The Hon. Bob Debus
NSW Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment

The Hon. Bob Debus MP is the Attorney General and Minister for the Environment for New South Wales (NSW).

Bob Debus is the longest serving Environment Minister in the history NSW having been appointed to the position in early 1999. During his tenure the Government has achieved a number of key environmental reforms including:

• Expanding the state’s national park system by more than 2 million hectares;
• Tripling the state’s wilderness areas to around 1.8 million hectares;
• Expanding the state’s network of marine parks now at Cape Byron, Solitary Islands, Lord
  Howe Island, Jervis Bay, Batemans Bay and Port Stephens;
• Modernising the National Parks and Wildlife Act with IUCN categories and management
  principles for the first time. The Act also contains special provisions to protect wild rivers;
  and
• Handing over seven national parks to Aboriginal traditional owners to be jointly managed with the NSW Government.
  

In his term as Attorney General the Land and Environment Court of NSW has been reformed to make court processes less legalistic and more user-friendly by providing for on-site hearings, site visits by the court and enhancing alternative dispute resolution.

The Hon. Justice Preston
Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court

Justice Preston was, on 14 November 2005, appointed Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.

Justice Brian Preston graduated in 1981 from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Law and Letters with first class honours. He was awarded an Advanced Certificate in Urban Horticulture with Distinction from the Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE and the TAFE State Medal in Urban Horticulture in 1999 and an Award of Excellence in 2000.

Justice Preston was admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales in 1982, was called to the Bar in New South Wales in 1987 and was appointed Senior Counsel (the equivalent of Queens Counsel) in 1999. There he developed a practice in environmental and planning law and administrative law, primarily in New South Wales.

Justice Preston is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Environmental Law Commission and is Chair of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) Environmental Law Standing Committee.

His Honour has presented over 40 papers at international, national and local conferences throughout the world.

Bob Sendt
NSW Auditor General

Bob Sendt has been the New South Wales Auditor-General since 1999, following a career that included a number of senior roles in the NSW Treasury over a 22-year period.

He has a keen interest in public accountability and in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector. In addition to his economics qualifications he holds a Diploma of Environment Studies and has overseen several important Performance Reports relating to environmental portfolios.

Michael Arch
Solicitor, McKees Lawyers

Chuck Berger
Legal Advisor, Australian Conservation Foundation 

Nicola Beynon
Wildlife and Habitats Program Manager, Humane Society International  

Nicola Beynon joined the Humane Society International (HSI) Australian Office in 1998 and now manages the Wildlife and Habitats Protection Program, covering a range of programs both in Australia and internationally.

The Wildlife and Habitats Program Ms Beynon manages, focuses on protection for threatened species and habitats through domestic and international laws and treaties. The program has had significant legislative and practical success in protecting threatened species and their habitats and threatened ecological communities right across Australia and pioneered a new Government program to protect the nation's top biodiversity hotspots. Ms Beynon is a member of Australian Government Recovery Teams for numerous threatened species protected under Australian legislation as a result of the work of the program. She has also persuaded the Australian Government to seek protection for several threatened species in international fora such as the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Ms Beynon was very closely involved with the reform of Australia 's environment legislation and the passage of the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Ms Beynon achieved a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Geography from Oxford University in 1993 and a Master of Science in Conservation Biology from University College London in 1994.

Andrew Cox
Executive Officer, NSW National Parks Association

Andrew Cox is Executive Officer of National Parks Association of NSW, a position he has held for the last five years. Andrew is presently a board member of the Environmental Defenders Office. Prior to working for NPA, Andrew has worked for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and a range of NSW environment groups. Andrew, as President of the Kowmung Committee, led the campaign that succeeded in preventing the raising of Warragamba Dam in 1995. He has been special advisor to Wild Magazine for over 15 years and is a keen bushwalker and photographer.

