The Honourable
George Brandis
KC
Brandis in 2017
Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
In office
30 April 2018 – 30 April 2022
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull
Scott Morrison
Preceded byAlexander Downer
Succeeded byLynette Wood (Acting)
Attorney-General for Australia
In office
18 September 2013 – 20 December 2017
Prime MinisterTony Abbott
Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded byMark Dreyfus
Succeeded byChristian Porter
Leader of the Government in the Senate
In office
21 September 2015 – 20 December 2017
Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull
DeputyMathias Cormann
Preceded byEric Abetz
Succeeded byMathias Cormann
Minister for the Arts
In office
18 September 2013 – 21 September 2015
Prime MinisterTony Abbott
Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded byTony Burke
Succeeded byMitch Fifield
Minister for the Arts and Sport
In office
30 January 2007 – 3 December 2007
Prime MinisterJohn Howard
Preceded byRod Kemp
Succeeded byKate Ellis (Sport)
Peter Garrett (Arts)
Senator for Queensland
In office
16 May 2000 – 8 February 2018
Preceded byWarwick Parer
Succeeded byAmanda Stoker
Personal details
Born
George Henry Brandis

(1957-06-22) 22 June 1957
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political partyLiberal Party
Other political
affiliations		Liberal National Party
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Queensland
Magdalen College, Oxford

George Henry Brandis KC (born 22 June 1957) is an Australian former politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, representing the Liberal Party, and was a cabinet minister in the Abbott and Turnbull governments. He was later High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2022.

Brandis studied law at the University of Queensland and Magdalen College, Oxford. Before entering politics he practised as a barrister. He was appointed to the Senate in 2000 to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Warwick Parer. He served as Minister for the Arts and Sport for the last year of the Howard government in 2007. When the Coalition returned to power in 2013, Brandis became Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts. He relinquished the latter portfolio in 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister, but was instead made Leader of the Government in the Senate.[1]

Brandis announced his retirement from politics in December 2017, with effect from February 2018. He replaced Alexander Downer as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in May 2018, departing the role in April 2022.[2][3][4] In June 2022, Brandis was appointed a professor in national security at the Australian National University.

Early life

Brandis was born in Sydney and was brought up in the inner-west suburb of Petersham.[5] He attended Christian Brothers' High School, Lewisham before moving to Brisbane[6] and attending Villanova College and the University of Queensland, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with First-Class Honours in 1978 and a Bachelor of Laws with First-Class Honours in 1980.[6]

Following graduation, Brandis served as Associate to Justice Charles Sheahan of the Queensland Supreme Court.[7] He was then elected a Commonwealth Scholar[8] and obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1983.[9]

After a brief period as a solicitor in Brisbane, Brandis was called to the Queensland Bar in 1985 where he practised until entering politics in 2000.[10] Brandis developed a commercial practice with a particular emphasis on trade practices law. He appeared as junior counsel in the High Court of Australia in the equity case Warman v Dwyer.[11] He was also the junior barrister for the plaintiff in the long running Multigroup Distribution Services v TNT Australia litigation in the Federal Court of Australia.[12]

Brandis applied to be appointed Senior Counsel in the late 1990s, but was unsuccessful.[13] Brandis applied again in 2006. He was not on the Queensland Bar Association's shortlist; however the Chief Justice of Queensland, Paul de Jersey, who had the power to make the ultimate determination, added Brandis' name to the list, and Brandis was appointed Senior Counsel in November 2006.[10][14] This was controversial, since Brandis had not practised at the bar since 2000.[10][13] In June 2013, the original title of Queen's Counsel was restored by the Queensland Government and Brandis was one of 70 (out of 74) Queensland SCs that chose to become QCs.[15]

Brandis has co-edited two books on liberalism,[16][17] and published academic articles on various legal topics,[18][19][20][21] one of which was cited by the High Court of Australia in the landmark defamation case ABC v O'Neill.[22]

While at the Bar, Brandis was a board member of UNICEF Australia for 10 years. He has also been an Associate of the Australian Institute for Ethics and the Professions, and lectured in jurisprudence at the University of Queensland from 1984 to 1991.[23]

Early political involvement

According to Peter Baume, during the 1980s Brandis was a key member of the Liberal Forum, a social or classical liberal faction within the party. He "cut his political teeth fighting a rearguard action against the incoming tide of neoliberal economics and a muscular social conservatism that increasingly came to characterise the party in the late 1980s and early 1990s". He was a co-editor of two anthologies produced by members of the faction, titled Liberals Face the Future (1984) and Australian Liberalism: The Continuing Vision (1986).[24]

Parliamentary career

Brandis early in his political career

Brandis was first chosen by the Parliament of Queensland to fill a casual vacancy following the resignation of Senator the Honourable Warwick Parer. He was elected to a further six-year term at the 2004 election.

