Bret Walker

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title: "Bret Walker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1954-births", "living-people", "fellows-of-the-australian-academy-of-law", "australian-barristers", "australian-senior-counsel", "sydney-law-school-alumni", "university-of-sydney-alumni", "people-educated-at-the-king's-school,-parramatta", "lawyers-from-sydney", "officers-of-the-order-of-australia"] description: "Australian lawyer" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Walker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian lawyer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Bret Walker
honorific_suffix
image	Bret Walker SC.jpg
caption	Walker in October 2009
birth_date
education	The King's School, Parramatta, University of Sydney (BA, LLB),
occupation	Barrister
years_active	1979–present
::

| name = Bret Walker | honorific_suffix = | image = Bret Walker SC.jpg | caption = Walker in October 2009 | birth_date = | education = The King's School, Parramatta, University of Sydney (BA, LLB), | occupation = Barrister | years_active = 1979–present

Bret William Walker (born 1954) is an Australian barrister.

Family

Walker is the son of an Anglican minister. He is married to the Honourable Justice Sarah Pritchard, a judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.

Education

Walker was educated at Concord West Public School and The King's School, Parramatta. He graduated with degrees in arts and law from the University of Sydney.

Career

Walker was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1979 and was appointed senior counsel in 1993. He was president of the New South Wales Bar Association from November 2001 to November 2003, having been vice-president from 1996 to 2001.

Walker is a member of the Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales, and was the editor of the NSW Law Reports from 2006 to 2018. and has been a member of the NSW Health Clinical Ethics Advisory Panel since 2003. He was governor of the Law Foundation of NSW from 1996 to 2007, and Special Commissioner of Inquiry for the NSW government into Sydney Ferries in 2007.

He was a leading legal counsel representing tobacco companies in their unsuccessful fight against the Australian government's plain packaging legislation.

In April 2011 Walker was appointed as the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor. In 2015 Walker said that a proposed change to Australia's citizenship laws to give the Minister for Immigration the power to strip citizenship from people who support terrorism was unconstitutional. He said this was a misquote of the INSLM 2014 report by Prime Minister Tony Abbott. In a 2015 interview with Lateline, Walker noted the Australian "habit of seeing a problem and passing a law about it".

In 2018–19 Walker oversaw the South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin. The report was damning of the maladministration that characterised the overseeing Murray-Darling Basin Authority, describing their decision-making as “incomprehensible” and “indefensible”.

In 2019 Walker successfully acted in the appeal to the High Court of Australia of Cardinal George Pell, whose child sex abuse convictions were overturned on 7 April 2020.

In April 2020 Walker was appointed to a Special Commission of Inquiry to "investigate all matters and agencies involved with the ''Ruby Princess''' departure and its return to Circular Quay on March 19".

In 2021 Walker had the most appearances in the High Court of Australia, appearing 35 times; that was more than twice the number of hearings as the next busiest, Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue KC.

High Court appearances

Bell Lawyers Pty Ltd v Pentelow [2019] HCA 29

Pell v The Queen [2020] HCA 12

Workpac Pty Ltd v Rossato [2021] HCA 23

Schokman v CCIG Investments Pty Ltd [2023] HCA 21

Ravbar v Commonwealth of Australia [2025] HCA 25

Gray v Lavan (A Firm) [2025] HCA 42

(note: list may not be exhaustive)

References

References

1. (November 2016)
2. (19 June 2015). "Bret Walker SC, citizenship and an Abbott political step that goes too far".
3. Land and Environment Court of New South Wales. "Swearing-In Ceremony of the Honourable Justice Pritchard".
4. Who's Who Australia – entry for Bret William Bret
5. ''[http://www.nswbar.asn.au/docs/resources/publications/bn/bn_summer0102.pdf Bar News] {{webarchive. link. (20 July 2008 '', Summer 2001/2002, p. 2.)
6. ''[http://www.nswbar.asn.au/docs/resources/publications/bn/bn_summer0304.pdf Bar News] {{webarchive. link. (20 July 2008 '', Summer 2003/2004, p. 2.)
7. "Archived copy".
8. (18 April 2012). "PM - Govt defends plain packaging in High Court 18/04/2012". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
9. "Home - Fairfax Media Limited". The Canberra Times.
10. "Finance & Political Breaking News Australia & Worldwide". afr.com.
11. Nathan Morrow. "Independent National Security Legislation Monitor appointed". altlj.org.
12. "Bret Walker: Revoking citizenship by minister unconstitutional". NewsComAu.
13. (16 June 2015). "Government misquoting my report to defend revoking citizenship, says Bret Walker". Guardian Australia.
14. (13 October 2015). "Lateline - 13/10/2015: Interview: Lawyer Bret Walker SC, the first independent monitor of national security legislation". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
15. (7 April 2020). "Cardinal George Pell to walk free after high court quashes conviction – latest news | Australia news | the Guardian".
16. (15 April 2020). "Pell barrister to lead new probe into Ruby Princess fiasco". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
17. (12 January 2022). "Meet the High Court's busiest barrister".

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