John Reeves

Legal career and the Reeves Report

Reeves developed a significant legal practice as a barrister in Darwin in the 1990s, and became increasingly distant from the Labor Party. In 1996, after his former rival Nick Dondas defeated Snowdon for the Northern Territory seat, he represented Dondas against a Court of Disputed Returns challenge by Snowdon. He was a close friend of Shane Stone, the CLP Chief Minister from 1995, and was appointed as a Queens Counsel by Stone in 1997.

In 1997, Liberal Prime Minister John Howard announced an inquiry into the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976. Reeves, known to be the CLP's preferred appointee, was tipped the head the inquiry, and was duly appointed in October 1997. The appointment was criticised by Aboriginal groups both for his lack of judicial experience and his history of defending developers accused of desecrating Aboriginal sacred sites. The Reeves Report (full title The Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) 1976, Building on Land Rights for the Next Generation ), was released in August 1998, and advocated sweeping changes to land rights legislation, including the scrapping of permits for access to Aboriginal land, granting the Northern Territory Government compulsory acquisition powers over Aboriginal land, and scrapping the Aboriginal land councils in favour of a new body. It notably did not, however, recommend the abolition of the right for Aboriginal communities to veto proposed mining projects on their land, a change that the mining industry had been heavily lobbying for.

The report was strongly opposed in Aboriginal communities across the territory at public hearings, with a copy of the report being publicly burned at Yuendumu and prominent Aboriginal leaders, including Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Alison Anderson, attacking the report in the media. It also received a lukewarm response in federal parliament, despite strong support from the Stone territory government; it was vigorously opposed by a number of prominent former Liberal politicians, including Malcolm Fraser, Ian Viner, Ian Wilson, Peter Baume, and Fred Chaney. A cross-party parliamentary committee in the House of Representatives unanimously declined to adopt the report's recommendations; it was also rejected by the corresponding committee in the Senate. None of its recommendations were enacted into law in the aftermath, but some were revived a decade later by the Howard government as part of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response.

Appointment as a Judge of the Federal Court

Reeves remained a prominent figure in the Northern Territory legal community, serving as President of the Northern Territory Bar Association from 2000 to 2005 and vice-president of the Australian Bar Association from 2003 to 2004. He also served as Deputy Chair of the Legal Practitioner's Complaints Committee, and as Chairman of the Northern Territory division of the Australian Red Cross. He was also appointed to the taskforce of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response in 2007.

Reeves was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia in November 2007, as one of the last judicial appointments of the Howard government. He was the first judge to be specifically based in Darwin, which had previously been served by interstate judges in an acting capacity. In March 2009, however, he was transferred to Brisbane, following concerns that the judicial workload in Darwin was not sufficient to warrant a resident judge, and a number of cases from which he had to withdraw due to potential conflicts of interest with his past legal work as a barrister.

Reeves is one of only six politicians to have served in both the Parliament of Australia and the Federal Court of Australia, alongside Nigel Bowen, Robert Ellicott, Merv Everett, Tony Whitlam and Duncan Kerr.

His notable decisions include (in no particular order); Stoddart v Boulton FCA 1108 regarding spousal privilege at common law in Australia and QGC Pty Limited v Bygrave FCA 1457 dealing with the role and registration of Indigenous Land Use Agreements. Reeves was also the docket Judge for the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's litigation in 2011–12 against the collapsed Storm Financial Ltd. The litigation also involved the Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie Bank and the Bank of Queensland.

On 1 May 2009 Justice Reeves was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. Justice Reeves travelled to both Darwin and Alice Springs in this capacity.

Reeves retired from the Federal Court on 1 January 2022.