In his period as a senator, he has served as Chairman of the Economics Committee and as Chairman of the Senate's Children Overboard Inquiry.

Brandis has also made a number of public speeches. In 2003, he described the Australian Greens as eco-fascist.[25]

Brandis claimed over $1,000 in taxpayer expenses to attend the inaugural Sir Garfield Barwick address in Sydney on 28 June 2010. The event was billed as a Liberal party fund-raiser.[26]

Ministerial career

Howard administration

On 23 January 2007, Brandis was appointed Minister for the Arts and Sport, replacing Senator Rod Kemp. He lost his ministerial position on the defeat of the Howard government in the 2007 election.

Shadow ministry

On 6 December 2007 the new Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, Brendan Nelson, appointed Brandis Shadow Attorney-General, a position he continued to hold under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull.

On 2 June 2008 Brandis, in his capacity as Shadow Attorney-General, referred the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws – Superannuation) Bill 2008 to a Senate committee for review. The aim of the bill was to remove legislative provisions that discriminated against gay and lesbian citizens, in this case relating to superannuation.[27][28] Brandis stated that the Opposition believed discrimination of this type should be removed and supported the Labor government's bill against the more conservative elements of his own party.[29] However, he insisted on a review of the proposed legislation prior to enactment. The bill was passed into law with bipartisan support on 9 December 2008.[30]

Brandis consistently opposed proposals for a bill of rights.[31]

In January 2010, Brandis commented on a controversial debate between Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on the topic of advice given to children regarding abstinence.

Abbott government

Brandis in 2014

Following the 2010 Australian federal election, at which he was returned, Brandis was appointed Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister for the Arts and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in the Abbott shadow ministry.[32]

In 2011, Brandis submitted specific accusations to NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione that sitting federal M.P. Craig Thomson committed larceny and fraud through misuse of a credit card in the Health Services Union expenses affair. This led to some questioning Brandis's suitability as attorney-general if the opportunity ever arose.[33]

Brandis faced public scrutiny when it was revealed that in 2011 he had billed the taxpayer for attending the wedding ceremony of Sydney radio shock-jock Michael Smith, who had colluded with Brandis to publicise the Craig Thomson media saga.[34] [35]

As Arts Minister, Brandis received significant criticism from the arts industry for a $105 million cut to the Australia Council for the Arts funding in the 2015-16 Australian Federal Budget.[36][37] The money was reallocated to a new program, The National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA). The NPEA in turn has been criticised by many artists and arts organisations for lacking the "arms-length" funding principles that have applied to the relationship between the government and the Australia Council since its inception in the 1970s. These principles have traditionally had bipartisan support.[38][39][40] Brandis had been criticised previously for giving Melbourne classical music record label Melba Recordings a $275,000 grant outside of the usual funding and peer-assessment processes.[41] Brandis's changes to funding arrangements, including the quarantining of the amount received by Australia's 28 major performing arts companies, are widely seen to disadvantage the small-to-medium arts sector and independent artists.[39] Following Malcolm Turnbull's successful spill of the leadership of the Liberal party in September 2015, Brandis was replaced as arts minister by Mitch Fifield.[42]

Freedom of Speech and Section 18C

Brandis in 2015 with Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson

The Abbott government took a proposal to amend the Racial Discrimination Act to the 2013 Federal Election. The Government argued that the Act unduly restricted free speech in Australia, by making "insult" and "offence" the test for breach of the law.[43] As Attorney-General, Brandis argued the case for amending the Keating government's controversial Section 18C of the Act.[43] In March 2013, Brandis released draft amendments for community consultation, and announced that the proposed changes would "strengthen the Act's protections against racism, while at the same time removing provisions which unreasonably limit freedom of speech."[43] After community consultation, the Government was unable to secure support for changes to the Act from the Senate, and the Abbott government shelved the proposal.[43] The draft amendments had met with criticism from the ALP, Liberal MP Ken Wyatt, and an alliance of racial minority representatives including Jewish lobby groups concerned with holocaust denials in the media.[44][45][46][47][48]