Mark Flanigan
Policy and Compliance Branch, Department of Environment and Heritage

Mark Flanigan is the head of the Policy and Compliance Branch in the Department of the Environment and Heritage, a position he has held since January 2003. Amongst other things, the Branch is responsible for managing overarching policy in relation to implementation of the EPBC Act and, as the name suggests, compliance and enforcement.

Prior to this Mark ran the Department's Marine Branch where he was responsible for setting up the Commonwealth's process to assess the environmental impact of fisheries.

Mark began his career as an urban and regional planner with the West Australian government before moving to Canberra to work on the Resource Assessment Commission Coastal Zone Inquiry in 1993. Mark was the department's liaison officer to the then Minister for the Environment, Senator Robert Hill during the period when the EPBC legislation was originally drafted.

Mark Gifford
Director, Reform and Compliance, Department of Environment and Conservation 

Mark has been with the former Environment Protection Authority and now Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) for eight years. He is the Director of Reform and Compliance within the DEC's Environment Protection and Regulation Division and has responsibility for leading the development and delivery of the Division's operational policy and reform agenda, compliance assurance and environmental audit programs and regulatory administration and systems, to control pollution and for the protection and conservation of biodiversity and Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Mark has twenty years experience in the public sector, principally in policy, regulatory and compliance and enforcement areas.

Nilesh Goundar
Oceans Team Leader, Greenpeace Asia-Pacific, Fiji

Nilesh's work with people as a community educator made him realise he had an obligation to ensure they had a sustainable livelihood as well.

Hailing from the Pacific where fisheries is a vital resource, Nilesh left his human rights educator job to join Greenpeace Australia Pacific as the Pacific Administration and Oceans Team Leader. Thus he is responsible for spearheading a campaign for sustainable and equitable fisheries in the Pacific.

He received his primary and secondary education in Fiji and went on to study at Macquarie University in Sydney. Returning to Fiji he taught at various secondary schools, became Head of Science and lectured at the University of the South Pacific too. His zeal for environmental and youth issues led him to represent Fiji and organisations in many high profile fora. Goundar, who is based in Fiji is married to Mere Yabaki and has two daughters, Zarina and Inaya.

Tim Holden
Corporate Counsel, Department of Natural Resources

Tim Holden has twelve years experience as an environment and planning lawyer.

He has recently been appointed to the position of Corporate Counsel to the Department of Natural Resources and is responsible for advising the Department on its legislation including the Native Vegetation Act 2003 and the Water Management Act 2000.

Tim joined the Department of Land and Water Conservation's Legal Branch in 2002 and was closely involved with the natural resource management reforms that led to the Catchment Management Authorities Act, the Natural Resources Commission Act and the Native Vegetation Act and Regulation. He has also advised on the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act and the recent reforms to that Act.

Prior to joining the Department he was a policy officer in the NSW and South Australian EPA's, a lawyer in private practice with Blake Dawson Waldron and a lawyer with the Environmental Defender's Office.

Greg Hunt
National Manager, Waterkeepers Australia   

Greg studied Biology, has taught Science and Environment in schools and worked in policy in environmental education in Victoria’s Department of Education. He spent 6 years at Melbourne Zoo, first as Assistant Principal, then as Principal. After this post, he accepted a position as Manager of Education at the new Melbourne Museum, which he held for five years.

Nearly three years ago, Greg joined Waterkeepers Australia, an organisation that gives nationwide support to community groups working to save their local waterways.

Jo Immig
Coordinator, National Toxics Network 

Jo Immig is Co-ordinator of the National Toxics Network (NTN), a community based network working for pollution reduction, protection of environmental health and environmental justice. NTN formed in 1993 and has grown as a national network to support community and environmental organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. NTN provides non-government organisations with a national and international voice on toxic chemical issues and functions as Australia's "toxic watch dog." NTN is a participating organisation of the International POPs Elimination Network and is currently working towards the effective implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) 2001 and other relevant chemical conventions.

