A selected record of matters carried by FitzGerald and Browne Lawyers since 2001 — constitutional, environmental, anti-discrimination, personal injury, public policy. Most of this work was done at reduced fee or on no-win-no-fee. This list isn't comprehensive; it's the work that publicly matters.
The cases that change how Australia governs itself. Rare for a Hobart firm to instruct in the High Court — rarer still for the judgment to remove a sitting Deputy Prime Minister.
We instructed the barristers (B E Walters QC with E A Bennett and A N P McBeth) representing former Senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam in the High Court of Australia. Judgment handed down 27 October 2017. The case disqualified five sitting parliamentarians on dual-citizenship grounds — including the then Deputy Prime Minister, the Honourable Barnaby Joyce MP — and reset the interpretation of section 44(i) of the Constitution.
Constitutional Law · Section 44(i)A Supreme Court of Tasmania action that forced the release of Right to Information documents the State had refused to disclose, in relation to changes to Tasmanian gun law. The Attorney-General, the Hon. Elise Archer MP, was ordered to pay our costs.
Administrative Review · Right to InformationFor two decades, FitzGerald and Browne has been the firm Tasmanian and national conservation groups have turned to when species, habitat, or precaution are at stake. Most of these cases have been carried at no-win-no-fee.
We commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth Environment Minister and the Chinese state-owned MMG Australia. The Minister had approved tailings-dam drilling in the Tarkine despite the presence of the Tasmanian Masked Owl, a species listed as vulnerable to extinction. In July 2022, Justice Moshinsky set aside the Minister's decision and sent it back to be remade. Hailed by the Bob Brown Foundation as one of the most significant decisions under the EPBC Act since the Act came into force in 1999, and the first Federal Court decision dealing with failure to apply the precautionary principle.
EPBC Act · Precautionary Principle · TarkineA Federal Court action arguing that Tasmania's Regional Forest Agreement was invalid. We obtained an undertaking from Forestry Tasmania that it would not log nineteen identified coupes containing Swift Parrot habitat. The case had national implications for the ten Regional Forest Agreements then in force across New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Regional Forest Agreement · Swift Parrot · ForestryThe first case of its kind in Tasmania and Australia. The Tasmanian Work Health and Safety Regulator had issued a prohibition notice attempting to ban the Bob Brown Foundation from any forest-protest activity. We brought the challenge in the Magistrates Court. The Regulator, represented by the Solicitor-General, ultimately agreed to consent orders setting the notice aside.
Right to Protest · Work Health & SafetyWe acted for Triabunna Investments, Spring Bay Mill, and the Bob Brown Foundation in Federal Court proceedings challenging approval of a salmon farm at Okehampton Bay. The site was important habitat for Southern Right Whales. On appeal, the Full Court of the Federal Court ordered the Minister to reissue the approval notice specifying the precise method of operation — the first time the Full Court had analysed opt-out assessment under the EPBC Act.
Aquaculture · EPBC Act · Southern Right WhaleWe represented Senator Bob Brown in proceedings in the Federal Court alleging breaches of the EPBC Act over logging in the Wielangta State Forest, where Wedge-Tailed Eagle, Wielangta Stag Beetle and Swift Parrot habitat was at stake. Senator Brown won at first instance and obtained injunctions preventing further logging. Immediately after the judgment, the Commonwealth and Tasmania amended the Regional Forest Agreement. The trial decision brought national community attention to state forest management.
Native Forests · EPBC Act · Wedge-Tailed EagleThe Gunns Limited cases — in which we acted across multiple proceedings — and the long campaign against the proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.
We represented thirteen protesters sued by Gunns Limited for trespass after a January 2009 protest at the Triabunna woodchip mill. We counterclaimed against Gunns for misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to Gunns' public claims about not using old-growth trees in the proposed pulp mill. The proceedings settled out of court. Gunns Limited went into administration in September 2012.
SLAPP defence · Misleading & Deceptive ConductWe launched proceedings in the Supreme Court of Tasmania alleging that Gunns' pulp-mill permit was invalid for lack of substantial commencement. Gunns' security-for-costs application was dismissed in April 2012, and the dismissal upheld on appeal in August 2012. Gunns went into administration the following month.