Brandis did not support the Labor government's proposed media reforms in 2013, and was outspoken in support of greater press freedom, particularly for Andrew Bolt who was found to have breached racial vilification laws in commenting on Indigenous Australians of mixed-race descent. As Attorney-General in 2014, Brandis furthered his push to amend the RDA, in part to allow media commentators such as Andrew Bolt greater freedom of expression,[49] and to legally ensure that "people do have a right to be bigots".[50] Brandis labelled Bolt's comments on mixed descent aboriginals, found by the Federal Court to be racial vilification, as ‘quite reasonable’,[51] although the federal court found Bolt violated the RDA and the plaintiffs were awarded an apology and legal costs. Professor Marcia Langton was a vocal public critic of Brandis's proposed repeal of the part of the RDA on which the Bolt case was based.[52][53]

In 2017, Brandis condemned Pauline Hanson for wearing a Burqa in the Senate Chamber, explaining her 'stunt' ridiculed the Muslim community and mocked its religious garments, and he cautioned her against the offence she might cause to the religious sensibilities of Muslim Australians.[54]

East Timor spying case

Brandis supported and approved a December 2013 ASIO raid on Bernard Collaery’s Canberra office (a legal representative for East Timor), where all documents and computers were seized by the government, and which Brandis claimed was for national security interests.[55] Shortly after the raid, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the Australian government was not permitted to use or view any of the raid evidence. Brandis claimed the ICJ ruling was a good outcome for the government.[56] The Timor Gap case involved allegations of ASIS spying during commercial negotiations with the East Timorese over the $40 billion oil and gas reserves of the contested Greater Sunrise fields within the East Timorese exclusive economic zone.[57]

Additionally Brandis approved the ASIO raid and passport cancellation of a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) agent, who was a director of technical operations at ASIS and the whistle-blower on the allegations of commercial spying done by Australia on East Timor, which consequently prevented the unnamed former agent from testifying at the ICJ in the Netherlands.[58][59]

Bookshelves

In February 2015, it was reported that more than $15,000 of taxpaper money was spent on a second custom-built bookshelf in Brandis' Parliamentary office to house Brandis' collection of books and law reports.[60] There had earlier been a $7,000 taxpayer-funded bookcase purchased in 2010 to store $13,000 worth of tax-payer funded books, but a new bookcase was reportedly required because the 2010 version was too large to move to Senator Brandis' new office following the change of government.[60]

Dealings with the Australian Human Rights Commission

In February 2015, Brandis made headlines when he questioned the independence and impartiality of the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, following the public release of a report by the Commission into children in detention which was critical of the Government. Brandis said he had lost confidence in Triggs and the Commission because in October 2014 she had given "inconsistent and evasive" evidence to Senate estimates when explaining the timing of her decision to hold the investigation into children in detention which resulted in the report.[61] Brandis said that the "political impartiality" of the commission had been "fatally compromised" because the commission had only investigated the issue after the Liberal-National Coalition were elected to power, even though there had been a large number of people in detention under the previous Labor government. This, Brandis claimed, was a "catastrophic error of judgement".[61]

Triggs defended her decision to commence the investigation in early 2014, saying that although the number of detainees had begun to fall while the Coalition were in Government, the length of time in detention had been rising.[62]

Further controversy arose when Triggs told a Senate Estimates hearing that Brandis' departmental secretary had on 3 February 2015 asked her to resign, just prior to the public release of the commission's report. Triggs said that she was told that she would be offered "other work with the government" if she resigned.[63][64] Initially the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, denied that any offer of any other role was made to Triggs. However, Bishop conceded that an international role had been discussed with Triggs in early February, during a meeting in her office with the secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, Chris Moraitis.[63]

Some government sources had suggested that Triggs had wanted to be "looked after" if she quit the commission. However, Triggs said she "categorically denies any suggestion that the issue of a job offer and resignation came at [her] instigation". Triggs said at the Senate hearing that she considered the offer made to her a "disgraceful proposition".[63]

