Mark Alfred Dreyfus (born 3 October 1956) is an Australian politician and lawyer who has been

attorney-general of Australia The Attorney-GeneralThe title is officially "Attorney-General". For the purposes of distinguishing the office from other attorneys-general, and in accordance with usual practice in the United Kingdom and other common law jurisdictions, the Aust ...

and cabinet secretary since June 2022, having held both roles previously in 2013 and from 2010 to 2013 respectively. Dreyfus is a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

(ALP), and has been the MP for

Isaacs Isaacs may refer to: * The Isaacs, a bluegrass Southern gospel music group * Isaacs (surname) * Isaacs, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra, Australia * Division of Isaacs, a federal electoral division in Victoria, Australia * Divisi ...

since the 2007 election. Before beginning his political career, Dreyfus worked as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

for two decades, specialising in constitutional, commercial and environmental law. After winning the seat of Isaacs in 2007, Dreyfus was appointed to the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

in September 2010 by

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...

as Cabinet Secretary. In February 2013, following the resignation of

Nicola Roxon Nicola Louise Roxon (born 1 April 1967) is a former Australian politician, who was a member of the House Representatives representing the seat of Gellibrand in Victoria for the Australian Labor Party from the 1998 federal election until he ...

, he was moved to become Attorney-General for the first time. After

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

replaced Gillard as Prime Minister in June 2013, Dreyfus was retained as Attorney-General and given the additional roles of

Special Minister of State The Special Minister of State (SMOS) in the Government of Australia is a position currently held by Don Farrell since 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022. The minister is responsible for various parliamentary, electo ...

and Minister for the Public Service and Integrity. He would hold these positions for less than three months, as Labor was defeated in the 2013 election. Throughout Labor's subsequent nine years in opposition, Dreyfus served as shadow attorney-general under both

Bill Shorten William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...

and

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...

. Following Labor's victory in the 2022 election, he was appointed to the positions of Attorney-General and Cabinet Secretary for the second time within the Albanese Government. During his second tenure as attorney-general, he has led the Government's efforts to introduce a

national anti-corruption commission The National Anti-Corruption Commission may refer to: *National Anti-Corruption Commission (Thailand) * National Anti-Corruption Commission (Saudi Arabia) *National Anti-Corruption Commission (Australia) The National Anti-Corruption Commission, of ...

and abolished the

Administrative Appeals Tribunal The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is an Australian tribunal that conducts independent merits review of administrative decisions made under Commonwealth laws of the Australian Government. The AAT review decisions made by Australian Gover ...

(AAT).

Early life and education

Dreyfus was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia, the son of

George Dreyfus George Dreyfus AM (born 22 July 1928) is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer. Early life and orchestral career Dreyfus was born to a Jewish family in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. He was the younger of two sons ...

, a noted composer who came to Australia from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. He is of Jewish ancestry. Dreyfus was educated at

Scotch College, Melbourne (For God, for Country, and for Learning) , established = , type = Independent, day and boarding , gender = Boys , denomination = Presbyterian , slogan = , ...

and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, where he resided at

Ormond College Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents. H ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

Legal career

Before entering parliament, Dreyfus worked as a

for twenty years, with an extensive practice in commercial, defamation, constitutional and environmental law. He appeared before the High Court in the leading

implied freedom of political communication Australian constitutional law is the area of the law of Australia relating to the interpretation and application of the Constitution of Australia. Several major doctrines of Australian constitutional law have developed. Background Constitution ...

cases of ''

Theophanous v Herald & Weekly Times Ltd ''Theophanous v Herald & Weekly Times Ltd''. is a landmark Australian judgment of the High Court. The matter related to implied freedom of political communication that the High Court has inferred, rests in the Australian constitution. Backg ...

'' (1994) and ''

Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation ''Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation''. is a High Court of Australia case that upheld the existence of an implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution, but found that it did not necessarily provide a defen ...

'' (1997). He also represented

Michael Danby Michael David Danby (born 16 February 1955) is an Australian politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1998 until 2019, representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria. Danby was b ...

in a defamation suit against the

LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...

. In 1999 he was appointed Queen's Counsel. Dreyfus also served as a director of the

Law Council of Australia The Law Council of Australia, founded in 1933, is an association of law societies and bar associations from the states and territories of Australia, and the peak body representing the legal profession in Australia. The Law Council represents mo ...

and on the

Victorian Bar Council The Victorian Bar is the bar association of the Australia, Australian States and territories of Australia, State of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The current President of the Bar is Roisin Annesley King's Counsel, KC. Its members are Barrist ...

and Victorian Bar Ethics Committee. Since his first professional role as a Field Officer for the

Northern Land Council The Northern Land Council (NLC) is a land council representing the Aboriginal peoples of the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia, with its head office in Darwin. While the NLC was established in 1974, its origins began in the strugg ...

, Dreyfus has worked closely with

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

communities in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, including representing a number of the claimants in the landmark

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

litigation.

Parliamentary career

In March 2006, Dreyfus successfully challenged the sitting Labor member for the

Division of Isaacs The Division of Isaacs is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, on the eastern shores of Port Phillip Bay. It covers the suburbs of Mordialloc, Keysborough (part), ...

