Debra Sue Mortimer is an Australian judge who has been the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia since 7 April 2023.
[3] Mortimer did her articles at Goldberg and Window Solicitors before becoming an associate to Sir Gerard Brennan, then a justice of the High Court of Australia in 1988 and 1989.
Mortimer found that members of the Queensland Police Service had contravened the Racial Discrimination Act,[10] including the way they had investigated the death in custody, that an emergency declaration and the deployment of the Special Emergency Response Team was part of an excessive and disproportionate policing response.
[14] [15] In 2018 Mortimer presided over an historic judgement resulting in an Indigenous land use agreement, after a claim brought by Kaurna elders in Adelaide 18 years earlier.
[16] On 25 November 2021, Justice Mortimer presided over a sitting at the Federal Court in Cairns that awarded 2,188 km2 (845 sq mi) of land on the eastern side of Cape York Peninsula to the Kuuku Ya'u and Uutaalnganu peoples, in a native title claim that was lodged seven years prior.