Robin Creyke AO
Appointed 2015
Law and public administration has been a focus of Emeritus Professor Robin Creyke’s practice, research and teaching. She is an emeritus professor at the Australian National University and a senior (sessional) member of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Until recently, Professor Creyke was a senior (executive) member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, as well as spending 11 years as a member of the Administrative Review Council (1999-2010) and five years as Commissioner of the ACT Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC 2001-2006). Her work as an Integrity Adviser with the Australian Tax Office (2006-2009) was instrumental in increasing the robustness of the agency’s integrity framework.
Since 2012, Professor Creyke has been a member of the Federal Litigation Committee of the Law Council of Australia, which keeps her informed of relevant and current activities in administrative law. While at the ICRC her work involved development of consumer codes as well as development of a framework for the ICRC’s complaints mechanism.
Professor Creyke has developed a specialty interest in tribunals and government and is recognised as a national and international expert in this area. This expertise is reflected in the long list of publications credited to her. In the area of administrative law alone she has written or edited 10 books, two monographs and over 50 chapters and articles, more than 40 of which were in referred journals or invited publications.
In the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Professor Creyke was awarded an Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to administrative law, and to education, as an academic and author, to public administration and tribunal practice, and to professional bodies.
Professor Creyke lives in Canberra and in her spare time enjoys cooking, gardening, bushwalking and relaxing with friends.
John McMillan AO
Appointed 2020
John has held the statutory positions of Commonwealth Ombudsman (2003-10), Integrity Commissioner (Acting) for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (2017), Australian Information Commissioner (2010-15), NSW Ombudsman (Acting) (2015-17), and member of the Australian Copyright Tribunal (2015-18).
John is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University, where he taught administrative and constitutional law from 1983-2003. He is a co-author of Control of Government Action: Text, Cases and Commentary (2019, 5th ed).
As Ombudsman and Information Commissioner John published over 70 investigation reports, including the six volume NSW ‘Operation Prospect’ report on police corruption investigations to culminate the largest single Ombudsman investigation in Australia. In 2019-20 he conducted independent reviews of the Commonwealth medicinal cannabis scheme, complaint handling by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, the New Zealand Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme, and the My Health Records Act 2012.
John is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, an honorary life member of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law, and a recipient of a Lifetime Achievers Award from the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day Honours List 2010 for his work as Ombudsman, academic and in professional societies.
John was active in public interest law in the earlier phase of his career.
He was a joint founding member of the Freedom of Information Campaign Committee in the 1970s, which spearheaded the public campaign for FOI legislation in Australia.
Former Independent Reviewers
The Hon Deirdre O’Connor was appointed as the first Independent Reviewer in April 2008. Ad Standards appointed Mr Mick Palmer, AO APM, as an alternate Independent Reviewer in September 2009, to ensure the operation of the review system in the event of Ms O’Connor’s absence.
Ms O’Connor and Mr Palmer retired from their positions as Independent Reviewers in 2011. Their positions were taken up by the Emeritus Professor Dennis Pearce AO and Ms Victoria Rubensohn AM. Professor Pearce retired from the position in 2015 and his position was taken up by Robin Creyke. Ms Rubensohn retired from her appointment in 2020 and was replaced by Mr John McMillan AO in November 2020.