Who Is Virginia Bell, The Openly Gay Judge Heading Up The Bondi Attack Royal Commission?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced Former High Court justice Virginia Bell to lead the federal Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack.

Beginning her legal career as a volunteer and solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre in the 1970s, Bell marched in the first Mardi Gras in 1978, after which she and John Terry provided legal defence to the 53 people arrested, going on to create resources for the next march advising protesters on ways to avoid arrest.

Bell was admitted to the NSW Bar in 1984 and served as a public defender from 1986 to 1989. In 1995, she became counsel assisting the Wood Royal Commission into corruption in the New South Wales Police, and was appointed Senior Counsel in 1997.

She served on the NSW Supreme Court from 1999 and on the Court of Appeal from 2008, before being nominated by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as the fourth woman to serve on the High Court in 2009, replacing Justice Michael Kirby, a position she held until her retirement in 2021.

An openly gay woman, Bell lives with her partner, a barrister, in inner city Sydney.

Albanese says Bell has the “deep experience and expertise” required to lead commission

In 2012, Bell was made a Companion of the Order of Australia for “eminent service to the judiciary and to the law through leadership in criminal law reform and public policy development, to judicial administration, and as an advocate for the economically and socially disadvantaged”.

Journalist and author David Marr has said the former judge has a “ferocious sense of humour”, a trait Bell has put to use in her work as a guest on the ’80s nostalgia program, The Golden Years of Television, where she appeared as her alter-ego Ginger de Winter, president of the New South Wales Barrel Girls Association.

In 2022, Albanese appointed her to lead the inquiry into former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s self-appointment to the health, finance, treasury, home affairs and industry, science, energy and resources ministries.

“If you look at what is required by this Royal Commission, there is no one of the stature of Virginia Bell, a former High Court judge, a former head or senior person in the New South Wales Supreme Court, someone with a background in the criminal law, someone who is widely respected right across the board,” Albanese said of her appointment on Thursday.

“We’re confident that Commissioner Bell has the deep experience and expertise to conduct her inquiry in such a way that meaningfully examines the impact of antisemitism on the daily life of Jewish Australians.”