Julian Phillips was a senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Melbourne and for a brief period acted as Vice-Chancellor. He was an outspoken advocate for social justice and active in reforming various social issues including industrial law, the status of women, equal opportunity, sentencing, and homosexuality and its decriminalisation.
As a member of the Equal Opportunity Advisory Council, Julian Phillips advised the Victorian Premier on matters of race, age, sexual and gender discrimination.
In an interview with Graham Willett in 2004 he discussed his involvement in homosexual law reform as beginning with his work as a civil liberties lawyer called upon to represent men arrested for homosexual acts.
In 1973 as a member of the federal Committee on Discrimination in Employment he was located in Premier Hamer’s office and assisted by a research assistant went through the Attorney General’s Department files on homosexual offences and arrests. The information obtained from this work was important in persuading even conservatives of the need for law reform.
In 1973, after the federal parliament passed a motion endorsing the principle of decriminalisation, Phillips was one of those involved in discussions with the Attorney General on how to implement such a reform.
In 1974 he was located in Washington DC working for the Australian government on equal opportunity issues. In the course of this work he became aware of state legislation in the US which was organised around an age of consent for sexual matters which worked with a ‘sliding scale’ whereby, rather than an absolute age of consent, individuals were allowed to engage in sexual behaviour with others who were no more than two years older or younger than themselves.
At another point in time he was in Copenhagen and became convinced that pornography served not to exacerbate sex crime but rather to reduce its frequency. He sought and obtained permission to import pornography into Australia for research purposes.
After a highly-publicised round of police entrapment of homosexual men at Black Rock Beach in 1976, the Victorian government turned its attention to the issue of the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between men. Julian Phillips, as a member [chair?] of the Equal Opportunity Advisory Committee, played an important role in this, liaising with gay activists, police, public servants. The legislation that was presented to Parliament in 1980 was strongly influenced by his work.
In 2016-2017, a review of his papers – supported by the Melbourne Engagement Grants Scheme, revealed the extent of his involvement in matters relating to homosexuality and transgender people.
The involvement with transgender issues began with an approach by a group of self-described transsexuals, soon organised into the Victorian Transsexuals Coalition. This is an aspect of Australian trans history that provides an opportunity for future research.
As too does a discussion about the possibility of the expungement of criminal records, something that was applied to homosexual offences in Victoria only in 2015.
Notes on the Julian Phillips collection
For a complete index to the collection, see the online catalogue entry.
Please note that the collection is restricted access: permission must be sought via the University of Melbourne Archives before viewing.
Unit Number | Folder | Notes |
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1 | ‘Indecent Assaults 1975-76’ | Includes:
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‘Research on Sexual Offences’ | Includes reports, mostly from the UK, 1979-1980, on: age of consent; consent and sentencing (including material on the increase in prosecutions after decriminalisation in 1967); reference to a proposal to reduce the age of consent in South Australia. | |
2 | 2.7 ‘Terry Stokes’ | Correspondence with University figures and other papers regarding the Terry Stokes case |
3.1 ‘Research’ | WA Royal Commission on Homosexuality Report; photocopy of unsourced transcript – Appendix A Public Opinion on Gays, Appendix B Australian Anti-Gay Laws, Appendix F Medical Opinion | |
3.2 ‘Publications and Newsletters on Homosexuality | Publications including Man and Society [UK], Christian Society and Homosexuality [Antony Grey], Albany Trust publications; Harry Benjamin Transvestism and Transsexualism in the Male and Female [Journal of Sex Research, May 1967]; Spectrum; GLF; Camp Ink; Summer Offensive; Dr Duncan Revolution Bookshop. | |
3.3 ‘Homosexuality and the Law’ | ||
3.4 ‘Law Reform’ |
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3.5 ‘Law Reform Notes’ | Report of the EOAC on Decriminalisation of Consensual Homosexual Offences [including reference to expungement]; Report to Premier by the EOAC; Crimes (Sexual Offences) Act 1980. | |
