Speakers
Speakers
Professor Maxwell R Bennett AO
Maxwell Bennett is Professor of Neuroscience and holds the first University Chair for 'research recognized internationally to be of exceptional distinction' He graduated in Electrical Engineering and did his doctoral research in Zoology at Melbourne University. He then turned to the brain sciences and was appointed to the second Personal Chair at Sydney University, after Lord May, at which time he was awarded the largest personal Centre of Research Excellence by the Australian Government. His over 300 papers are concerned with research on synaptic connections between nerve cells in the brain. This research led to the discovery that novel transmitters exist at synapses, the first to be identified in fifty years, for which he received the major award in biology and medicine in Australia, the Macfarlane Burnet Medal of the Academy of Sciences. His subsequent discovery that molecules exist at synapses which guide their reformation after nerve injury was recognized by an invitation to give the opening Plenary Lecture to the World Congress of Neuroscience in 1996. Bennett's research then showed that there are silent synapses, in which nerve terminals are physically present but do not release transmitters. This has had important implications for changes in the brain responsible for learning and memory and was followed by appointment in 2000 as an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO). Professor Bennett has written seven books concerned with the history and philosophy of the brain and mind, of which the most recent are, with his colleague Peter Hacker, Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience, Neuroscience and Philosophy and History of Cognitive Neuroscience. These have created much interest as indicated, for example, by a recent invitation to give a talk on this subject at the United Nations in New York on the date of 9/11. Amongst the organizations he has initiated to promote science and brain research are the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, the main lobby group for science in Australia, the International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience, as well as Brain and Mind Research Asia/Pacific. Professor Bennett founded the Brain and Mind Research Institute seven years ago, and with the raising of over $80 million and four juxtaposed buildings, now has seventeen research professors concerned with the amelioration of diseases of the brain and mind.
Andrew Boe
Andrew commenced practice as a barrister in 2009. Prior to that he operated his own solicitor's practice for 20 years. See www.boelawyers.com.au. He was a member of the inaugural Queensland Law Society's Criminal Law Specialist Accreditation Committee in 2005-2008 and its Criminal Law committee in 2009. His practice specialised in criminal and administrative law. He was involved in some notable cases including R v Kina CA 293 of 1993 (first recognition of the 'battered woman' defence and indigenous 'cross-cultural' communication issues); Boe v CJC, OS 319 of 1993 (review of funding of the criminal justice system); R v Milat; A-G (NSW) v Milat NSWCA 60453 of 1995; Regina v Milat 1998 NSWSC 795 (serial murders); Ettridge v DPP 2003 QCA 410; R v Hanson & Ettridge 2003 QCA 488 (political corruption, bail); KBT v The Queen (1997) 191 CLR 417 (High Court, sex offences, jury directions); Gribbin (Magistrate) v Fingleton (Chief Magistrate) [2003] 1 Qd R 698 & Cornack v Fingleton [2003] 1 Qd R 667 (judicial independence); M v State of Queensland 2003 QCA 249 (confiscation, constitutional invalidity) and the inquest and subsequent litigation that arose following a death in custody on Palm Island in 2004. In 2010, he appeared as counsel for the Doomadgee family in the re-convened inquest.
Julian Burnside AO QC
Julian Burnside is a barrister based in Melbourne. He specialises in commercial litigation. He joined the Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989.
He acted for the Ok Tedi natives against BHP, for Alan Bond in fraud trials, for Rose Porteous in numerous actions against Gina Rinehart, and for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores. He was Senior Counsel assisting the Australian Broadcasting Authority in the "Cash for Comment" inquiry and was senior counsel for Liberty Victoria in the Tampa litigation.
He is immediate past President of Liberty Victoria, and has acted pro bono in many human rights cases, in particular concerning the treatment of refugees.
He is passionately involved in the arts. He collects contemporary paintings and sculptures and regularly commissions music. He is Chair of Fortyfive Downstairs and Chair of the Mietta Foundation.
He is the author of a book of essays on language and etymology, Wordwatching (Scribe, 2004) and Watching Brief, (Scribe, 2007) a collection of his essays and speeches about the justice system and human rights. He compiled a book of letters written by asylum seekers held in Australia's detention camps. The book, From Nothing to Zero was published in 2003 by Lonely Planet. He also wrote Matilda and the Dragon a children's book published by Allen & Unwin in 1991.
In 2004 he was elected as a Living National Treasure. In 2009 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.
He is married to artist Kate Durham.
