Melican, Peter

Peter joined AGS in 2007, was appointed as a Senior Executive Lawyer in 2015, and was promoted to the role of Deputy Chief Counsel in 2025. He is also the Team Leader of AGS’s In-House Counsel team – a dedicated Commonwealth counsel team with deep and broad expertise in core areas of Commonwealth public law who are briefed to appear in courts and tribunals nationally. The team is part of AGS’s Dispute Resolution practice area.

Peter has a broad counsel practice encompassing law enforcement, civil penalties and regulation, administrative law, statutory construction and information protection. He regularly appears unled in the Federal Court and State Supreme Courts. He has significant experience and expertise in advising and representing Commonwealth agencies involved in coronial inquests, commissions of inquiry and Parliamentary inquiries.

In addition to his appearance work, Peter regularly advises on difficult and significant legal issues, often involving complex questions of statutory construction concerning the exercise of coercive powers and the handling, use and disclosure of confidential information. He has presented seminars and training on public interest immunity, parliamentary privilege, legal professional privilege, statutory and equitable obligations of confidence and the Harman obligation. Peter is presently a senior legal advisor to the Office of the Special Investigator, which is tasked with investigating alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Peter takes a practical and hands-on approach to dispute resolution and he works collaboratively with his clients, instructors and other counsel.

Relevant experience

Peter appeared in the following matters:

• Carne v Crime and Corruption Commission (HCA – parliamentary privilege, led)
• viagogo AG v ACCC (FCAFC – civil penalties, led)
• Mensink v Registrar of the Federal Court of Australia (FCAFC – contempt of court, led)
• McCartney v EB; Booth v Namoa; Booth v Biber; Read v Namoa (FCA – control orders, unled)
• DPP (Cth) v Galloway; R v Kinghorn (No 4) (VCA and NSWSC – legal professional privilege and lawfulness of disclosures, led)
• MYVC v Director-General of Security; TNFD v Director-General of Security; VYMF v Director-General of Security (FCA and AAT – review of adverse security assessments, variously led and unled)
• Coronial inquest into deaths of Raghe Abdi, Maurice Antill and Zoe Antill (Qld Coroner’s Court, unled)
• R v Azari; R v Musleh; R v Taleb (No 3); R v WE & HG; R v Alqudsi; R v Cranston & Ors (NSWSC – information protection, unled)
• Boral Resources (VIC) Pty Ltd v CFMEU (VSC – disclosure of compulsorily acquired information, led)
• Commonwealth v King; Commonwealth v Harrison (FCA – civil penalty, unled).

Qualifications

Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Arts, Australian National University, 2008