Planning Law · Substantial CommencementWe acted for the Wilderness Society and Environment Tasmania in proceedings against the then-Commonwealth Environment Minister and Gunns Limited over the proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.
EPBC Act · Pulp MillWe represented Save Ralphs Bay Inc. in the long-running proceedings against Walker Corporation's $250 million proposed canal estate. The Tasmanian Resource Planning and Development Commission ultimately threw out the proposal as “unsustainable”.
Planning Law · Coastal DevelopmentThree records, three Australian firsts. Trauma-informed practice, public-interest pricing.
We acted for Katrina Munting in her compensation claim against her abuser, a Department of Education employee, and the State of Tasmania. The abuse occurred in 1999 and 2000. This was the first case to go to trial against the State of Tasmania following relaxation of time limits to bring historic sexual-abuse claims. $2,100,000 in damages, including $25,000 exemplary damages against Pollard and $15,000 against the State for reckless indifference to Ms. Munting's welfare.
Historic Sexual Abuse · State LiabilityA Federal Court civil judgment of $400,000 against the Commonwealth Department of Defence on behalf of a rape victim subjected to pornographic images, lewd messages and sexual harassment at a navy logistics office in Kenny Street, Cairns, in 2001, in the months leading up to the rape. (Conducted by our senior solicitor Rowan Silva in prior practice in North Queensland.)
Federal Court · Commonwealth · Sexual HarmWe acted for a girl who, while under the guardianship of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was sexually exploited at the age of twelve. A public fund raised over $5,000 to cover legal costs. The proceedings settled in 2017 on terms very satisfactory to the plaintiff.
Child Protection · State GuardianshipFrom record-setting awards under Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act through to the lead petition for Tasmania's own Human Rights Act.
A four-day trial against the Cairns Regional Council on grounds of unlawful discrimination based on political belief or activity. The complaint was upheld and our client awarded $368,000 — a record amount under Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act 1991. (Conducted by senior solicitor Rowan Silva in prior practice.)
Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) · Record awardOur partner Richard Griggs — Tasmanian Director of Civil Liberties Australia and a member of CLA's national Board — is lead petitioner for a Tasmanian Human Rights Act. Twenty community organisations publicly joined the campaign. Three state political parties made 2018 election commitments to pursue the laws. In December 2024 the Member for Nelson tabled a motion calling on the Government to legislate this term, consistent with the twenty-one recommendations of the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute's updated 2024 report.
Law Reform · Civil Liberties AustraliaDiscrimination complaints brought on behalf of two Aboriginal women refused service at a Townsville hotel in 1991, and on behalf of an Indigenous prison officer subjected to discriminatory attitudes at the Townsville Correctional Centre. Numerous matters involving sex discrimination, sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination. The body of work supported Rowan Silva's nomination as a finalist for the Australian Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Law Award.
Anti-Discrimination · First Nations PracticeNot litigation — the public-policy work the firm's lawyers have done as part of their wider professional contribution to Tasmania and Australia.
Roland Browne founded the Tasmanian Coalition for Gun Control in the late 1980s, following the Hoddle Street and Queen Street shootings. He was at home in Hobart on the morning of 28 April 1996 chairing a meeting of the Coalition to prepare for a meeting with the then Tasmanian Police Minister three days later. One month earlier, the Mercury had published his letter warning that Dunblane could be repeated in Tasmania. His advocacy fed into the post-Port Arthur reforms that became a world model. Three decades on, his ongoing work has fed into the 2026 Australia gun buyback program. He is Vice Chair of Gun Control Australia, and was interviewed by NPR and the Washington Post in December 2025.
Public Policy · Gun Control AustraliaRoland Browne is the public spokesperson for Our Place / No New Stadium, alongside the Booker Prize-winning author Richard Flanagan. The campaign opposes the proposed AFL stadium at Macquarie Point and, in April 2023, the group launched an alternative vision — housing for more than two thousand Tasmanians and an Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation Park — opened by former Governor of Tasmania the Hon. Kate Warner. Rallies through 2025 have drawn thousands, including federal members Jacqui Lambie and Andrew Wilkie.
Public Policy · Planning · Public FinanceWe take community matters at reduced fee or no-win-no-fee. We act for individuals, families, small businesses and not-for-profits.