Frank Tenison BrennanSJAO is an Australian Jesuit priest, human rights lawyer and academic. He has a longstanding reputation of advocacy in the areas of law, social justice, refugee protection, reconciliation and human rights activism.
On 10 December 2008 he was appointed chairperson to the Australian Government's National Human Rights Consultation Committee.[2] In 2009 this independent committee consulted with the Australian community about the protection and promotion of human rights. On 30 September 2009, it reported its recommendations to the attorney general, Robert McClelland.[citation needed]
As of 2011[update] Brennan was a professor of law in the Public Policy Institute at the Australian Catholic University,[2] and a visiting professorial fellow at the University of New South Wales. He served as the founding director of the Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre in Sydney from 2001 to 2007.[3][4] In 2005, he returned to Australia from a fellowship at Boston College.[5]
During 2011, Brennan was critical of the refugee policies of the then Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, saying that she had led the Labor Party of Australia into moral decline and that the Malaysia Solution was morally derelict and tantamount to "offshore dumping".[6]
On 15 August 2017, Brennan stated that if the law was changed to require clergy to report child sexual abuse learned of during confession that he would consider breaking it. Brennan told ABC Radio National that "I as a Catholic priest would have to make a decision, whether in conscience, I could apply with such a law." He also said that "I think it would make children more vulnerable and not less".[7]
During the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, Brennan dissented from traditional Catholic teaching, telling the media he would vote in favour. He stated that, while in the context of Catholic marriage he would continue to uphold marriage as being between a man and a woman, he considered the issue of civil marriage to be separate.[8] Following the survey, Brennan was appointed by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to serve on a Philip Ruddock-led review into religious freedoms.[9]
In 2019-20, Brennan was critical of the prosecution of Cardinal George Pell for child abuse. He equated the trial to a left-wing version of the broken criminal justice system in Queensland during the 1970s, saying that even Aboriginal people had not been treated as prejudicially by the worst of 19th-century judges.[11][12]
Honours
In 1995, Brennan was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of service to Aboriginal Australians, particularly as an advocate in the areas of law, social justice and reconciliation.[13]
Brennan, Frank (1983). Too much order with too little law. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
— (1991). Sharing the country. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin.
Brennan, Frank, ed. (1992). Reconciling our differences: a Christian approach to recognising Aboriginal Land Rights. Richmond, Victoria: Aurora Books / David Lovell Publishing. p. 117. ISBN1-86355-030-5.
Land rights Queensland style: the struggle for Aboriginal self-management. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 1992. p. 182. ISBN0-7022-2407-3.
Legislating Liberty: a bill of rights for Australia? A provocative and timely proposal to balance the public good with individual freedom. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 1998. p. 201. ISBN0-7022-3011-1.
Tampering with Asylum: a universal humanitarian problem (paperback). St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 2003. p. 234. ISBN0-7022-3416-8.
— (2007). Acting on conscience : how can we responsibly mix law, religion and politics?. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Winner of the 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Award.
— (2015). Amplifying that still, small voice : a collection of essays. Adelaide: ATF Theology.
No Small Change: The Road to Recognition for Indigenous Australia. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 2015. ISBN9780702253324.
Observations on the Pell Proceedings. Brisbane: Connor Court. 2021. ISBN9781922449535.
Brennan, Frank (2023). An Indigenous voice to parliament : Considering a constitutional bridge. Mulgrave, Victoria: Garratt Publishing. ISBN9781922484659.