3.6 ‘1973 Decriminalisation of Homosexuality’ | Federal Parliament motion of opinion; Attorney General Dept [Cth] on how to implement 1973 vote; CAMP NSW correspondence to AG re implementation [18/10/73]; Phillips corre to Attorney General regarding implementation; RC Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn opposing decriminalisation; typescript of Moss Cass speech. | |
3 | Discrimination | Publications of Race discrimination; Race discrimination (2 cases); Age discrimination in employment; Age discrimination; National Committee for International Women’s Year; press clippings on discrimination; Discrimination and AIDS. |
4 | Equal Opportunity | Equal opportunity reports; equal opportunity articles; equal opportunity cases and guidelines; Equal Opportunity Advisory Council 1984 (including a history of the EOAC). |
5 | Minutes | Papers Relating to Chairmanship of Equal Opportunity Advisory Council |
Folder dated 2/8/77 | Transsexual admitted to Fairlea Prison | |
Folder dated 6/2/79 | Decriminalisation of homosexual offences (press report) | |
Folder dated 12/4/83 | Pamphlet on Equal Opportunity Forum | |
Folder dated 2/2/82 | Transsexual | |
8 | [Folder 1: untitled] |
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[Folder 2: untitled] |
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Loose papers between folders 2 and 3 |
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[Folder 4: untitled] | EOAC Minutes including 13/11/84 sexual preference in Equal Opportunity and Public Service Acts | |
[Folder 6: untitled] | Study tour of US and Canada by Fay Marles {EO Commissioner} | |
Loose Papers between folders 7 and 8 |
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[Folder 8: untitled] |
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Loose papers between folder 9 and 10 |
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[Folder 10: untitled] | Report to EOAC on prostitution 1980 [including homosexuality] | |
Loose papers between folder 10 and 11 | EOAC report on decriminalisation from Committee meeting 11/10/76 | |
[Folder 11: untitled] | Penny Ryan’s resignation as government’s Women’s Advisory Office | |
Loose papers between folders 11 and 12 |
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[Folder 12: untitled] | Nothing relevant | |
Loose papers between folders 12 and 13 |
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[Folder 13: untitled] |
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Loose papers between folders 13 and 14 |
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[Folder 14: untitled] |
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[Folder 15: untitled] | Case of homosexual rape in prison | |
[Folder 16: untitled] |
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[Folder 17: untitled] |
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9 | Loose papers | Agenda 7/7/81 including ‘Transsexualism: Medical and Legal Aspects’ by William AW Walters |
[Folder 1: title Minutes?] | Minutes 7/2/77 Homosexual Law Reform – Premier had authorised a subcommittee to meet with the Police Department and other departments and groups | |
[Folder] |
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Loose papers |
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Loose papers | Minutes 2/12/76: Chair reports on meeting with HLRC | |
[Folder] |
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Loose papers |
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[Folder] | Part of document on inquiry into homosexual offences | |
[Folder] | Minutes 26/4/77 – item 4.6 communication problems re homosexual law reform legislation | |
[Folder] |
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[Folder] |
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10 | Papers relating to JP’s Chairmanship of EOAC and membership of related boards c 197-84 | |
Folder 2 | Decriminalisation of Prostitution | |
Folder 9 |
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Loose papers [between boxes 11 and 12] | News release: Office of the Premier ‘Sexual Law Reform’ 12/10/80 | |
[Folder] | Agenda 7/4/81; Minutes 3/3/81 JP invited by Criminal Law Procedure and Advisory Committee to prepare paper on overseas expungements of criminal records | |
[Folder] | Agenda 6/3/84: Victorian Transsexuals Coalition submission 8/11/83 | |
Loose papers | Agenda 5/2/85 including item ‘Sexual preference in the Equal Opportunity and Public Service Acts. Discussion of a short paper titled ‘The Need for Equal Opportunity for Gays’. | |
[Folder] |
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[Folder] |
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