Tasmania Law Reform Institute: Reflections from the Director

It is a great pleasure to pen some reflections for the Law Letter as the incoming Director of the Tasmania Law Reform Institute (TLRI). The Institute, now 22 years old, was jointly founded by the State Government, the Law Society and the University of Tasmania. As most readers will know, the TLRI undertakes scholarly legal research in order to provide independent and impartial advice to the Attorney-General and Parliament, but also to inform the general public about particular issues. The purposes of the TLRI are broad. They include: modernising areas of the law; eliminating defects in the law; examining how laws can be consolidated or simplified; analysing areas where greater uniformity with other jurisdictions can and ought to be achieved; promoting equality before the law; and identifying how access to justice can be improved.

Even just a glance at the TLRI’s back-catalogue of completed projects will highlight how wide-ranging its output has been. Of the 40 or so projects completed to date, about half have concerned criminal law. This is understandable given the amount of resources that are required to operate the criminal justice system, as well as the unique characteristics of some aspects of Tasmanian criminal law. But the other ‘non-criminal’ references range in topic from neighbours’ disputes regarding trees and hedges, to vendor disclosure, to guardianship, to conversion practices. Many of the TLRI’s final reports are around 150 pages in length, which indicates the complexity of the analyses they contain. Some are much longer. For example, the Review of the Guardianship and Administration Act (1995) Final Report is 630 pages.

I was appointed TLRI Director in January 2023, benefitting from the extraordinary contribution of previous Directors and Acting Directors. In this capacity I certainly will be drawing on my 15 years’ teaching experience at the Law School. This was initially in Torts and then subsequently in Criminal Law. I also co-authored the 4th edition of Blackwood and Warner’s Tasmanian Criminal Law Text and Cases (2015).

Other areas of my background provide essential experience too. My early career commenced in the public service – first in a Commonwealth agency and subsequently for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Queensland, in the child protection portfolio. I also worked for the Crime and Misconduct Commission (as it was then called), which gave me a short but fascinating taste of classified intelligence projects. These positions greatly deepened my understanding of the machinery of government and the policy cycle.

Finally, research. If I count my first undergraduate criminological project – interviewing people in prison about sexual assault – in 1997, then I have been studying how to understand, prevent, and respond to crime for some 26 years. Most of that work has been in interdisciplinary teams, which I have been fortunate to manage over the last decade.

In previous years the TLRI has faced challenges, as documented in the 2022 TLRI review. However, I am very privileged to take up the Directorship at this juncture. First, the TLRI is overseen and supported by a prestigious and experienced Board. Secondly, Tasmania’s legal profession actively contributes to the TLRI’s work in a wide variety of ways. Thirdly, in February the TLRI’s founding parties signed a renewed agreement, which markedly increases in-kind support from the University and funding from the State Government, and establishes new practical means for the Law Society to provide support. This is wonderful news for both the Institute and the Law School, and will help us enormously to serve Tasmania.