ACU Chancellor, Justice Martin Daubney (past student of Downlands College)

After leaving Downlands, Martin Daubney studied for two years in the MSC Pre-novitiate program at Croydon, then pursued legal studies and…  His appointment was announced by Archbishop Mark Coleridge, President of the Australian Bishops Conference.

Justice Daubney is well known in the Australian legal community. Following a career as a leading barrister, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2007, and as president of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2017. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he had served for many years on the Council of the Bar Association of Queensland, including as vice-president in 2005 and president in 2006. Since his appointment as a judge, he has continued his wider service to the legal profession, both nationally and internationally.

He has also occupied leadership positions in numerous Church, community and cultural organisations. Justice Daubney served on the Senate of the University of Queensland from 2010 to 2017, and as president of King’s College Council since 2009. In 2018 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the law, and to the judiciary, to education, and to the community. He is also an Honorary Fellow of ACU. He will serve a term of five years starting 1 January 2022.

“This appointment is a great honour.  I thank the Corporation for entrusting me with the responsibility to serve as Chancellor of this unique national institution, which is firmly grounded in 2000 years of Catholic intellectual tradition and the Church’s engagement in university education for a millennium,” said Justice Daubney. “ACU’s core commitments to the pursuit of knowledge, the dignity of the human person and the common good resonate for all Australians. I look forward to working with the Pro-Chancellor, the Senate, the Vice-Chancellor, and all of the ACU community to advance this mission in a charism of service inspired by ACU’s patron saint, St Mary of the Cross.”

Named as Vice-Chancellor, Virginia Bourke, an active figure in the health and legal community in Melbourne. She is currently chair of Mercy Health and of St John Ambulance Victoria, and is a director of St John Ambulance Australia, Catholic Health Australia and Caritas Australia.

[A Chevalier College postscript, former NSW Premier and Coalition Parliamentary member and minister, John Fahey, a student of Chevalier in the 1960s, was ACU Chancellor, 2014-2019, renewed in 2019. He died in 2020.]