Ann Corcoran Ann Kathleen Corcoran (born 21 September 1951) is a former Australian politician. She was a member of the House of Representatives from 2000 to 2007, representing the Victorian seat of Isaacs for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She was an acco ...

, for the right to contest the 2007 election. At the 2007 election, he defeated the Liberal candidate, Ross Fox, gaining a 5.9-point swing to Labor. Following Labor's victory at the

2007 Australian federal election The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The election featured a 39-day campaign, with 13.6& ...

, Dreyfus was appointed the Chair of the House of Representatives Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. At the

2010 Australian federal election The 2010 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the op ...

, Dreyfus was re-elected, gaining a further 3.33-point swing to Labor. In September 2010, Dreyfus was appointed as Cabinet Secretary as well as Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in the Second Gillard Ministry. Dreyfus took on additional responsibilities in December 2011 when he was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Innovation. At the

2013 Australian federal election The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party of Aus ...

, Dreyfus was re-elected with a reduced margin of 3.9%, which was extended to 5.9% at the

2016 Australian federal election The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday 2 July to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign period. It ...

. Dreyfus had an easier run at the

2019 Australian federal election The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 18 May 2019 to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissolut ...

after his

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...

opponent was disendorsed for an earlier 'anti-Muslim rant', Dreyfus was re-elected with a 3.45 percent swing in his favour. Dreyfus was again comfortably re-elected in the

2022 Australian federal election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...

, though his campaign was assisted when his Liberal Party opponent was referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation after admitting that, though he was enrolled to vote at a pub in the Isaacs electorate, he actually lived in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell, some 20 km away. Dreyfus is a member of Labor's right faction. He is a strong advocate for action on climate change and for the establishment a federal anti-corruption agency. Dreyfus was a vocal supporter of the ‘yes’ campaign during the

Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in ...

and a vocal opponent against funding reductions to climate science research at the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

Attorney-General in Rudd–Gillard government

On 2 February 2013, Dreyfus was promoted to Attorney-General and as Minister for Emergency Management after the resignation of

. Dreyfus was given additional responsibilities on 1 July 2013 as Special Minister of State and Minister for the Public Service and Integrity following the decision by Gary Gray to resign from the ministry following the June 2013 Labor leadership spill. As Attorney-General, Dreyfus appeared before the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

as Counsel and Advocate for Australia in the case of ''Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v Japan; New Zealand intervening)'' in June and July 2013. On 1 April 2014, the ICJ handed down its decision in favour of Australia that Japan cease whaling in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

Shadow Attorney-General

Dreyfus served as Labor's Shadow Attorney-General from

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, where he championed the establishment of a Federal Integrity Commission and greater funding for community legal centres.

Attorney-General in Albanese government

Following Labor's victory in the

, Dreyfus was appointed as Attorney-General in the Albanese government on 31 May 2022. In his first interview as Attorney-General he said legislating Labor's promised

by the end of 2022 was his "paramount priority", calling it a "nation-building" reform. In September 2022, Dreyfus presented the legislation to create a national anti-corruption commission to Parliament, and the bill was passed on 30 November. On 7 July 2022 Dreyfus used his powers as attorney-general to discontinue the prosecution of lawyer

Bernard Collaery Bernard Joseph Edward Collaery (born 12 October 1944) is an Australian barrister, lawyer and former politician. Collaery was a member of the Australian Capital Territory's first Legislative Assembly for the Residents Rally party, from 1989 t ...

, which had been initiated by his predecessor

Christian Porter Charles Christian Porter (born 11 July 1970) is an Australian former politician and lawyer who served as the 37th Attorney-General of Australia from 2017 to 2021 in the Turnbull government and the subsequent Morrison government. He was a Me ...

. Collarey had been charged with disclosing confidential intelligence information about the Australia–East Timor spying scandal, with many criticising his prosecution as unjust and unfair. Dreyfus led the establishment of the

Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme is a royal commission established on 18 August 2022 by the Australian Government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902. The Royal Commissioner, Catherine Holmes, released her report on 7 July ...

, announcing the Letters Patent on 25 August 2022 alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Personal life

Dreyfus lives in

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

with his Chilean-born wife Deborah (née Chemke). The couple have three children, Joe, Tom and Laura. Dreyfus is a keen swimmer, cyclist and runner and is a frequent participant in open water swims and fun runs within his electorate. Dreyfus speaks fluent Spanish and has stated that, had he not become a lawyer, he would have liked to become a park ranger in the

Alpine National Park The Alpine National Park is a national park located in the Central Highlands and Alpine regions of Victoria, Australia. The national park is located northeast of Melbourne. It is the largest National Park in Victoria, and covers much of the hig ...

. He is a supporter of the

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club ...

.https://www.alp.org.au/our-people/our-people/mark-dreyfus/

References

External links

*
Mark Dreyfus website

The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC, MP
at the

Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...

website , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Dreyfus, Mark 1956 births Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Australian people of German-Jewish descent Australian King's Counsel Attorneys-General of Australia Jewish Australian politicians Living people Melbourne Law School alumni Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Isaacs Members of the Cabinet of Australia People educated at Melbourne High School 21st-century King's Counsel 21st-century Australian politicians Government ministers of Australia Albanese Government Politicians from Perth, Western Australia