Rate My Professor Kate Davis

Kate Davis is a Lecturer in the School of Law and Criminology at Murdoch University, where she co-coordinates units such as LLB/LEG 203: Indigenous Peoples, Law and Society. Her office is located at 460 on the Murdoch Campus. As a public interest lawyer, she specialises in housing rights for renters and has represented public housing tenants for over ten years. Prior to joining academia, Davis was Principal Solicitor at Tenancy WA, the state's community legal centre for tenants, from its establishment in 2014 until she commenced her PhD studies. She is affiliated with the SCALES Community Legal Centre at Murdoch University, supervising law students in clinical practice, including matters before the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Davis has supervised student submissions to parliamentary inquiries alongside Associate Professor Mary Anne Kenny.

Davis's research encompasses strategic litigation and reform advocacy in tenancy law, with a focus on public housing evictions. She recently submitted her PhD thesis, titled 'Is it lawful to evict children to homelessness from public housing in WA?', examining the lawfulness of such practices. Her work incorporates collaboration with the Ngulluk Koolunga Ngulluk Koort Elders, utilising Elder-led decision-making processes. Davis contributes to public discourse through opinion pieces, such as 'Some real home truths' published in the Fremantle Herald in 2025, which critiques eviction statistics, fixed-term tenancy terminations without grounds, and calls for amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act to ensure fair hearings for tenants. She delivered a keynote presentation at the 2025 Tenancy Conference on evictions of children from public housing and data comparisons across jurisdictions. Additionally, she spoke at the 2025 AIAL National Administrative Law Conference on how administrative law can support children facing eviction to homelessness from public housing.