Kylie McInnes

Profile

Kylie practises in public and administrative law, common law, regulatory law, quasi-criminal, and criminal law. She acts for government and private clients.

Her public law practice includes advising and acting on behalf of and against State and Commonwealth Government clients. She has particular expertise in judicial review of administrative decisions and actions (primarily migration decisions). Her practice has a strong advocacy focus and she appears regularly in trial and appellate courts and tribunals both led and unled.

Kylie has over 9 years' experience as a solicitor. Before coming to the bar, Kylie was a Senior Lawyer at Australian Government Solicitor in the Administrative Law and Law Enforcement teams. She has appeared as solicitor advocate in a number of proceedings, including at appellate level in the Federal Court.

Kylie is read with Raelene Sharp and her senior mentor is Dan Star QC.

Recent cases include:

Judicial review/administrative law

• LPDT v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2024] HCA 12 - Appeal concerning materiality of errors. Led by Nick Wood SC, for the Appellant.
• Miller v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] HCA 13 - Appeal concerning construction of the AAT Act. Led by Nick Wood SC, for the Respondent.
• Save the Children Australia v Commonwealth [2023] FCA 1343 - habeas corpus. Led by Craig Lenehan SC, with Chris Tran and Melinda Jackson. 
• Okoh v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2023] FCAFC 53 - judicial review. Led by Nick Wood SC, for the Minister. 
• Azimitabar v Commonwealth [2023] FCA 760 – Damages claim for unlawful detention involving statutory construction and constitutional arguments. Led by Graeme Hill SC and Andrew Yuile, for the Commonwealth.
• Zhang v Australian Information Commissioner [2023] FCA 132 - judicial review of Privacy Act decision. Unled, for the Respondent. 
• Miller v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2022] FCAFC 183 – statutory construction of the AAT Act. Led by Nick Wood SC, for the Minister.
• LPDT v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2022] FCA 810 and [2023] FCAFC 64 – judicial review of visa cancellation concerning misconstruction of applicable law and appeal. Led by Nick Wood SC, for the Applicant/Appellant.
• CTW23 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2023] FCA 4 - judicial review of visa cancellation. Unled, for the Minister.
• Singh v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2022] FCA 1046 - judicial review of visa cancellation concerning misconstruction of applicable law. Unled, for the Minister.

Merits review

• Inskip v Medical Board of Australia [2022] VCAT 794 - Merits review of conditions imposed by Medical Board of Australia on practitioner’s registration. Unled, for the Medical Board of Australia.
• Kotler v Medical Board [2023] VCAT 364 - Merits review of conditions imposed by Medical Board of Australia on practitioner’s registration. Unled, for the Medical Board of Australia.
• TXCM v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2022] AATA 2820 – Merits review of visa cancellation. Unled, for the Minister.
• KZHP v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] AATA 631 - Merits review of visa cancellation. Unled, for the applicant (pro bono). 

Information protection/FOI/Privacy

• Zhang v Australian Information Commissioner [2023] FCA 132 – judicial review of a decision made under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Unled, for the Respondent.
• Public interest immunity claims in criminal proceedings in all Victorian courts for a variety of State and Commonwealth agenices. 
• Acting for various government agencies in the all Victorian courts in applications made under the Open Courts Act 2013 (Vic).
• Advising on potential release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic). Acting both for and against decision-makers in FOI merits reviews in the AAT.

Criminal/quasi-criminal

• Appearing for the Victorian Building Authority in summary criminal prosecutions under the Building Act 1993 (Vic).
• Appearing for the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police in an application for forensic procedure orders.
• Appearing for the AFP in control order applications.