Brandis v Dreyfus: The 2016 Pre-Election Legal Affairs Debate

In the run-up to the 2016 federal election, the Pre-Election Legal Affairs Debate featured the Attorney-General, Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, and the Shadow-Attorney-General, the Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP.

The debate explored the policies of the Coalition and the Australian Labor Party as they affect the Australian legal system and legal profession. The Attorney-General and the Shadow Attorney-General made opening and closing statements. In between, a panel of three posed questions to each speaker. The panel members were:

Associate Professor Anna Cody, Director of Kingsford Legal Centre at UNSW and Board member of the National Association of Community Legal Centres

Ms Fiona McLeod SC, President-elect of the Law Council of Australia

Mr Chris Merritt, Legal Affairs Editor of The Australian.

Please see flyer.

Webcast Recordings, Live Tweeting and Media Coverage

A full audio recording of the debate is available here.

A video webcast of the debate is available here.

The Centre live tweeted the event from its Twitter account @GTCentre, as did a number of others. The hashtag was #AGDEBATE. A Storify collection of tweets was prepared by Gabrielle Appleby.

The Law Report on ABC RN broadcast edited highlights from the Debate on 21 June 2016.

The story in Lawyers Weekly from Melissa Coade focused on the funding of Community Legal Centres and Legal Aid.

Richard Ackland wrote an opinion piece about the debate in The Guardian.

A transcript of answers to questions posed by panel member Chris Merritt was published in The Australian.(paywall may apply).