Rob Justin Hulls (born 23 January 1957) is a former
Australian politician who was a member of the
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne.
The presidin ...
from 1996 to 2012, representing the electorate of
Niddrie. As well as serving as the
Deputy Premier of Victoria
The deputy premier of Victoria is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Victoria. The deputy premier position was created in May 1932, with Robert Menzies being the first person to hold the position. The deputy premier is appointe ...
, he held the posts of
state attorney-general and Minister for Racing.
During his tenure as Attorney-General of Victoria, Hulls was credited for revolutionising Victoria's justice system, with his reform agenda reshaping the state's criminal justice system into one widely recognised as the nation's most progressive.
Biography
Rob Hulls was born in Melbourne as one of seven children. He was privately educated at
Xavier College
Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878.
...
from 1969–72 and then moved to the private
Peninsula School from 1973–75. Upon leaving school Hulls worked as a law clerk for his father, Francis Charles Hulls, who owned the firm Frank C. Hulls & Co, in La Trobe Street, Melbourne. He completed the Articled Clerk's Course at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1982, was Admitted as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria on 1 March 1983 and was admitted as Solicitor at the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1986.
Hulls served as a Solicitor for the
Legal Aid Commission of Victoria from 1984–86, and then worked for the West Queensland Aboriginal Legal Service for 5 years, and served as the Principal of Rob Hulls & Associates in Mt Isa from 1986-1990.
In addition to his legal career, prior to entering the Australian federal parliament, Hulls had served as an alderman at the Mt Isa City Council from 1988-1990, and had also served as a bar attendant, a grapepicker and as a labourer.
Hulls was appointed a
Member of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an Order (distinction), honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of Australia, Queen of Aus ...
for "significant service to the people and Parliament of Victoria, and to the law" in the
2021 Queen's Birthday Honours.
Political career
Federal Parliament
Rob Hulls served one term in Federal Parliament from
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
–93 as the member for
Kennedy, Queensland. He succeeded the long-standing National Party member
Bob Katter Sr., who had retired from politics (he died just prior to the election).
In 1993, he was defeated by
Bob Katter
Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter (born 22 May 1945) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1993. He was previously active in Queensland state politics from 1974 to 1992. Katter was a member of the ...
, the former member's son, who had been a minister in the
Bjelke-Petersen,
Ahern and
Cooper ministries at state level in Queensland. The race was very close throughout, and was only decided on the eighth count when a
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Katter.
Parliament of Victoria
Rob Hulls left Queensland soon after the losing his Federal Parliament seat, and in 1994 on returning to Melbourne was appointed Chief of Staff to the Victorian
Opposition Leader
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
,
Jim Kennan
James Harley Kennan SC (25 February 1946 – 4 August 2010) was an Australian politician and later adjunct professor of law at Deakin University.
Kennan earned a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne. He was a member of parliament b ...
, former attorney-general, who resigned from State Parliament shortly afterwards. Rob Hulls stayed on as Chief of Staff under Kennan's replacement
John Brumby
John Mansfield Brumby (born 21 April 1953) is the current Chancellor of La Trobe University and former Victorian Labor Party politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2007 to 2010. He became leader of the Victorian Labor Party and premier ...
, who was Premier from 2007–2010. Following his election to the State Parliament, in the lower-house seat of Niddrie, Rob Hulls' replacement as Brumby's Chief of Staff was
Julia Gillard, who later in her own career became Australia's first female prime minister (2010–13).
During his time in opposition, Hulls served as Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on Scrutiny of Government (4 April 1996 - 13 January 1997), Shadow Attorney-General (4 April 1996 - 20 October 1999), Shadow Minister for Gaming (4 April 1996 - 1 October 1999), Shadow Minister for Tourism (13 January 1997 - 24 February 1999), Shadow Minister for WorkCover (24 February 1999 - 1 October 1999), Shadow Minister for Manufacturing Industry (1 October 1999 - 20 October 1999) and Shadow Minister for Racing (1 October 1999 - 20 October 1999). Throughout his state political career, Hulls held the offices of
Attorney-General of Victoria
The Attorney-General of Victoria, in formal contexts also Attorney-General or Attorney General for Victoria, is a minister in the Government of Victoria, Australia. The Attorney-General is a senior minister in the state government and the Firs ...
; Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Racing from 1999–2002; Minister for WorkCover from 2002–2005; Minister for Planning January 2005 – December 2006; Minister for Racing from December 2006 – November 2010 and Minister for Industrial Relations from December 2002 – November 2010.
As attorney-general, Rob Hulls instigated significant and lasting changes to Victoria's legal system which saw Victoria become a national leader in progressive social justice reform, such as removing barriers to accessing assisted reproductive technology and abolishing laws that discriminated against people in same-sex relationships; many of Hulls' reforms have become an accepted and valued part of the state’s mainstream justice and social welfare systems and have influenced other jurisdictions to follow suit. Hulls oversaw the establishment of the state's first
Charter of Human Rights and reform to
Victoria's Upper House. He established
special courts
An extraordinary court, or special court, is a type of court that is established outside of ordinary judiciary, composed of irregularly selected judges or applies irregular procedure for judgment. Since extraordinary court can be abused to infrin ...
for
Victoria's indigenous community, for people with mental health issues (Assessment and Referral Court), for people with drug addiction (Drug Court) and for victims of family violence (Family Violence specialist list), as well as creating Australia’s first and only Neighbourhood Justice Centre. Additionally, he introduced an open tender process for applicants to Victoria's judiciary to ensure that more women and people from diverse backgrounds were appointed. He appointed Australia’s first female Chief Justice of any superior court by appointing
Marilyn Warren as
Chief Justice of Victoria in 2003, as well as appointing a significant number of women to both the Magistrates Court and the County Court.
In May 2008, Hulls sought and obtained the first posthumous pardon in Victoria's legal history and the only instance of a pardon for a judicially executed person in Australia to date, when he sought and obtained a pardon for
Colin Campbell Ross
Colin Campbell Eadie Ross (11 October 1892 – 24 April 1922) was an Australian wine-bar owner who was wrongfully convicted and executed for the murder of a child, which became known as the Gun Alley Murder, despite evidence of his innocence. Fo ...
, who was found to have been wrongfully executed for the murder of a young girl in 1922.
He was unsuccessful in a campaign to defrock the legal profession and ban the
wearing of wigs in courts, a move that was actively opposed by the
Victorian Bar Association. Rob Hulls was quoted as saying that "members of the legal profession could continue to wear wigs in the privacy of their homes if they so wished but the wearing of wigs by the legal profession in the 21st century was outdated and elitist".
He was appointed as deputy premier to John Brumby on 30 July 2007 after the retirement of
John Thwaites, and retained the position as attorney-general until his party's defeat at the election on 27 November 2010. He subsequently served as Deputy Opposition Leader and as Labor's education spokesman.
In 2011, Hulls suffered from the life-threatening condition
epiglottitis
Epiglottitis is the inflammation of the epiglottis—the flap at the base of the tongue that prevents food entering the trachea (windpipe). Symptoms are usually rapid in onset and include trouble swallowing which can result in drooling, changes t ...
which caused his airway to block; this led to him being placed in an induced coma for five days. On 27 January 2012, Hulls announced he was resigning from parliament. This triggered a
by-election in the seat of Niddrie.
Personal life
A very keen supporter of the
Geelong Football Club, Hulls married twice and has four children.
In October 2012, Hulls 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, and is dedicated to finding innovative solutions to complex problems that manifest in the justice system, as well as striving to develop practical ways to ensure the justice system acts as a positive intervention in the lives of its users.
References
External links
Victorian Labor Party website, Biography of Rob Hulls, Retrieved 30 November 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulls, Rob
1957 births
Living people
Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kennedy
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Deputy Premiers of Victoria
Attorneys-General of Victoria
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Order of Australia
Australian solicitors
RMIT University alumni
RMIT University faculty
People educated at Xavier College
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria
21st-century Australian politicians
20th-century Australian politicians
Politicians from Melbourne