Hilary Penfold
{{Short description|Australian parliamentary counsel and judge}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=April 2021}}
Hilary Ruth Penfold PSM (born 1953) is an Australian former parliamentary counsel and judge. She was the first woman to be First Parliamentary Counsel and the first woman to be a resident judge in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.
Early life
Penfold was born in 1953 in Dunedin, New Zealand.{{Cite web|url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/lawyers/biogs/AWE5726b.htm|title=Women in Australia: Hilary Penfold|access-date=26 April 2021}} At the age of three, her family moved to Australia. She was educated at Ascham School in Sydney. She studied the combined Arts / Law degrees course at the Australian National University in Canberra. She was a joint winner of the Tillyard Prize in 1976 with the theologian, philosopher and poet Kevin Hart.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131803329 |title=Two share ANU Tillyard Prize |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=51 |issue=14,567 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=27 December 1976 |accessdate=27 April 2021 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Career
Penfold joined the Office of Parliamentary Counsel (Australia) in 1977. In 1993, she became the first woman to be appointed First Parliamentary Counsel.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127238702 |title=Penfold appointment a first |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=67 |issue=21,[?] |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=11 July 1993 |accessdate=27 April 2021 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240734659 |title=COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Parliamentary Counsel Act 1970 Appointment of First Parliamentary Counsel |newspaper=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Special |issue=S211 |date=8 July 1993 |accessdate=27 April 2021 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Her drafting included legislation for the Tampa affair (the Border Protection Bill, rejected by the Senate), workplace relations reforms (the Workplace Relations Act 1996), and the constitutional amendments which would have been required to have created an Australian republic in 1999. She was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2000. In 2001, she was the first woman to be appointed a Commonwealth Queen's Counsel.
In 2004, Penfold became Secretary of the newly created Department of Parliamentary Services.
In 2008, she became the first woman to be a resident judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. Margaret Beazley had been an additional judge from 1994 to 1997, but Penfold was the first woman to be a resident judge. She retired in 2018.
Personal life
References
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{{s-ttl | title=Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory|years=2008–2018 }}
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Category:20th-century Australian women public servants
Category:20th-century Australian public servants
Category:21st-century Australian women public servants
Category:21st-century Australian public servants
Category:Judges of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
Category:First Parliamentary Counsel
Category:Australian National University alumni