Speakers

The Honourable Helen Bowskill

The Honourable Helen Bowskill was sworn in as Chief Justice of Queensland on 22 March 2022, having served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland from 10 July 2017, and as the Senior Judge Administrator of the Supreme Court of Queensland from 24 August 2021. Her Honour previously served as a Judge of the District Court of Queensland from 10 November 2014, in that capacity also sitting as a Judge of the Children’s Court of Queensland and the Planning and Environment Court.
Her Honour holds the degree of Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology and was awarded the University Medal in 1995. In 2022, her Honour was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the Queensland University of Technology.
Her Honour served as the Associate to the Honourable Justice Drummond of the Federal Court of Australia in 1996 and completed articles of clerkship with Minter Ellison in 1997. Her Honour was admitted as a solicitor in January 1998, and as a barrister in July 1998. She commenced practice at the private Bar in Brisbane in July 1998. Her Honour took silk in November 2013. As a barrister, she practised widely in public, administrative and commercial law areas, with a particular focus on native title law.
Her Honour is a member and current Chair of the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Professor Jill Hunter

Justice Joe Williams

Professor Joe McIntyre

Dr Harry Hobbs

Dr Harry Hobbs is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney and an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow. Harry has written extensively on the phenomenon of sovereign citizens and micronations in academic and popular work. In 2022 he was awarded the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Professor Stephen Young

Dr Kaz Ross

Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz

Marek Kowalkiewicz is a Professor and Chair in Digital Economy at QUT Business School. Listed among the Top 100 Global Thought Leaders in AI by thinkers360, Marek has led global innovation teams in Silicon Valley, was a Global Research Program Lead and Founding Research Manager of SAP's Machine Learning lab in Singapore, and a Research Fellow at Microsoft Research Asia. His newest book, "The Economy of Algorithms: AI and the Rise of the Digital Minions", is an international bestseller.

Professor Anna Huggins

Professor Huggins’ primary research interests are in the fields of regulation and compliance, with a particular focus on digital regulation and environmental compliance. Anna publishes widely on innovative regulatory and compliance responses to digitisation and automation, including rules as code, automated decision-making, regulatory technology and digital compliance. She is currently the lead Chief Investigator for an Australian Research Council Linkage Project examining strategies for optimising digitising compliance processes in the financial services sector. She previously led a research project on the opportunities and challenges of digitising regulation with CSIRO's Data61 from 2020-2021. Anna has also published extensively on the evolution of environmental regulation and compliance processes, including research monographs with Routledge (2018) and Edward Elgar (2022).

Dr Kaye N. Ballantyne, Ph.D

Kaye Ballantyne is the Chief Forensic Scientist for Victoria Police Forensic Services Department. She has previously held the roles of Senior Research and Development Officer at Victoria Police, Senior Project Officer at the Australia New Zealand National Institute of Forensic Sciences, adjunct Senior Researcher in the College of Arts and Law at the University of Tasmania, and adjunct Associate Professor at La Trobe University School of Psychology and Public Health. She has published extensively in books and peer-reviewed journals in the fields of forensic science and molecular genetics, and provided seminars and workshops across Australia and internationally. Kaye’s research interests include cognitive forensics, validity and risk in forensic science, the development and maintenance of expertise, and evidence interpretation and communication.
As Chief Forensic Scientist, Kaye is responsible for ensuring that all scientific evidence produced by Victoria Police Forensic Services Department meets scientific and legal standards, that research, development and innovation is targeted to producing improved service delivery to the Victorian and forensic communities, that staff are trained and supported to deliver expert scientific services, and that the practices utilised in support of investigations and criminal justice processes are robust, reliable and transparent.

Professor Gary Edmond FRSN

Director, Program in Expertise, Evidence and Law
Chair, Evidence-Based Forensics Initiative (EBFI)
School of Law, The University of New South Wales

Professor Elisabeth McDonald

Professor Kim Felmingham

Peter Applegarth AM

Peter Applegarth was educated at the University of Queensland and the University of Oxford.  Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2008, he was active in the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties and had an interest in freedom of speech issues. 
He practised at the Bar for 22 years in a wide range of civil and public law litigation.  He was retained as counsel by media organisations.  He appeared for media interests at many public inquiries, and for the State of Queensland in constitutional cases about the implied freedom of political communication.
He was heavily involved in the Queensland Supreme Court’s 2016 report about broadcasting and livestreaming court proceedings. He teaches media law at the University of Queensland. He has lectured to judges and barristers on Social Media and Defamation Law  and Non-Publication and Suppression Orders. He has published articles on contempt of court and coverage and criticism of courts.
He was the trial judge in the high-profile case of Wagner v Nine Network over a defamatory broadcast on Sixty Minutes.  His final judgment in Peros v Nationwide News was about the “serious harm” element of the cause of action in defamation.  Prior to his retirement he was the Principal Commercial List Judge.
He was chair of the Queensland Law Reform Commission between 2000 and 2023. Mr Applegarth is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.  In 2020, he became a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to law, judiciary and social justice.

TBC

Lucinda Holdforth

Lucinda Holdforth is a Sydney-based Australian speechwriter and the author of four non-fiction works. Her most recent, 21st Century Virtues: How they are failing our democracy (2023), is described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘an invigorating essay’ that shows how modern virtues like authenticity, humility, empathy and vulnerability ‘have been emptied and exploited and makes a plea for shared strength and communal courage’. The Australian described the book as a ‘delight to read’ and a ‘controversial argument’ which proposes that these seemingly innocuous values pose ‘a real threat to our democracy by undermining the ethical framework necessary for our system to survive.’
Over a long and continuing speechwriting career Lucinda has worked with senior political leaders, Chairs and CEOs of major companies, entrepreneurs, not-for profit organisations and more.  She has led speechwriting masterclasses and taught rhetoric and public communications at both the University of Sydney and the University of Sydney Technology. Her other books are Leading Lines: How to make speeches that seize the moment, advance the cause and lead the way (2019), Why Manners Matter: The Case for Civilised Behaviour in a Barbarous World (2007) and True Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris (2004)

Daryl Green

Daryl Elliott Green’s love of helping others, adventure and fitness led him to join the Queensland Police at age 18.
At 27 years of age he had completed a Bachelor of Arts in Justice Studies and was awaiting promotion to Senior Constable.
On the 1st May 2000 he was on night-work and expecting a quiet Sunday night shift.
Daryl was to confront every police officer’s worst nightmare.
For his actions on that night, he was awarded the highest honour for valour from the Queensland Police, which recognises an act of exceptional bravery in extraordinary circumstances.
Later the Governor-General of Australia Sir Peter Cosgrove bestowed the Group Bravery Citation.
In May 2018 Daryl had the honour of being announced as a Lifeline ambassador. He donates time and energy to raise funds for the charity and help share Lifeline’s message of hope, through its crisis intervention and suicide prevention services.
Soon afterwards, the incident was featured on the ABC’s Australian Story.

For Daryl however, it was just the beginning of a horrific, long, and physically and emotionally painful journey.