24 March 2023

Australian Competition Tribunal appointments

Today the Albanese Government is pleased to announce seven important appointments to the Australian Competition Tribunal (the Tribunal).

  • Justice Michael O’Bryan has been appointed as the part‑time President of the Tribunal for a five‑year period;
  • Justices Sarah Derrington AM, Kylie Downes, John Halley and Mark Moshinsky have been appointed as part-time Deputy Presidents of the Tribunal, each for a five‑year period;
  • Daniel Andrews and Ray Steinwall have been appointed as part-time members of the Tribunal, each for a five‑year period.

Justice O’Bryan was appointed to the Federal Court in 2019, and then appointed as a Deputy President of the Tribunal in the same year. In 2014, Justice O’Bryan was appointed as a member of the panel that conducted Australia’s last major competition law and policy review, the Harper Review, in 2015.

Justice Derrington was appointed to the Federal Court in 2018, when she was also appointed as the President of the Australian Law Reform Commission until 2023. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List of 2022.

Justice Downes was appointed to the Federal Court in 2021. Justice Downes was admitted as a barrister in the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1992 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2008.

Justice Halley was appointed to the Federal Court in 2021. Justice Halley was admitted as a legal practitioner in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1986, was called to the Bar in 1993, and appointed as Senior Counsel in 2008.

Justice Moshinsky was appointed to the Federal Court in 2015. Justice Moshinsky practised as a barrister at the Victorian Bar from 1995 to 2015, and was appointed as Senior Counsel in 2007, specialising in competition law, among other areas.

Mr Andrews is currently the Research Director and Head of Policy Engagement at the e61 Institute, a non-for-profit economic research institute, having previously held roles with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury.

Mr Steinwall is currently a member of the Competition Policy and Law Expert Panel of the Asian Development Bank, an Adjunct Professor of the School of Law at the University of New South Wales, and editor of the Competition and Consumer Law Journal.

The Tribunal is an independent statutory tribunal that hears applications to review authorisation decisions of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and decisions of the Treasurer or the ACCC on access to nationally significant monopoly infrastructure under the National Access Regime. The Tribunal is established under Part III of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

The Government thanks the outgoing President of the Tribunal, the Honourable Justice John Middleton, and outgoing members of the Tribunal, Professor Kevin Davis AM and Dr Darryn Abraham, for their many years of service to the Tribunal.