Jo represents peak environment groups on the NSW Ministerial Advisory Council on Gene Technology and the Community Consultative Committee of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

Prior to this Jo worked as Parliamentary Advisor to an independent member of the NSW Legislative Council and as Toxic Chemicals Campaigner for the Total Environment Centre. She has authored several books on the impacts of toxic chemicals on children's health.

Kieran Longridge
Campaigner, Greenpeace Australia-Pacific

Kieran Longridge is Projects Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia-Pacific. She is currently working on developing and implementing a political/markets campaign to ban the import of illegally logged timber and timber imports into Australia.

Kieran has worked at Greenpeace Australia-Pacific for two years. Prior to this role, she has completed an honours degree in Social Inquiry and worked with Amnesty International, Northern Ireland for two years.

Chris McElwain
Principal Legal Officer, Department of Environment and Conservation

Chris has been a solicitor and prosecutor with the Department of Environment and Conservation and the EPA for 11 years.  He was part of the team that worked on the development of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 and has conducted a wide range of criminal and civil trials, including several Tier 1 and Tier 2 prosecutions. Prior to this he worked in private practice and with the demi-god of Australian Environmental Law, Justice Paul Stein, as he then was, as his tipstaff in the Land and Environment Court.

Ilona Millar
Principal Solicitor, Environmental Defender's Office

Ilona is the EDO 's Principal Solicitor. She has a Bachelor of Law from UWA, Bachelor of Arts (honours) from Murdoch University and a Masters of Environmental Law at Sydney University.

Prior to joining the EDO, Ilona worked as a solicitor with the environment, planning and local government team of a large Sydney commercial law firm. She has represented and advised a wide range of clients, including State and local government, developers, third party objectors and conservation groups on a range of environmental law issues. Ilona also regularly appear in litigation matters in the NSW Land and Environment Court. Since joining the EDO Ilona has been closely involved in policy development relating to water law reform and water property rights.

David Milledge
Ecologist, Byron Shire Council

David Milledge is a wildlife ecologist with extensive field experience throughout eastern Australia, having worked for Government authorities and as a private consultant in four States over the past 35 years.  He is currently employed as an ecologist with Byron Shire Council.  David has particular expertise in forest and woodland ecosystems and has specialised in endangered species, rainforest avifaunas and the ecology of large forest owls.  He has published the results of his research widely in scientific and popular journals and has illustrated many of these with his photographs, drawings and paintings.

Duncan Miller
Barrister

Duncan Miller has been a practising barrister since 1996. Prior to that he worked in the environmental and construction law practices at two large Sydney law firms for seven years. He principally practises in the areas of planning and environmental law, construction and commercial law, and common law. Since 1991, he has published a number of articles in journals including the Australian Law Journal, and the Australian Bar Review. Duncan holds a Master of Laws (1 st Class Honours) from the University of Technology. He has been involved in numerous civil environmental enforcement actions – for landowners, councils and public interest groups.

Ian Ratcliff
Solicitor, Environmental Defender's Office NSW

Ian works as a solicitor at the EDO. He has a Bachelor of Laws-European (Honours) from the University of Warwick in England and a Masters of Environmental Law from Macquarie University.

Before joining the EDO, Ian was Principal Legal Officer at the NSW Department of Local Government. He has also worked as a Legal Officer at the Refugee Review Tribunal, research officer for the Environment, Planning and Local Government branch of a City law firm and the editor of local government and environmental law publications for a legal publishing company.

Judy Reizes
Coordinator, Manly Environment Centre

Judy is the founder of the Manly Environment Centre, the first suburban environment centre in Australia. The centre recently celebrated its fifteenth birthday and continues to pioneer shopfront education and community action.

The Centre was responsible for nominating Manly's Little Penguins and Longnosed Bandicoots colonies under the 1995 NSW Threatened Species legislation and they became the first common species in the world to be listed as threatened colonies.

Strong community and Council engagement in conjunction with various agencies has driven the protection of these iconic species.

