Mordecai "Mordy" Bromberg SC (born 1959) is an Australian judge who was appointed to the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indictable (mo ...

in 2009 and as President of the

Australian Law Reform Commission The Australian Law Reform Commission (often abbreviated to ALRC) is an Australian independent statutory body established to conduct reviews into the law of Australia. The reviews, also called inquiries or references, are referred to the ALRC by ...

in 2023. He was previously a senior

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

, and in his youth also played four seasons of

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

for the

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...

Early life and education

Bromberg was born in Israel in 1959 and arrived in Australia with his family in 1967, shortly before the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

. His father became a supermarket proprietor in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Bromberg was educated at Brighton Road State School,

Elsternwick Elsternwick is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 9 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government areas of Victoria ...

State School, Elwood College, and

Brighton Grammar School Brighton Grammar School is a private school, private Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican day school for boys, located in Brighton, Victoria, Brighton, a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Founded in ...

. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Economics A Bachelor of Economics (BEc or BEcon)Bureau of Labor StatisticsHow to Become an Economist/ref> is an academic degree, awarded to students who have completed specialised undergraduate studies in economics. Variants include the "Bachelor of Econo ...

and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

around 1984.

Football

After playing junior Australian rules football at

Brighton East Brighton East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Bayside and Glen Eira local government areas. Brighton East recorded a population of 16,75 ...

, Bromberg began playing for

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) under-19 competition. Combining his law studies at Monash, he made his senior debut in the first round of the

1978 VFL season The 1978 VFL season was the 82nd season of the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 1 Ap ...

, against Fitzroy. He played 12 games in his first year, but lost his spot in the team in 1979 and fell out with coach Mike Patterson. Bromberg played the rest of the season with the all-Jewish

AJAX Football Club The AJAX Football Club (Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs), nicknamed the Jackas, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda. AJAX was formed by the local local Jewish community in 1957, becoming Australia' ...

in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded in 1892, it consists of six senior divisions, ranging from Premier to Division 3 i ...

(VAFA). He requested a clearance to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

at the end of 1979 but it was refused. Returning to St Kilda, he played 16 games in 1980 and four in 1981. He was released by the club at the end of the season after a career total of 34 VFL games. In 1982, he played one final season of football for

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

in the VFA.

Politics

Prior to the

2001 federal election The 2001 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 10 November 2001. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minis ...

, he unsuccessfully contested

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP)

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

for the Division of Burke, against Brendan O'Connor, who went on to win the seat.

Legal career

Bromberg was admitted as a solicitor of the

Supreme Court of Victoria The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state. The Supreme Court compri ...

and the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian States and territories of Australia, State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil law (common law), civil matters, and hears ...

in 1984. He was admitted to the

Victorian Bar The Victorian Bar is the bar association of the Australian State of Victoria. The 2024-2025 President of the Bar is Justin Hannebery KC. Its members are barristers registered to practice in Victoria. Those who have been admitted to practice ...

in 1988. Bromberg was appointed Senior Counsel (SC) in 2003 and was president of the Australian Institute of Employment Rights from 2005. He had extensive practice in industrial and

employment law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...

, as well as some

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, trade practices,

administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...

and

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

cases. His appointment to the

commenced on 7 December 2009. He was appointed as President of the

, commencing on 10 July 2023.

Cases

He presided in ''

Eatock v Bolt ''Eatock v Bolt'' was a 2011 decision of the Federal Court of Australia which held that two articles written by columnist and commentator Andrew Bolt and published in ''The Herald Sun'' newspaper had contravened section 18C, of the ''Racial Di ...

'' in the Federal Court, in which columnist

Andrew Bolt Andrew Bolt (born 26 September 1959) is an Australian conservative social and political commentator. He has worked at the News Corp-owned newspaper company The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) for many years, for both '' The Herald'' and its succ ...

was found to be in breach of Section 18C of the ''Racial Discrimination Act 1975''. In a 2021 case, ''Sharma v Minister for the Environment'', Bromberg ruled that the federal Minister for the Environment had a

duty of care In Tort, tort law, a duty of care is a legal Law of obligations, obligation that is imposed on an individual, requiring adherence to a standard of care, standard of Reasonable person, reasonable care to avoid careless acts that could foreseeab ...

, arising from the law of

negligence Negligence ( Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate care expected to be exercised in similar circumstances. Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a neg ...

, to protect children from

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

when considering whether to approve projects under the ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...

''. Bromberg did not grant the

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

sought by the plaintiffs, a group of teenagers, who sought to bar the minister from approving an extension to the Vickery coal mine owned by

Whitehaven Coal Whitehaven Coal is an Australian coal mining company. History Whitehaven Coal was established in February 1999. In September 2000, mining operations commenced at the Canyon open cut mine near Gunnedah. Further mines were established at Werris Cr ...

. Bromberg's ruling was unanimously overturned on appeal to the full bench of the

in 2022, with Chief Justice

James Allsop James Leslie Bain Allsop (born 7 April 1953) is an Australian judge, currently serving as a foreign Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. He was the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, in office from 1 Marc ...

stating government policy should be determined by the government and not by the courts. In April 2023, a Federal Court ruling determined in favour of the native title application lodged by Anangu seven years earlier for around of pastoral lease land in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, that includes

Erldunda Erldunda is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. History The property was established in the 1870s by Richard Warburton who stocked it in 1884, and the property re ...

Lyndavale Lyndavale Station is a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Lyndavale covers around , and is located approximately south west of Alice Springs via the Stuart Highway. Background Lyndavale was created from a subdivision of ...

, and

Curtin Springs Curtin Springs, formerly Mount Conner Station, is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in the Central Australia, Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Geography Occupying an area of , the working cattle statio ...

cattle stations. This was the first recognition of commercial rights in

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

, and was handed down by Bromberg at a gathering in the remote community of

Imanpa Imanpa, formerly the Mount Ebenezer homestead, is a remote community in the Northern Territory of Australia, renamed on 4 April 2007 after the eponymous administrative area. Location Imanpa is east of Uluru (Ayers Rock), southwest of Alice S ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bromberg, Mordy 1959 births Living people People educated at Brighton Grammar School Monash Law School alumni Australian Jews VFL/AFL players born outside Australia Australian Senior Counsel Israeli emigrants to Australia Jewish Israeli sportspeople Judges of the Federal Court of Australia Australian rules footballers from Melbourne St Kilda Football Club players Camberwell Football Club players Judges from Melbourne 20th-century Australian sportsmen