On Thursday 6 March, the College welcomed former Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls AM to speak to all Year 11-12 Legal Studies students about his experience in the Victorian criminal justice system.
Mr Hulls is the former Victorian Labor attorney-general and deputy premier. As attorney-general, Rob instigated significant changes to Victoria’s legal system which saw the establishment of the state’s first Charter of Human Rights and reform to Victoria’s Upper House. He established specialist courts in Victoria including for Victoria’s Indigenous community, for people with mental health issues, and for victims of family violence and introduced an open tender process for applicants to Victoria’s judiciary. In October 2012 Rob was appointed adjunct professor at RMIT and was invited to establish the new Centre for Innovative Justice as its inaugural director. The Centre’s objective is to develop, drive, and expand the capacity of the justice system to meet and adapt to the needs of its diverse users. This was clearly aligned to Year 10 Humanities and the broader Catholic social teaching that underpins the religious education in the Mercy tradition.
With a vast wealth of legal knowledge and lived experienced, his talked enriched student learning of their Unit 1 and Unit 3 course work and outcomes. Additionally, the stories he shared of his work in Victorian law reform, notably the creation of the Koori Court and Drug Court to include greater cultural sensitivity and rehabilitative focus within the legal system, shed a light on the considered, important and incremental process of legal change and reform in Victoria.