Susie Russell
North East Forest Alliance

Susie Russell is standing in today for Carmel Flint. Both are co-ordinators of the North East Forest Alliance. NEFA has worked tirelessly since 1989 for forest protection and improved forest management.

Both Susie and Carmel work in a variety of fields, from lobbying and public awareness to participating in forest blockades. In recent years they have provided assistance to fellow campaigners working to protect the western woodlands and the River Red gum forests. They are living proof that committed individuals can make a difference.

Jeff Smith
CEO, Environmental Defender's Office 

Jeff is the Director of the Environmental Defender's Office. He is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW with a Masters of Law from Sydney University (majoring in Environmental Law and Policy). He has taught and researched in environmental law and policy, criminal law and litigation at the University of NSW and Macquarie University.

Jeff has written extensively in the fields of environmental law, criminal law and litigation.

Prior to joining the Environmental Defender's Office he was involved in drug law reform and criminal justice work at the Attorney General's Department, as well as working in strategic policy for the Environment Protection Authority.

Jeff sits on the Boards of the Australian Centre for Environmental Law and the Total Environment Centre and is a member of the Special Purpose Assessment Committee for the Contaminated Land Management Program administered by the Environmental Trust.

Professor Martin Tsamenyi
Director, Centre for Maritime Policy, University of Wollongong

Martin Tsamenyi holds Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ghana and Master of International Law and PhD Degrees from the Australia National University. He is currently Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Maritime Policy at the University of Wollongong. Professor Tsamenyi is an internationally recognized expert in international fisheries law and has worked extensively in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Professor Tsamenyi has undertaken several high profile activities, including: Fisheries Law Adviser to the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency from 1997 to 1999; Chair of the FAO Expert Consultation on Legal Issues Related to CITES and Commercially Exploited Aquatic Species in June 2004; International Legal Expert to the FAO Technical Cooperation Project on Strengthening Coastal Fisheries Legislation in the Pacific Island States of Micronesia from 2004-2005. Since 2005 Professor Tsamenyi has been acting as part time Legal Adviser to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.

Sarah Tsiamalili
Lawyer, Environmental Law Centre, Papua New Guinea

Robert Verhey
Strategy Manager, Environment Team, Local Government and Shires Association

Robert Verhey has been employed by the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW for 13 Years. He is currently Strategy Manager- Environment. He is involved in many areas of environmental policy, including waste management, stormwater, biodiversity, contaminated land and hazardous substances, ecologically sustainable development and environmental regulation. He has been one of the points of contact for the EPA and more recently the DEC, regarding the introduction and more recently, the review of the POEO Act, and the implications for local government. In his spare time he explores ways to make his inner western postage stamp property more sustainable and restores (or should I say) recycles old sports cars.

Felicity Wade
NSW Campaigns Manager, The Wilderness Society    

Felicity Wade is the NSW campaign manager of the Wilderness Society. She has worked with the Wilderness Society on and off over 10 years on campaigns including the Hinchinbrook Island Campaign, the NSW wilderness and southern forest campaign of the mid 90s as well as the coodination of the mainland campaign for Tasmania 's forests in the lead up to the 2004 Federal election. Currently she leads the Society in NSW on the campaign to end land clearing in the state.

Rachel Walmsley
Policy Director, Environmental Defender's Office

Rachel Walmsley is the Policy Director at the Environmental Defender's Office, and works mainly on legislative law reform. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours in international environmental law, and a Bachelor of Arts from ANU and is currently completing a Masters in Environmental Science and Law.

Previously Rachel was the Environment Liaison Officer (ELO) for the peak environment groups of New South Wales (NSW). This involved lobbying at the NSW parliament on a wide range of new legislation on topics including: national parks, waste, gene technology, game hunting, and fisheries. Prior to that, Rachel was a Research Assistant at the Australian Centre for Environmental Law (ACEL) at ANU in Canberra. Rachel has also worked for a British conservation organisation in London and Tanzania, doing biodiversity survey work and local environmental group capacity building.