He was a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1983 to 1984, a prominent barrister in Darwin afterwards, the author of the controversial 1999 Reeves Report on Aboriginal land rights in Australia.

[5][4] Reeves had moved to Darwin upon his election to parliament, and returned to his legal practice there after his 1984 defeat, being admitted to the bar the following year.

Reeves subsequently nominated and won the presidency of the Northern Territory branch of the ALP in 1985 over concerted opposition from the party's left wing.

[11] Reeves attempted to make a political comeback at the 1990 territory election, but lost preselection for Casuarina and did not run for public office again.

[12] Reeves developed a significant legal practice as a barrister in Darwin in the 1990s, and became increasingly distant from the Labor Party.

[citation needed] In 1997, Liberal Prime Minister John Howard announced an inquiry into the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.

None of its recommendations were enacted into law in the aftermath, but some were revived a decade later by the Howard government as part of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response.

He also served as Deputy Chair of the Legal Practitioner's Complaints Committee, and as Chairman of the Northern Territory division of the Australian Red Cross.

In March 2009, however, he was transferred to Brisbane, following concerns that the judicial workload in Darwin was not sufficient to warrant a resident judge, and a number of cases from which he had to withdraw due to potential conflicts of interest with his past legal work as a barrister.