Soil Symposium Speakers
Liza, David, Orla and Rohan Balmain
Landowners at the forefront of the fight to Protect Prime Agricultural Land on whose property the symposium is being held.
Peter McIlveen
Peter is a professor with the Faculty of Business Education Law & Arts at the University of Southern Queensland, researching and teaching in psychology. Peter’s research program is focused on adaptive capacity and career development learning, and the psychology of working.
Lachlan Thompson and Luke Conway
Students of St Mary’s College Toowoomba who will speak to Food Security.
Dr Madeline Taylor
Madeline is Director of Research Training and Senior Lecturer at Macquarie Law School, Deputy Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation (CENRIT), and Honorary Associate at the Sydney Environment Institute. Madeline specialises in issues at the intersection of socio-legal aspects of energy and natural resources law, as well as property and commercial law. Her research advances the novel examination of transitioning energy regulation and energy policy from comparative and socio-legal perspectives, including the governance of energy and the division of rights and benefits between the state, energy developers, landholders, and communities.
Bev Newton
Local Landowner who is advocating to protect her Prime Ag Land
Mayor Greg Christensen
From the factory floor to the executive floor, Cr Greg Christensen's lengthy career across the manufacturing, mining and agriculture sectors has prepared him for his current role as Mayor of the Scenic Rim region.
Associate Professor Peter Dart
Peter is an agricultural scientist in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability at The University ofQueensland. He is concerned about climate change, rangeland management and the effect of fossil fuel mining on agroecosystems. His involvement with black vertosols characteristic of the Darling Downs dates back to his childhood experiences on his grandparents’ farm at Inverell.
Professor Matthew Currell
Matthew is Program Manager for the Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental Engineering)(Hons) degree at RMIT, School of Engineering and an active researcher in the field of hydrogeology and geochemistry. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, was lead editor of a book and has served on the editorial board of the Hydrogeology Journal
Dr Hanabeth Luke
Hannabeth works with Southern Cross University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, and is a passionate educator who has been teaching and conducting research since 2011. She is deeply motivated by helping regional communities and farmers to become more resilient in times of transition, bringing communities and science together. These understandings underpin her role as the founding coordinator of the world-first Southern Cross University courses in Regenerative Agriculture.
Revel Pointon
Managing Lawyer - Southern and Central Queensland at the Environmental Defenders Office.
Laura Harms
Laura is a student at the University of Queensland and is researching the Condamine Earless Dragon
Rosemary Nankivell
Owner of Wimboyne from The Liverpool Plains who has spearheaded a fight to protect their land from CSG damage.
Professor Snow Barlow
Snow is an Emeritus Professor of Agriculture at the University of Melbourne who grew up at Mungindi, (north-west NSW). Snow has been intimately involved in climate change research and policy for four decades including as a member of the Australian delegation to the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. He then chaired the Federal Carbon Farming Futures Research program. Snow also co-ordinated the Primary Industries Adaptation Research Network and directed the development of a Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries. He was awarded the Australian Medal in Agricultural Science in 2009.
Adjunct Associate Professor David George
David works at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University (Formerly, Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist with the Climate Change Practice [WBI] at The World Bank).
David has developed, delivered and evaluated applied climate courses in the primary industries sector. He established national accreditation of Developing climate risk management strategies into the Australian Qualifications Framework
Zena Ronnfeldt
Landowner and Farm Advocate
Professor Mark Ogge
Mark Ogge is Principal Adviser at The Australia Institute. He is widely published on climate and energy issues, specialising in the gas industry and the impacts of climate change, particularly the effects of heat and heatwaves. He also takes The Australia Institute’s research to regional communities across Australia, particularly those most impacted by the expansion of the coal and gas mining. Prior to joining The Australia Institute he was a director at Beyond Zero Emissions.
Sean Ryan
Sean is the Principal Lawyer at Nixon Law
Senator David Pocock
David is honoured to serve the ACT as its first independent senator. His ambition is to engage in a new kind of politics grounded in community, integrity and building a better future for us all.
