Vale: Deirdre Francis O’Connor (February 1941 – January 2024)

Justice Deirdre O’Connor – the first female appointment to the Federal Court of Australia – died in January this year.

Justice O’Connor was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 1 July 1990. She was the first woman appointed to that Court. 

While serving on the bench, her Honour was also the President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal between 1990 and 1994 and then again in 1999 until her retirement in 2002. She was the President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission between 1994 and 1997.

Her Honour was the first woman to be appointed to both those tribunals.

Her Honour was an arts graduate who worked as a school teacher for almost 10 years before studying law at University of Sydney, graduating in 1974 with first class honours. She was considered by her peers to be “really gifted”; she was already a mother to three children at the time she commenced her legal studies.  Between graduation and commencing at the Bar in 1980, Justice O’Connor became a highly regarded legal academic.  She was appointed Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal in 1986.

During her time as President of the AIRC, the Commission decided, amongst other very significant decisions, the Family Leave test case. That decision gave effect to the International Labour Organisation convention on Workers with Family Responsibilities recommendation which established a right to family leave, including an employee’s right to take personal leave to care of a member of their family.

An article about Justice O’Connor by her law school colleague the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales, can be found here.