Sandy Street

A scion of the Street family, he is the son of Colonel Sir Laurence Whistler Street, 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and Susan Gai, Lady Street. Among his recent ancestors are Australian politicians John Rendell Street, John Brown Watt, George Kenyon Holden and Edward David Stuart Ogilvie. His sister, Lieutenant-Commander Sylvia Emmett (née Street), is a fellow federal judge and naval officer. His brother-in-law, Arthur Emmett, is a former federal judge and Challis Lecturer in Roman Law at Sydney Law School. His other siblings by Sir Laurence's first marriage are Kenneth Street, a businessman, and Sarah Farley (née Street), a businesswoman. His half-sister by Sir Laurence's second marriage to Lady (Penelope; née Ferguson) Street is Jessie Street, a lawyer. He has four children: Charles Street, a barrister; Jack Street, a lawyer; Lucy Street and Heidi Street.[1]

Street was appointed to the Federal Circuit Court in January 2015 by Attorney-General George Brandis.[2] He came under scrutiny by the Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia over a case in which he dismissed a cerebral palsy sufferer's claim of discrimination after an airline refused to allow his guide dog on the flight.[2] He has also received criticism from the Full Bench in two successful appeals of his decisions in which he was found to have denied litigants procedural fairness.[3] Statistics were filed in court which revealed Judge Street had heard 256 migration matters between January and June 2017, and had found in favour of the immigration minister in 254 cases.[4] Over 70 judgements were overturned in less than five years.[5] A report from September 2018 stated that Sandy Street was found by the full Federal Court to have dismissed an asylum seeker's case without properly engaging with his arguments and to have denied the man procedural fairness. Two weeks later, the full Federal Court found he failed to give proper reasons in a case involving an Afghan asylum seeker, effectively forcing a rehearing.[6] In March 2019, the Federal Court criticised Street for taking 75 days to provide written reasons in this case where the asylum seeker had 21 days to appeal, stating that he had behaved with "a disheartening degree of professional discourtesy".[7]