President: Jennifer Caldwell | Vice-President: Tammy McLeod
AWLA held a talk in March with Dr Judy McGregor, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner.
In March, Ronelle Barnes and Maria Dew KC made oral submissions to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. Their submissions had several key focuses:
- To summarise AWLA’s position on the bill;
- Discuss how the bill compliments the Parental Leave and Employment Act 1987;
- Compare the bill to the impact of similar legislation in the United Kingdom;
- Draw from their experiences of women practising in the legal profession; and
- Compare the written submissions to those of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Central), being an example of submissions that oppose the general intent of the bill.
The guest speaker at the midwinter dinner in June, was Hon. Dale Clarkson, who was a District Court Judge at the time.
AWLA unsuccessfully applied to intervene in X v X. This was a relationship property case concerning the correct legal test to apply to economic disparity provisions in section 15 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1975.
Antonia Fisher KC acted as counsel for AWLA, with support from AWLA committee members, Veronica Lobao, Tammy McLeod, Katherine Anderson KC, and Lucy Riddiford.
AWLA considered that the Court should not be required to look behind the parties’ respective choices that have led to the situation where there is significant disparity in the standard of living likely to be enjoyed by each of the parties post separation.
Justice Heath declined to grant AWLA intervener status as the section 15 issue may not be determined in the appeal, meaning the Court may not consider the point of law AWLA had articulated.
Further, the case involved statutory interpretation so broader public policy considerations were not necessary. Justice Heath provided that AWLA’s arguments could be made by Mrs X’s counsel and in the absence of another group presenting contrary policy perspectives, Mr X could legitimately view AWLA as being partial to Mrs X’s interests.