These events prompted Mark Dreyfus, Labor's Shadow Attorney-General, to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police.[65] Dreyfus said that an offer by Brandis to an independent statutory officer of an inducement to resign, with the object of affecting the leadership of the commission to avoid political damage, may constitute corrupt or unlawful conduct. The Australian Senate also took up the matter, passing a motion to censure Brandis on 2 March.[66]

Turnbull government

Brandis at the 2017 Sub-Regional Meeting in Indonesia

In October 2016, allegations were made by Australia's Solicitor-General, Justin Gleeson SC, suggesting that Brandis attempted to block the Solicitor-General from providing legal advice to members of the Australian Government without first seeking and receiving the permission of the Attorney-General.[67] Further allegations were made by Labor party ministers that Brandis had misled parliament on the issue, including those by the Shadow Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, who challenged the independence of Brandis's office.

On 25 November 2016, The West Australian newspaper reported that the reason for Brandis issuing the direction was that Gleeson had provided advice on behalf of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in a High Court case over the collapse of The Bell Group in 1991. The Western Australian government had passed legislation (Bell Group Company’s Finalisation of Matters and Distribution of Proceeds Act 2015), elevating the Insurance Commission of WA in the queue of Bell Group creditors ahead of the ATO. In April 2015, the WA state government received an assurance from then federal Treasurer Joe Hockey that the Commonwealth would not intervene, however the ATO sought advice from Gleeson as its counsel that federal taxation law overrode the state legislation. The paper alleged that Brandis had told Gleeson not to run the argument, however it was still contained in the ATO's submission to the High Court, which subsequently unanimously rejected the WA government's case and struck down the Bell Act.[68]

Appointments

Prior to the 2016 federal election, Brandis appointed a Liberal Party donor and Brisbane lawyer, Theo Tavoularis, who had represented Brandis' son in court, to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.[69] Later in December 2016, Brandis appointed two former Members of Parliament and members of the Liberal Party, who had been voted out at the 2016 federal election, to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a 7-year term. Each role has a salary of over $200,000.[69]

Resignation

Leading up to the 2018 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spills, Brandis was increasingly willing to assert 'small-l liberal' positions and publicly criticised the coalition government and members of his own party, particularly the Conservative-wing of the party, including Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.[70] Brandis was reported as being concerned about the new formation of the Department of Home Affairs under Dutton.[70] Shortly after Dutton criticised lawyers who represented refugees and asylum seekers as 'un-Australian',[70] Brandis gave a speech which championed lawyers and their role in ensuring the supremacy of the law against the executive government, which was largely seen as an attack on Dutton's comments.[70]

Brandis formally resigned from the Senate on 8 February 2018.[71] In his farewell speech to the Senate he was critical of anti-terrorism laws being used by his own party as a 'political weapon' and warned against the 'powerful elements of right-wing politics' who had abandoned concern for the rights of the individual in favour of a 'belligerent, intolerant populism'.[72]

Post-political career

Brandis was appointed to fill the post of Australia's next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.[73] Due to take up the role in March 2018, an Achilles tendon injury delayed his official term start until 3 May 2018.[74] His term as High Commissioner ended in 2022 and he was subsequently appointed a professor at the Australian National University,[75] to teach at the ANU College of Law with a focus on national security, law and policy.[75]

