Michael Kirby has written about how the Australian Law Reform Commission was established in 1975.
“I want to tell you about the beginnings of the Australian Law Reform Commission (“ALRC”). …
“I was looking around for something else to do. Anything else. And then Lionel Murphy walked into that elevator”.
“Come up and have a glass of champagne” he demanded. You’re just the person I’m looking for. … I want you to be the chairman of the Law Reform Commission”, said Lionel.
I blinked. My reactions were those of the typical lawyer.
“Law reform! Law reform! Aren’t things bad enough as they are?”
But Lionel was persistent. … In a state of alcoholic stupor I accepted. Lionel lifted his glass ….
“The first thing to be done was to get premises and staff. … All that the Commonwealth could find was a tiny office in the anteroom to the Court of the Federal Judge in Bankruptcy (Bernard Riley).” …
… I suggested … something slightly better …
“Setting up the ALRC was as much a puzzle and an adventure, [all of us] sitting there in Justice Riley’s anteroom, watching him pass by four times a day: each time looking more melancholy than the last.
Bankruptcy, after all, is not a fun jurisdiction.”
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Chapter 15, “ALRC, Law Reform and Equal Justice under the Law”, in Law, Justice and Other Challenges – Selected Speeches and Papers of Michael Kirby, Federation Press, 2025, pp 143-145.
ALRC 45, the “Harmer Report”, of 1988, stands as a significant contribution to insolvency law, in Australia, and internationally.
