[2] Melham worked as a solicitor with the Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales, specialising in criminal law from 1979 to 1987.
He was subsequently admitted to the bar as a barrister, and was a public defender until his entry into federal politics in 1990.
[2] Elected to Parliament in 1990, Melham entered the Opposition Shadow Ministry following Labor's electoral defeat in 1996.
He served as Shadow Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs but resigned in 2000 after a policy disagreement with the then Labor leader Kim Beazley.
[2] Melham and colleague Lindsay Tanner were the only Labor MPs to openly speak out against the Howard government's proposed anti-terrorism legislation which provides for harsher punishments for sedition and grants police new shoot-to-kill powers.