Thursday, 26 March 2026
Government House
Her Excellency the HOnourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari Gamarruwa

Diyn Babana, Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging, as well as the Elders of all parts of our country from which you travel.

I also pay tribute to the millennia of cross-continent connection, belonging, and knowledge that First Nations peoples’ culture represents.

Usually, at receptions at Government House I set out to provide the organisation concerned with some insights into its history, having learned that few people in the room know the history or at least not much of it. And with a lawyer’s savvy (I boast!) of making just about any argument work, I can usually make it interesting…. At least that’s what I’m told.

You will be relieved to know, however… not tonight. As any good cross examiner knows, you never try to better the expert with knowledge of your own… and I am standing here in a room full of experts.

However, it is the occasion to extend congratulations—and thanks—to the ADC, to those who pioneered it, and to those who have ensured, and continue to ensure, its success. 

First… congratulations on your 40th anniversary, an important milestone in the history of any organisation, but certainly so for one whose raison d’être ran counterintuitive to the mainstream practice of law at the time of your inception. 

Secondly… thank you to the vision and commitment of former Attorney-General, Terry Sheahan, and the late Sir Laurence Street for their part in establishing the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre, as the ADC was initially called.

Thirdly… as we all know only too well, the strength of an institution is dependent on its governance. As such, I particularly acknowledge your Patron, the Honourable Robert French; your Board members over the last 40 years, including those with us tonight—Chairman John Wakefield, and Directors Michael Talbot, Professor Doug Jones, Bronwyn Lincoln, and Mulavana Lakshmy—and your CEOs, including Deborah Lockhart, who has helmed the Centre since 2013. Together, you have taken what was initially a locally focussed organisation to one with an international remit and reputation.

Finally, it is appropriate to mention your ADR Conference tomorrow and its theme Reaching for the Stars: Exploring the Frontiers of Dispute Resolution, and in particular, those parts of the program that directly raise ‘space issues’.  

In 2021, I was invited to deliver the Mahla Pearlman Oration. In searching for a topic related to law and the environment, I put aside climate change—everyone has a view on it, there is significant science underpinning it, and there was a small handful of cases around the world, which most of the audience would have known.  

I considered plastics… but a lecture full of chemical formulas seemed somewhat abstruse. Then I came across an article on space—about which I knew little beyond the sun, the moon, the planets, and ‘things’ called ‘blackholes’. I assumed the same lack of knowledge in the audience, which turned out to be correct… mostly.

The challenges that space present—technically, geopolitically, medically, legally—are seemingly as infinite as space itself.

From the concept of a ‘global commons’ derived from the Outer Space Treaty’s underlying principle that space is ‘the province of all mankind’, to attempts by a Californian used car salesman, Dennis Hope, to claim ownership and sell plots of the moon for some 30 years by relying on the Treaty’s wording that provided that no country owned the moon… but said nothing about individuals.^[1] 

Or… the three Yemeni citizens who claimed they inherited Mars from their ancestors some 3,000 years ago and made a claim against NASA for invading their territory.^[2] 

Unlike UNCLOS, I learned space treaties have no enforcement mechanisms. 

I also learned space above earth has three orbits. Lower Earth Orbit is the location of the International Space Station. It and the Medium Space Orbit, are home to vast quantities of space junk—some of which has fallen to earth—as well as 10,000 plus operational satellites that maintain the world’s communication systems.^[3] 

Australia has its own Space Agency and regulatory regime, the Space (Launches and Returns) Act 2018, which requires licences, permits and authorisations, and insurance for space-related activities. As with any industry, contracts are made and financing entered into. Undoubtedly, occupational, health and safety issues will also arise.

Last year, the International Astronautical Congress was held in Sydney, with 7,500 attendees.^[4] Conferences by their nature involve contracts and contracts by their nature can give rise to disputes.

Whether or not ADR is the most appropriate dispute resolution mechanism for these issues is not a question that needs to be answered. Indeed, it is probably not the right question to ask. Whether ADR is an appropriate mechanism is, I would suggest, a rhetorical question.

What can be said is that ‘Space’ is a place brimming with activity which will call for the services of mediators and arbitrators. 

In conclusion, the ADC is to be congratulated for this conference and its conference theme, ensuring that you the practitioners are exposed to the horizons of ADR whilst remaining faithful to its essentials.