Rob Hulls

Rob Hulls served one term in Federal Parliament from 1990 to 1993 as the member for Kennedy, Queensland. He succeeded the long-standing National Party member Bob Katter Sr., who had retired from politics (he died just prior to the election).

In 1993, he was defeated by Bob Katter, the former member's son, who had been a minister in the Bjelke-Petersen, Ahern and Cooper ministries at state level in Queensland. The race was very close throughout, and was only decided on the eighth count when a Liberal candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Katter.[8]

Rob Hulls left Queensland soon after the losing his Federal Parliament seat, and in 1994 on returning to Melbourne was appointed Chief of Staff to the Victorian Opposition Leader, Jim Kennan, former attorney-general, who resigned from State Parliament shortly afterwards. Rob Hulls stayed on as Chief of Staff under Kennan's replacement John Brumby, who was Premier from 2007 to 2010. Following his election to the State Parliament, in the lower-house seat of Niddrie, Rob Hulls' replacement as Brumby's Chief of Staff was Julia Gillard, who later in her own career became Australia's first female prime minister (2010–13).

During his time in opposition, Hulls served as Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on Scrutiny of Government (4 April 1996 – 13 January 1997), Shadow Attorney-General (4 April 1996 – 20 October 1999), Shadow Minister for Gaming (4 April 1996 – 1 October 1999), Shadow Minister for Tourism (13 January 1997 – 24 February 1999), Shadow Minister for WorkCover (24 February 1999 – 1 October 1999), Shadow Minister for Manufacturing Industry (1 October 1999 – 20 October 1999) and Shadow Minister for Racing (1 October 1999 – 20 October 1999).[9][10] Throughout his state political career, Hulls held the offices of Attorney-General of Victoria; Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Racing from 1999 to 2002; Minister for WorkCover from 2002 to 2005; Minister for Planning from January 2005 to December 2006; Minister for Racing from December 2006 to November 2010 and Minister for Industrial Relations from December 2002 to November 2010.[11]

As attorney-general, Rob Hulls instigated significant and lasting changes to Victoria's legal system which saw Victoria become a national leader in progressive social justice reform, such as removing barriers to accessing assisted reproductive technology and abolishing laws that discriminated against people in same-sex relationships; many of Hulls' reforms have become an accepted and valued part of the state's mainstream justice and social welfare systems and have influenced other jurisdictions to follow suit.[12] Hulls oversaw the establishment of the state's first Charter of Human Rights and reform to Victoria's Upper House. He established special courts for Victoria's indigenous community, for people with mental health issues (Assessment and Referral Court), for people with drug addiction (Drug Court) and for victims of family violence (Family Violence specialist list), as well as creating Australia's first and only Neighbourhood Justice Centre. Additionally, he introduced an open tender process for applicants to Victoria's judiciary to ensure that more women and people from diverse backgrounds were appointed.[13] He appointed Australia's first female chief justice of any superior court by appointing Marilyn Warren as Chief Justice of Victoria in 2003, as well as appointing a significant number of women to both the Magistrates Court and the County Court.[14]

In May 2008, Hulls sought and obtained the first posthumous pardon in Victoria's legal history and the only instance of a pardon for a judicially executed person in Australia to date, when he sought and obtained a pardon for Colin Campbell Ross, who was found to have been wrongfully executed for the murder of a young girl in 1922.[15][16]

He was unsuccessful in a campaign to defrock the legal profession and ban the wearing of wigs in courts, a move that was actively opposed by the Victorian Bar Association. Rob Hulls was quoted as saying that "members of the legal profession could continue to wear wigs in the privacy of their homes if they so wished but the wearing of wigs by the legal profession in the 21st century was outdated and elitist".

He was appointed as deputy premier to John Brumby on 30 July 2007 after the retirement of John Thwaites, and retained the position as attorney-general until his party's defeat at the election on 27 November 2010. He subsequently served as Deputy Opposition Leader and as Labor's education spokesman.[17]

In 2011, Hulls suffered from the life-threatening condition epiglottitis which caused his airway to block; this led to him being placed in an induced coma for five days.[18] On 27 January 2012, Hulls announced he was resigning from parliament. This triggered a by-election in the seat of Niddrie.[19]