2019 Invited Speakers

June Oscar AO

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

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June Oscar AO is a proud Bunuba woman from the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia’s Kimberly region. She is a strong advocate for Indigenous Australian languages, social justice, women’s issues, and has worked tirelessly to reduce Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

June has held a raft of influential positions including Deputy Director of the Kimberley Land Council, chair of the Kimberley Language Resource Centre and the Kimberley Interpreting Service and Chief Investigator with WA’s Lililwan Project addressing FASD .

She was appointed to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (1990) and was a winner of the 100 Women of Influence 2013 in the Social Enterprise and Not For Profit category. In 2015 June received the Menzies School of Health Research Medallion for her work with FASD.

June has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from the University of Notre Dame, Broome, Western Australia, and is currently writing her PhD. June is a co-founder of the Yiramalay Wesley Studio School and is a Community member of the Fitzroy Valley Futures Governing Committee.

In February 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Edith Cowan University.

June began her five-year term as Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner on April 3, 2017.

John Braithwaite

Professor, Australian National University

John Braithwaite is a Distinguished Professor and Founder of RegNet (the Regulatory Institutions Network) at the Australian National University.

Since 2004 he has led a 25-year comparative project called Peacebuilding Compared (most recent book: Networked Governance of Freedom and Tyranny (2012, with Hilary Charlesworth and Aderito Soares). He also works on business regulation and the crime problem. His best known research is on the ideas of responsive regulation (for which the most recent book is Regulatory Capitalism: How it works, ideas for making it work better (2008)) and restorative justice (most useful book, Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation (2002)). Reintegrative shaming has also been an important focus (see Eliza Ahmed, Nathan Harris, John Braithwaite and Valerie Braithwaite (2001) Shame Management through Reintegration). John Braithwaite has been active in the peace movement, the politics of development, the social movement for restorative justice, the labour movement and the consumer movement, around these and other ideas for 50 years in Australia and internationally.

Professor Tracey McIntosh

Co-head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa the University of Auckland

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Tracey McIntosh is Ngāi Tūhoe and is Professor of Indigenous Studies and Co-Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies) at the University of Auckland. She was the former Co-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence. She previously taught in the sociology and criminology programme at the University of Auckland.

In 2012 she served as the co-chair of the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty.​ In 2018-2019 she was a member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) which released the report Whakmana Tangata: Restoring Dignity to Social Security in New Zealand (2019) and Te Uepū Hapai i te Ora- The Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group which released the report He Waka Roimata: Transforming our Criminal Justice System (2019). A second report will be released soon. She sits on a range of advisory groups and boards for government and community organisations. She currently delivers education and creative writing programmes in prisons.​

Her recent research focused on incarceration (particularly of Māori and Indigenous peoples) and issues pertaining to poverty, inequality and social justice. She recognises the significance of working with those that have lived expereince of incarceration and marginalisation and acknowledges them as experts of their own condition. She has a strong interest in the interface between research and policy.​

Professor Sonja Snacken

Professor of Criminology, Penology and Sociology of Law, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

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Sonja Snacken is Professor of Criminology, Penology and Sociology of Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Her research focuses on (comparative) penality and different forms of (extreme) institutional dependency. She has been involved in over 40 (inter)national research projects, with a special emphasis on the integration of an empirical social scientist and human rights approach. She was Research Fellow at the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice, New York University School of Law (2010-2011) and Collaborateur-membre of the Centre International de Criminologie Comparée, Université de Montréal. She was awarded the Belgian Francqui Chair at the Université Catholique de Louvain (2008-2009), the Ernest-John Solvay Prize for Scientific Excellence in the Human and Social Sciences by the National Science Foundation (FWO, 2010) and the 2015 European Criminology Award by the European Society of Criminology.

Rob Hulls

Director, Centre for Innovative Justice

Rob Hulls completed his law course at RMIT and began his career as a Solicitor for the Legal Aid Commission of Victoria from 1984–86. Rob then moved to Mt Isa in Queensland, and worked for the West Queensland Aboriginal Legal Service for 5 years. He then served one term in Federal Parliament from 1990–93 as the member for Kennedy, Queensland and in 1994 on return to Melbourne was appointed Chief of Staff to the Victorian Leader of the Opposition. In his state political career Rob held the offices of Attorney-General; Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Racing, Minister for WorkCover, Minister for Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations.

As Attorney-General, Rob instigated significant changes to Victoria’s legal system which saw the establishment of the state’s first Charter of Human Rights. He established specialist courts in Victoria including for Victoria’s indigenous community, for people with mental health issues, for people with drug addiction and for victims of family violence. He also opened up the process for the appointment of people to Victoria’s judiciary to ensure that more women and people from diverse backgrounds were appointed.

In October 2012 Rob was appointed Adjunct Professor at RMIT and was invited to establish the new Centre for Innovative Justice as its inaugural Director.  The Centre’s objective is to develop, drive, and expand the capacity of the justice system to meet and adapt to the needs of its diverse users. The Centre has facilitated the establishment of a multi-disciplinary practice on site with lawyers and social workers together with students providing holistic, wrap-around services to female prisoners in Victoria.