Professor Roger Clark
Roger Clark, who is a graduate of Victoria University in New Zealand and of Columbia Law School in New York, has written widely on international law, human rights and criminal law. He was a member of the United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control between 1986 and 1990. In 1995 and 1996 he represented the Government of Samoa in arguing the illegality of nuclear weapons before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Since 1995, he has represented Samoa in the negotiations to create a permanent International Criminal Court, in subsequent meetings of the Court's Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression, and at the 2010 Review Conference on the Court in Kampala, Uganda.
Professor Clark teaches Criminal Law, International Law, Human Rights, Foreign Relations and National Security Law, and International Criminal Law.
Judge David J Carruthers
Born and raised in Pahiatua, David Carruthers graduated in 1962 from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, with an LLB and completed his LLM (Hons) in 1964.
Judge Carruthers practised in Wellington before returning to practice law in his home town of Pahiatua. A move to Palmerston North and his own practice preceded this by being appointed a Family Court Judge and Youth Court Judge in Wellington in 1985. In 1995 Judge Carruthers was appointed Principal Youth Court Judge and in 2001 he was appointed as Chief District Court Judge, a position he held until his retirement in 2005. Presently Judge Carruthers is the Chairman of the New Zealand Parole Board.
Judge Carruthers has long been an advocate for alternative dispute resolution and an outspoken supporter of restorative and therapeutic justice initiatives. Judge Carruthers holds that it is better to involve communities directly in the criminal justice system in order to obtain better outcomes which reduce crime and acknowledge victims' concerns.
The Judge has spoken at a large number of international and national conferences and has been an author of a number of papers presented in overseas seminars. In 2002, he chaired the Ministerial Taskforce on Youth Offending.
Judge Carruthers was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005 and knighted by the Governor-General in 2009 for his services to the District Courts.
The Honourable Justice Martin Daubney
The Honourable Justice Martin Daubney was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland on 13 July 2007, becoming the 101st appointee to the Supreme Court. At the time of his appointment, Justice Daubney was the President of the Bar Association of Queensland.
Justice Daubney was educated at Downlands College, Toowoomba. He graduated from the University of Queensland with degrees in Arts and Law. After 18 months practising as a solicitor, he was admitted to the Bar in 1988. In 2000 he was appointed Senior Counsel.
Justice Daubney practised as a barrister in Australia and Fiji, in both litigation and mediation.
In 2005, he chaired a Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland thoroughbred racing industry.
Justice Daubney served on the Council of the Bar Association of Queensland for more than 10 years, including as President from July 2006. Other appointments included membership of the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board of Queensland for three years from its inception in 2004, membership of the Management Committee of the Queensland Bar Practice Course (2000-2008), membership of the Council of the Australian Bar Association, and directorship of the Law Council of Australia in 2006-2007.
He was the inaugural Chair of the University of Southern Queensland Law Faculty Advisory Board, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Legal Studies within the Australian Catholic University and of the Queensland Law Society's Commercial Litigation Specialist Accreditation Committee.
Justice Daubney is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University, is a Fellow of King's College within the University of Queensland, and is the President of the King's College Council.
In November 2009, he was appointed to the Senate of the University of Queensland.
Cameron Dick
Cameron Dick was elected as State MP for the electorate of Greenslopes on March 21, 2009.
He was further honoured to be asked to serve as the Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations in the re-elected Bligh Government.
Mr Dick brings to the Parliament a range of experience in law and public service.
After finishing high school Mr Dick completed bachelor degrees in Law and Commerce, and later a Bachelor of Arts degree, at the University of Queensland.
After completing articles of clerkship and practising law as a solicitor in Brisbane, in the mid-1990s he worked for three years as an international development volunteer in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. During his time in Tuvalu Mr Dick worked in the Office of the Attorney-General, initially as the Crown Counsel. At the age of 27, he was appointed the acting Attorney-General of Tuvalu.
Following his time in Tuvalu, Mr Dick read international law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was awarded a Master of Law degree from Cambridge University.
He has worked as a solicitor in both the private and public sectors. He has also been actively involved in a number of community organisations on the southside of Brisbane.
Mr Dick worked as a barrister prior to his election to the Queensland Parliament.
Mr Dick has always held a strong interest in both politics and the law, and the role these aspects of society play in shaping the community we live in.
In his new role as Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Mr Dick is committed to building on previous legislative reforms to ensure a fair, safe and just Queensland.
Mr Dick lives on the southside of Brisbane with his wife and two children.
Dr Joao Goulao
Portuguese National Drugs Coordinator, Chairman of the Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction and since January 2010 Chairman of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). He is also Head of the national focal point in the EMCDDA’s REITOX network, member of the EMCDDA Board since 2005 and previously served on the European agency’s Scientific Committee (1997–2002).
