Victorian Bar: ‘We backed same-sex marriage, we can back the voice’

The Victorian Bar has firm ground to support the voice because it once supported same-sex marriage, a leaked memorandum reveals.

The Victorian Bar has firm ground to support the voice because it once supported same-sex marriage, a leaked memorandum reveals.​

The Victorian Bar has firm ground to support the Indigenous voice parliament because it once supported same-sex marriage in the face of the plebiscite, a leaked memorandum urging Bar members to vote Yes in a poll deciding if the association publicly backs the voice suggests.

The 20-page memorandum, sent to all 2200 Bar members, comes as the association gears up for a poll on whether or not it should support the Indigenous voice, and opposing camps start work to convince members to vote their way.

Compiled by the left-wing faction of the Bar and signed off by Peter Hanks KC and Rachel Doyle SC, the memorandum references the fact in 2015, when it came time to make amendments to the Marriage Act, then-president James Peters QC published a press release in favour of same-sex marriage.

That set a precedent for the Bar‘s “clear responsibility” to speak out about proposed legal reform and constitutional change, the memorandum said.

“In commenting on the constitutional change contemplated by the Voice, the Bar would be doing no more than fulfilling a clear community expectation that we use our legal expertise, independence and courage to inform the public debate; that is in the finest traditions of our Bar,” the memorandum read.

“While it may be said that the present public debate has become political, the same can be said of almost all law reform - and particularly constitutional change.”

The memorandum was circulated as part of the process governing the online poll of the Bar members.

The poll came about after the voice divided the institution, and the 21-member Bar Council was forced to put the decision of whether the Bar supported the referendum in the hands of its members, rather than making it themselves.

Victorian Bar president Sam Hay KC. Source: Victorian Bar website

The poll will ask members to respond to the following question:

Do you:

i) support a motion that The Victorian Bar Incorporated does not publicly support either the “yes” case of the “no” case in any referendum to alter the Australian Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;

ii) support a motion that The Victorian Bar Incorporated supports Constitutional recognition of Australia’s First People. The Victorian Bar Incorporated considers that the amendment proposed by the Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution is sound, appropriate, and compatible with Australia’s system of representative and responsible Government which would be enhanced by the addition of the Voice; or

iii) choose to abstain from submitting a vote in respect of the above motions.

A separate memorandum compiled by the Bar’s right-wing faction was also circulated, arguing the Bar would “damage its hard won and long protected independence” if it chooses to offer an opinion on the voice.

“It will be engaging in the politics of the referendum and will be seen to be doing so by the community,” the two page memorandum read. “As importantly, any political endorsement will damage our Bar internally for years to come.”

The poll will open on May 31 and close on June 8.

The results of the poll, including the number of members who voted on each motion and the result of each vote as a percentage will be announced on June 9.