the implications of privative clauses within the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), has been described as one of the most far-reaching and influential of the High Court's decisions on constitutional matters in the past 100 years (Crispin Hull, Canberra Times, High Court Centenary Issue). He was appointed a Senior Counsel in 2003, and as Adjunct Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology in 2007. Kerr has acted as counsel in the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia, Family Court of Australia, Supreme Court of Tasmania, District Court of New South Wales, Supreme Court of New South Wales, and the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea.

Kerr retired from politics at the 2010 election.^[2] On 14 December 2009 his appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs ceased. Upon Kerr's retirement, the previously-safe Labor seat of Denison was won by Andrew Wilkie, an independent.

Kerr currently practices law from Michael Kirby Chambers, Hobart.

References

External links

• Personal homepage Portfolio homepage