A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Goulão has over 20 years’ experience regarding drug-related issues, working in this field since 1987 as general practitioner and since then all his professional life has been devoted to drugs and health. He was also a member of the Portuguese Committee which, in 1999, prepared the report on which the first Portuguese Drug Strategy, which included decriminalisation, was based. At international level, he has a long experience in this field, not only at the European level, but also in the United Nations context.
Wayne Hall
Wayne Hall is a Professorial Fellow as well as NHMRC Australia Fellow in addiction neuroethics at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research. He was formerly: Professor of Public Health Policy in the School of Population Health (2005-2010) and Director of the Office of Public Policy and Ethics at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (2001-2005) at the University of Queensland; and Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW (1994-2001). He has advised the World Health Organization on: the health effects of cannabis use; the effectiveness of drug substitution treatment; the scientific quality of the Swiss heroin trials; the contribution of illicit drug use to the global burden of disease; and the ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on addiction.. In 2001 he was identified by the Institute for Scientific Analysis as one of the world's most highly cited social scientists in the past 20 years. He was awarded an NHMRC Australia Fellowship in 2009 to research the public health, social policy and ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on drug use and addiction.
The Honourable Paul de Jersey AC
Chief Justice Paul de Jersey was appointed as Chief Justice of Queensland in 1998. He had served on the Supreme Court of Queensland from 1985, following a 13 year career at the Queensland Bar, in which he practised, most substantially, in the commercial and constitutional arenas, although his practice warranted the description, "broadly common law".
Justice Betty King QC
- Joined Victorian Bar August 1975, practised in all criminal jurisdictions Magistrates, County, Supreme and High Courts on behalf of both defence and prosecution.
- Appointed first female Prosecutor for the Queen for State of Victoria 1986 resigned 1989
- Appointed first Prosecutor for the Queen for the Commonwealth of Australia on contract for one year at the end of 1989. Agreed to one year extension of contract and returned to the Victorian Bar at the end of 1991.
- Appointed one of Her Majesty’s Counsel November 1992
- Appointed Member National Crime Authority July 1993 resigned January 1996. Returned to the Bar and practised in criminal (both for defence and Crown), quasi criminal and disciplinary board work.
- Appointed Judge of the County Court 1st March 2000 - June 2005
- Appointed Justice Victorian Supreme Court 21st June 2005
Chris Nyst
Chris Nyst is a lawyer, writer and film maker based on Queensland's Gold Coast. Admitted to practice in 1977 he is recognised as one of Queensland's most experienced criminal law practitioners. He is a former President of the Gold Coast Law Association, the co-founder of the Griffith University Innocence Project, and an adjunct professor of law at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.
In 1999, Chris turned his hand to fiction writing, producing a series of best selling legal thrillers for Harper Collins. His third novel "Crook as Rookwood" won the 2006 Ned Kelly Award, Australia's leading accolade for crime fiction.
He turned to film making in 2003, writing and co-producing the highly acclaimed Australian film "Gettin' Square", which was nominated for a record number of industry awards, and won Chris the 2003 Lexus IF Award for Best Screenplay. In 2008 he wrote and directed the feature film "Crooked Business," which was voted Best International Film at the 2009 New York Independent Film Festival.
Chris is a highly respected figure in the Australian Film Industry, a former member of the Gold Coast Film Advisory Board and Chair of the Film Fantastic Film Festival, and is a current Director of Screen Queensland.
He continues to practice as a principal of the boutique litigation firm Nyst Lawyers on the Gold Coast.
Justice Philippides
Justice Philippides was appointed to the Supreme Court in December 2000. Prior to her appointment, she practiced as a barrister in Queensland, New South Wales and the Solomon Islands. She has served as President of the Land Appeal Court of Queensland from January 2004 to May 2006. In May 2006 she was appointed to the Mental Health Court. She became President of the Mental Health Court in February 2008.
Professor Roland Sussex
Roland (Roly) Sussex has recently retired from the Chair of Applied Language Studies at the University of Queensland, where he has taught and researched since 1989. Before that he taught Linguistics and Russian at the University of Reading (UK) and Monash University in Melbourne, and was the foundation professor of Russian at the University of Melbourne from 1977 to 1989.
His current research is located in the triangle between language, culture and society, and technology. He is co-chief investigator in the PainLang Research Group at the University of Queensland, which is investigating the use of language in the diagnosis, treatment and management of pain (http://www.uq.edu.au/painlang/).
His most recent major publication is The Slavic languages with Paul Cubberley, Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Roly Sussex writes a weekly column on language for the Brisbane Courier-Mail, and has been broadcasting to Queensland on ABC radio since 1997, and more recently to South Australia and the Northern Territory.