Sandy Street

Commander Alexander Whistler Street, SC, known as "Sandy", is an Australian federal judge and naval officer.

The Honourable Commander

Alexander Whistler Street

SC
Judge of the Federal Circuit Court
Assumed office
1 January 2015
Personal details
BornSydney, New South Wales
Nationality Australia
MotherSusan (née Watt)
FatherLaurence Street
RelativesStreet family
Military service
AllegianceCommonwealth of Australia
Branch/serviceRoyal Australian Navy
RankCommander

Family

A scion of the Street family, he is the son of Colonel Sir Laurence Whistler Street, 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and Susan Gai, Lady Street. Among his recent ancestors are Australian politicians John Rendell Street, John Brown Watt, George Kenyon Holden and Edward David Stuart Ogilvie. His sister, Lieutenant-Commander Sylvia Emmett (née Street), is a fellow federal judge and naval officer. His brother-in-law, Arthur Emmett, is a former federal judge and Challis Lecturer in Roman Law at Sydney Law School. His other siblings by Sir Laurence's first marriage are Kenneth Street, a businessman, and Sarah Farley (née Street), a businesswoman. His half-sister by Sir Laurence's second marriage to Lady (Penelope; née Ferguson) Street is Jessie Street, a lawyer. He has four children: Charles Street, a barrister; Jack Street, a lawyer; Lucy Street and Heidi Street.[1]

Career

Street was appointed to the Federal Circuit Court in January 2015 by Attorney-General George Brandis.[2] He came under scrutiny by the Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia over a case in which he dismissed a cerebral palsy sufferer's claim of discrimination after an airline refused to allow his guide dog on the flight.[2] He has also received criticism from the Full Bench in two successful appeals of his decisions in which he was found to have denied litigants procedural fairness.[3] Statistics were filed in court which revealed Judge Street had heard 256 migration matters between January and June 2017, and had found in favour of the immigration minister in 254 cases.[4] Over 70 judgements were overturned in less than five years.[5] A report from September 2018 stated that Sandy Street was found by the full Federal Court to have dismissed an asylum seeker's case without properly engaging with his arguments and to have denied the man procedural fairness. Two weeks later, the full Federal Court found he failed to give proper reasons in a case involving an Afghan asylum seeker, effectively forcing a rehearing.[6] In March 2019, the Federal Court criticised Street for taking 75 days to provide written reasons in this case where the asylum seeker had 21 days to appeal, stating that he had behaved with "a disheartening degree of professional discourtesy".[7]

References
  1. "The Honourable Sir Laurence Whistler Street". www.supremecourt.justice.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  2. "Judge accused of bias now has airline guide dog ruling overturned". ABC News. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  3. "Federal Circuit Court judge accused of bias after rejecting hundreds of migration cases". ABC News. 10 September 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  4. "Judge Street refuses to step aside from migration hearing". ABC News. 22 September 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  5. Berkovic, Nicola (17 July 2019). "Judge Sandy Street's three rulings axed in three days". The Australian. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  6. Berkovic, Nicola (27 September 2018). "Judge Street under fire – again – as full court attacks rulings". The Australian. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  7. "Judge Sandy Street criticised for 'professional discourtesy' in asylum seeker case". The Guardian. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.