Committee Members
LIA Review Committee - Biographies
Mr Anthony Blunn AO
Mr Anthony Blunn has had a long and distinguished career with the Commonwealth public service. He is a former Secretary to a number of Departments including the Attorney‑General’s Department and is a former member of the Administrative Review Council. Mr Blunn was also a board member of the Commonwealth Management Advisory Board and the Board of Commonwealth Services Delivery Agency.
Since leaving full-time Commonwealth employment in 2000, he has undertaken consultancy work and conducted reviews for the Department of Defence, the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Treasury, the Health Insurance Commission, the Australian National Audit Office and the National Capital Authority. He has also undertaken consultancy work for the Department, including the 2005 Report on Review of Regulation of Access to Communications.
Mr Ian Govey
Mr Ian Govey is Deputy Secretary, Civil Justice and Legal Services, in the Australian Attorney-General’s Department.
Mr Govey’s position involves responsibility for a diverse range of legal matters within the Department, including administrative law and legislative drafting. He has held a variety of senior positions in the Department, including positions responsible for law reform in corporate, copyright, trade and other areas of commercial law. He has also worked at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC and in the Treasury.
Mr Govey represents the Department on the International Legal Services Advisory Council, on the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council, as a Director of the Australian Centre of International Commercial Arbitration and as a member of the Council of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration. He is also an elected member of the Governing Council of UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law).
Professor John McMillan
Professor John McMillan was appointed Commonwealth Ombudsman in 2003, and reappointed in 2008 for a further five year term.
The Ombudsman is an ex officio member of the Administrative Review Council, which advises the Government on administrative law reform. Professor McMillan was a member of the Security Legislation Review Committee (2005-06), which reviewed Australian counter-terrorism laws. In 2007 he was appointed on an acting basis for six months to be the first Integrity Commissioner, to head the new Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.
Professor McMillan is on leave from the Australian National University, where he was a Professor of Law, holding the Alumni Chair in Administrative Law. He has formerly been an Associate to a High Court Justice, solicitor, public interest advocate, and legal consultant to a national law firm and to parliamentary and governmental inquiries.
Professor McMillan is a co-author of Control of Government Action: Text, Cases & Commentary (2005, LexisNexis). He has been an active member of many non-government organisations, in areas such as administrative law, public administration, consumer advocacy and resident action. He was a founding member and later President of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law. He is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.