Michael Kirby on Law, Love and Life

Overview

He has been called "the great dissenter" by some, a "judicial activist" by others. But perhaps the most accurate description of Michael Kirby is his official moniker: "the Honourable". Since his retirement from the High Court of Australia, Kirby has been bold enough to speak out on the big issues that confront us: sexual equality, same-sex marriage, religious conflict, and international human rights. His legal career has turned on the idea that justice and judging is not a cold, mechanical affair but a matter of the heart and the mind, and that progress belongs to the bold.

Kirby will be speaking about all these big ideas, "On Law, Love and Life", this month at the Opera House with his biographer, filmmaker Daryl Dellora. It's a unique chance to overhear a conversation with one of Australia's most respected and outspoken thinkers, a public figure who speaks sanely and cuts through the PR 'blah blah blah' factor that dominates most of this country's national conversation. It's also the release of his authorised biography.