At the UTS graduation ceremony of 28 October 2022, Anthony (Tony) McAvoy SC, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws.
Dr McAvoy SC is a Wirdi man from the Central Queensland area around Clermont and is Australia’s first Indigenous Senior Counsel, appointed in 2015. He commenced his legal practice in Queensland, and now practises at the NSW Bar. He graduated from the Queensland Institute of Technology (now Queensland University of Technology) in 1988 with a Bachelor of Laws.
Dr McAvoy's practice has covered a number of fields, focusing on criminal law, administrative law and environmental law. In recent years, he has developed a strong native title practice and has successfully represented the Githabul, Quandamooka, Kalkadoon, Pitta Pitta, Kullilli, Barngarla and Gooreng Gooreng peoples in native title claims in the Federal Court. In 2016 and 2017, Dr McAvoy was co-Senior Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.
Dr McAvoy found university difficult as he felt isolated as an Aboriginal man. He was at risk of failing until he eventually found a support group outside of university. This experience led him to establish the National Indigenous Legal Conference (NILC) in 2006, with his colleague Chris Ronalds SC. They wanted the conference to be a safe space for Indigenous students and others to come together and support one another. Having been established for over a decade, the highly regarded conference attracts more than 100 students, academics and activists each year, offering Indigenous perspectives, voices and leadership.
Dr McAvoy's educational experience is one that resonates with UTS and affirms the university’s commitment to Indigenous education and employment and provides further impetus for projects such as the planned Indigenous Residential College.
Dr McAvoy chairs the New South Wales Bar Association’s First Nations Committee and is trustee of the Indigenous Barristers’ Trust, which provides support for Indigenous law students, graduates and barristers in financial hardship. The committee and the trust work to address the gap in Indigenous young people practising law, especially in New South Sales. He is also co-chair of the Law Council of Australia's Indigenous Legal Issues Committee. As well as these roles, Dr McAvoy is a formal and informal mentor to many young Aboriginal law students and lawyers.
His appointment as Senior Counsel, the highest level of professional recognition for barristers, reflects the contribution Dr McAvoy has made to the law and the profession. In addition to this recognition, Dr McAvoy was awarded the inaugural National Indigenous Law Award’s Legal Professional of the Year in 2010. In 2018, he was named QUT Alumnus of the Year.
Prof Michael McDaniel, Dr Tony McAvoy and Prof Heidi Norman