References

  1. ↑ "Tony Abbott's cabinet and outer ministry". smh.com.au. AAP. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  2. ↑ Peatling, Stephanie (18 December 2017). "George Brandis bound for London as Malcolm Turnbull prepares for imminent cabinet reshuffle". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  3. ↑ Doran, Matthew; Probyn, Andrew (18 December 2017). "George Brandis is off to London, sparking pre-Christmas Cabinet reshuffle". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Canberra. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  4. ↑ Bourke, Latika (1 May 2022). "How the political beast George Brandis made his mark in London". theage.com.au. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  5. ↑ Bolt, Andrew (25 February 2011). "What country is Brandis describing?". Herald Sun.
  6. 1 2 Baker, Mark (6 July 2013). "The art of compromise". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media.
  7. ↑ "Seven in Running for upcoming High Court Vacancies". The Australian.
  8. ↑ Swain, Harriet (12 June 2008). "Scholarship funding cuts have appalled academics and students alike". The Independent. London. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  9. ↑ "Senator the Hon George Brandis QC". aph.gov.au.
  10. 1 2 3 "The World Today - Call for more transparency in senior counsel appointments". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  11. ↑ Warman International Ltd v Dwyer [1995] HCA 18, (1995) 182 CLR 544 (23 March 1995), High Court (Australia).
  12. ↑ Multigroup Distribution Services Pty Ltd v TNT Australia Pty Ltd [2001] FCA 226 (12 March 2001), Federal Court (Australia).
  13. 1 2 "Silk for senator angers lawyers". 13 November 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Ackland, Richard (29 October 2016). "Solicitors-general support Justin Gleeson in argument with George Brandis". The Saturday Paper.
  15. ↑ "States divide over restoration of 'Queen's Counsel' title". The Australian. 14 June 2013.
  16. ↑ George Brandis; Tom Harley; Don Markwell, eds. (1984). Liberals face the future: essays on Australian liberalism. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  17. ↑ Yvonne Thompson; George Brandis; Tom Harley, eds. (1986). Australian liberalism: the continuing vision. Melbourne: The Liberal Forum.
  18. ↑ George Brandis, 'Rawls on Liberty' (1989) 49-50 Bulleton of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy 169.
  19. ↑ George Brandis, 'Interlocutory injunctions to restrain speech' (1992) 12 Queensland Lawyer 169.
  20. ↑ George Brandis, 'The Debate We Didn't Have to Have: The Proposal for an Australian Bill of Rights' (2008) 15 James Cook University Law Review 24.
  21. ↑ George Brandis, 'The Lawyer's Duty to Public Life' (Summer, 2011) New South Wales Bar Association, Bar News 118.
  22. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Corporation v O'Neill [2006] HCA 46 (28 September 2006), High Court (Australia).
  23. ↑ "Australian Institute of Ethics and the Professions". Uq.edu.au. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  24. ↑ Wanna, John; Taflaga, Marija (2015). "INTRODUCTION: A DISSIDENT LIBERAL—A PRINCIPLED POLITICAL CAREER". A Dissident Liberal: The Political Writings of Peter Baume. ANU Press.
  25. ↑ "Brandis defends Greens-Nazis comments". Lateline. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 31 October 2003. Archived from the original on 28 December 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  26. ↑ Katharine Murphy (13 August 2015). "Labor probes Dyson Heydon link to Liberal fundraiser – question time live". The Guardian.
  27. ↑ "Threat to stall same-sex reforms". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 June 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  28. ↑ "Australian Human Rights Commission". Hreoc.gov.au. 28 May 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  29. ↑ Harrison, Dan (26 September 2008). "New Libs' stance as senator supports same-sex reforms". The Age. Melbourne.
  30. ↑ "Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws—General Law Reform) Act 2008". Comlaw.gov.au. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  31. ↑ Atkins, Dennis (10 December 2008). "George Brandis in battle for bill of rights". The Courier-Mail.
  32. ↑ "Department of the Parliamentary Library – Shadow Ministry". Aph.gov.au. Archived from the original on 17 September 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  33. ↑ Barnes, Greg (29 August 2012). "What sort of A-G would George Brandis make?". ABC. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  34. ↑ Maley, Jacqueline (29 September 2013). "George Brandis pays back wedding expenses". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  35. ↑ Knott, Matthew (30 September 2013). "Michael Smith: Brandis honest, legit over wedding night expenses". Crikey. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  36. ↑ "George Brandis turns arts into 'political football' with $104.7m Australia Council cuts". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 May 2015.
  37. ↑ "Private arts donors Neil Balnaves and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis accuse George Brandis of neglecting arts community, politicising funding". ABC News. 17 July 2015.
  38. ↑ "The regrettable rise of the arts bureaucrat". The Age. 19 May 2015.
  39. 1 2 Stuart Glover (20 July 2015). "Writers and publishers are all at sea under Brandis and the NPEA". The Conversation.
  40. ↑ "The Australia Council must hold firm on 'arm's length' funding". The Conversation.
  41. ↑ Ben Eltham (3 July 2015). "George Brandis and the arts funding crisis: one hell of a one-man show". The Guardian.
