My career as a legislative drafter began in 1987 with drafting laws for the Australian Capital Territory, after a number of years working in the Australian Public Service in policy and legal advising roles. In 2002, I was seconded for a year to the Ontario Legislative Counsel in Toronto, Canada. In 2005, I moved to a position with the Australian Government Office of Parliamentary Counsel, retiring as a Senior Assistant Parliamentary Counsel in 2021.
Educational credentials
BA (Hons, English literature) Sydney University (1979)
LLB Australian National University (1983)
Admitted as solicitor, NSW Supreme Court (1983)
MA (American literature) University of Queensland (1995)
Convenor, ANU graduate course (semester unit) in legislation and legislative drafting, 1999-2013.
Guest lecturer (drafting and interpretation), Sydney University Law School, 2010-2020.
Short drafter training courses, various Pacific island nations and Qld Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, 2012-13.
Various short drafter training courses, OPC, 2005-2021.
“Interpretation Acts: Coherent Interpretation and a Coherent Statute Book”, Jeffrey Barnes, ed., The Coherence of Statutory Interpretation, Sydney, Federation Press, 2019: ch 13.
“Legislative Drafting in Australia, New Zealand and Ontario: An informal survey” (3rd ed.), The Loophole, March 2005 (2005.1): 55, http://www.calc.ngo/sites/default/files/loophole/mar-2005.pdf.
“Legislative Section Headings: Drafting Techniques, Plain Language and Redundancy”, Statute Law Review 2011/32: 186, republished in The Loophole, April 2012 (No. 2 of 2012): 7, http://www.calc.ngo/sites/default/files/loophole/apr-2012.pdf.
“Shaping policy into law: a strategy for developing common standards”, The Loophole, Feb. 2011 (2011.1), p 40, http://www.calc.ngo/sites/default/files/loophole/feb-2011.pdf.
"Black Letters: Plain English and Epistolary Rhetoric", Griffith Law Review (2000) 9:7.
"Tityrus", Law Text Culture 1 (1994): 48, http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1146&context=ltc.
“T(r)op(ic)ology: Law, Interpretation, Power”, Griffith Law Review (1996) 5: 124.