Tuesday 8 April 2008 from 6.00pm till 7.30pm

This is an opportunity to be part of a conversation with Michael Kirby, a justice of the High Court of Australia – one of the most high-profile people in Australia. He has been a judge since 1983, and has served most recently as one of the seven justices of Australia’s highest court, the High Court of Australia. Previously he was President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. 

Michael Kirby will be in conversation with David Marr. David Marr has written for the old National Times, worked for ABC radio and television and written biographies of Sir Garfield Barwick and Patrick White. A few years ago he wrote - with Marian Wilkinson - Dark Victory, an account of the Tampa elections of 2001. After presenting Media Watch for three years, he returned to write for the Sydney Morning Herald. His quarterly essay ‘His Master’s Voice: the Corruption of Public Debate under Howard’ appeared in July.

Cost $25 ($15 for those eligible to a discount)

Venue St James’ Hall, Level 1, 169 Phillip Street, Sydney

Michael Kirby has been involved in a large number of Australian and international activities related to topics such as privacy, data security, bioethics, human rights and HIV/AIDS. He has been President of the International Commission of Jurists and was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Human Rights in Cambodia. In 1991 Justice Kirby was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal. In 1997 The Bulletin magazine included him amongst Australia’s ‘Ten Most Creative Minds’. In 1998 he was named Laureate of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education. In 2005 the Sydney Morning Herald named him as one of Australia’s ‘Top Ten Public Intellectuals’. In 2006, The Bulletin named him as ‘one of the hundred most influential Australians ever’. Justice Kirby is a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and a Companion of the Order of Australia. Justice Kirby has spoken, from time to time, on matters of faith. As an Anglican, he has a lively interest in the direction of the Anglican Communion.

Click here for a copy of the transcript.