The Australian Earth Laws Alliance has established a number of expert groups to provide advice and support for AELA’s work to promote Earth-centred law and governance. AELA is privileged to have experts from a number of fields supporting our work. Current members of our advisory groups are set out below:
First Nations Peoples Advisory Group
Mary Graham, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Queensland and a Kombu-merri person through her father’s heritage and Wakka Wakka clan through her mother’s heritage. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Mary has worked across several government agencies, community organisations and universities. Mary has been a dedicated lecturer with the University of Queensland, teaching Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy, Mary has also lectured nationally on these subjects, and developed and implemented the core university subjects of ‘Aboriginal Perspectives’, ‘Aboriginal Approaches to Knowledge’ and at the post-graduation level ‘Aboriginal Politics’.
Ross Williams is of the Bindal people in the region now known as Townsville. Ross has three decades’ experience working to support indigenous people’s engagement with natural resource management programs for the Queensland State government, as well as working with his own and other indigenous communities on economic development and caring for country projects. Ross is motivated by a strong desire to help indigenous groups, especially young indigenous people, create their own economic futures through local community development and economic projects.
Dr Anne Poelina, Managing Director of Madjulla Inc.; a Nyikina Traditional Custodian from the Mardoowarra, Lower Fitzroy River in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia; and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with Notre Dame University
Valentine Nona, Djiru Aboriginal Community and Director,
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Science Advisory Group
Professor Ian Lowe is an emeritus professor in the School of Science at Griffith University, an adjunct professor at two Australian universities and was the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 2004-2014. His principal research interests are in policy decisions influencing the use of energy, science and technology; energy use in industrialised countries; large-scale environmental issues and sustainable development. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to science and technology and for contributing to public understanding of environmental issues. Professor Lowe was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2002 for contributions to environmental science and won the Eureka Prize for the promotion of science. for further information about Ian, please visit his Griffith University
profile page.
Professor Will Steffen is a climate change expert, a researcher at the Australian National University and a Councillor on Australia's foremost Climate Change research organisation, the Climate Council.
His research interests span a broad range within the fields of climate change and Earth System science, with an emphasis on sustainability, climate change and the Earth System. He is the author of numerous publications on climate science and co-author of the ground breaking work which created the concept of Planetary Boundaries. For further information about Will, please visit his Climate Council profile page.
Professor Brendan Mackey is the Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program and has published over 150 academic publications including journal articles, books and book chapters. Brendan is a member of the International Council for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He also serves on various governmental advisory bodies including the science advisory group to the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative.
For further information about Brendan, please visit his Griffith University profile page.
Law and Regulation Advisory Group
Professor Rob Fowler is an Adjunct Professor in the Law School at the University of South Australia. He has been involved for over 40 years in the field of environmental law, beginning at the Law School at the University of Adelaide in 1975. Since the end of 2014 Rob has been the Convener of the Australian Panel of Experts in Environmental Law (APEEL), a voluntary collaboration of sixteen internationally-recognized environmental law experts that is being supported by the Places You Love Alliance. The purpose of the Panel is to design the framework for the next generation of Federal environmental laws in Australia. He continues to research and write on various aspects of environmental law and is currently writing a book on Australian Federal Environmental Law. For further information about Rob, please visit his
profile page.
Professor Christine Parker is a Professor at Melbourne Law School. Christine has a deep interest in both conceptualizing and communicating how law and regulation can help individuals and especially businesses live more sustainably and well in our ecological systems. She is developing an academic research project in this area and has helped develop and show a live multi-media eco-music performance, called 'Music for a Warming World' (http://www.simonkerrmusic.net/) about our individual, social and political responses to climate change. Her current research focuses on animal welfare and sustainability issues in the food system.
Professor Bronwen Morgan is Professor of Law at UNSW Australia. She is interested in the interaction between regulation and rights, especially in the context of social activism. She has most recently explored the rise of the regulatory state in the developing world, access to urban water services in comparative perspective, and legal and regulatory support structures for social activists and social enterprises responding to climate change in Australia and the UK. She has a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, USA and lives in Sydney, Australia.