  42. ↑ Patrick Hatch (20 September 2015). "Cabinet reshuffle: artists call on new arts minister Mitch Fifield to 'undo the damage' done by George Brandis". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  43. 1 2 3 4 Promise check: Repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act; www.abc.net.au; 8 May 2016
  44. ↑ Owens, Jared (26 March 2014). "George Brandis rejects concerns Holocaust denial will become lawful". The Australian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  45. ↑ Danby, Michael (25 March 2014). "George Brandis has given Australia's racists a free rein". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  46. ↑ Aston, Heath; Swan, Jonathan (26 March 2014). "ALP to rally migrants to fight race hate law changes". The Age. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  47. ↑ Massola, James; Swan, Jonathan (25 March 2014). "George Brandis releases planned sweeping changes to race hate laws". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  48. ↑ Aston, Heath; Massola, James. Tony Abbott government backdown on race law The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014
  49. ↑ Vasek, Lanai (29 September 2011). "Coalition signals bid to change race laws breached by columnist Andrew Bolt". The Australian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  50. ↑ Harrison, Dan; Swan, Jonathan (24 March 2014). "Attorney-General George Brandis: 'People do have a right to be bigots'". The Age. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  51. ↑ Alexander, Harriet (25 January 2013). "Crossin a victim of prejudice: Brandis". The Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  52. ↑ Langton, Marcia (22 March 2014). "Keeping Andrew Bolt in Business". The Saturday Paper. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  53. ↑ Merritt, Chris (8 November 2013). "Attorney-General George Brandis's first task: repeal 'Bolt laws' in name of free speech". The Australian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  54. ↑ "Full transcript: Brandis condemns Hanson's burka stunt". www.abc.net.au. 17 August 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  55. ↑ Allard, Tom (5 March 2014). "George Brandis pleased with court ruling in East Timor spying case". The Age. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  56. ↑ AAP, AAP (4 March 2014). "International Court of Justice bans Australia from spying on East Timor". The Australian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  57. ↑ Deutsch, Anthony (14 March 2010). "Australia gas deal renews tension". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  58. ↑ Whinnett, Ellen (5 December 2013). "East Timor takes Timor Gap case with Australia to the Hague amid bullying claims". The Herald Sun. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  59. ↑ Taylor, Lenore (4 December 2013). "Timor-Leste spy case: Brandis claims 'ridiculous', says ambassador". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  60. 1 2 Knott, Matthew. "Second George Brandis bookcase costs $15,000 after first was too big to move". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  61. 1 2 Whyte, Sarah (24 February 2015). "'A fatal perception of bias': George Brandis admits he asked Gillian Triggs to resign'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  62. ↑ "Fact check: Triggs correct on the length of time children spent in detention". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  63. 1 2 3 Kenny, Mark (27 February 2015). "Julie Bishop admits role with Triggs was discussed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  64. ↑ Gogarty, Brendan (26 February 2015). "Comment: did Brandis break the law in requesting Triggs' resignation?". SBS Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  65. ↑ Gordon, Michael (25 February 2015). "Labor refers offer to find another job for Gillian Triggs to federal police". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  66. ↑ "Attorney-General George Brandis censured over Gillian Triggs affair". The Age. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  67. ↑ Keany, Francis (5 October 2016). "Labor calls for resignation of George Brandis following public stoush with solicitor-general Justin Gleeson". ABC News. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  68. ↑ Probyn, Andrew & Wright, Shane (25 November 2016). "Bell Group bombshell: How the State Government's secret $1 billion deal was torpedoed". The West Australian. Retrieved 28 November 2016.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  69. 1 2 Remeikis, Amy (15 December 2016). "George Brandis names former Liberal MPs for $200,000 tribunal role". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  70. 1 2 3 4 "Grattan: Dutton-Brandis rift deepens as Home Affairs behemoth rises". www.abc.net.au. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  71. ↑ "Media Statement – Senator Brandis Resignation". Scott Ryan, President of the Australian Senate. 8 February 2018. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018.
  72. ↑ "Political right captured by "belligerent, intolerant populism", Brandis warns". Australian Financial Review. 7 February 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  73. ↑ "Brandis warns liberal values under threat". SBS News. 7 February 2018.
  74. ↑ Starick, Paul (16 April 2018). "Achilles injury to George Brandis". Adelaide Advertiser. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  75. 1 2 "Leading lawmaker George Brandis joins ANU" (Press release). Australian National University. 22 June 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
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