Australia21 has appointed two Honorary Advisers to the Board,
both of whom were participants in our recent Roundtable on Illicit Drugs
Policy. To the extent that their
timetables permit, they will participate fully in all of our Board and Research
Committee discussions.
They are:
Vivienne Moxham-Hall
Vivienne Moxham-Hall has
completed her degree in Science and Arts at Sydney University and is now completing
a Masters of Health Policy. She has taken on a variety of leadership positions
within the University such as University of Sydney Union Board Director from
2010-2012, SRC councillor from 2011-2012 and Under-graduate Science Student
Representative. She is a volunteer with Surf Lifesaving Australia and is
passionate about giving a youth voice to the policy directives of the future.
Tom Merrett
Tom Merrett is currently a
second year student at the University of Adelaide, studying a double degree of
Chemical Engineering with Finance on a BHP Billiton scholarship. He is a
representative on CHEMS, a student engineering society. In 2010 Tom was school
captain at Unley High School. He was also a youth participant in Australia 21’s
next big question project (see his contribution, made in his final school year,
here). His interests include multimedia with an emphasis on
video production and politics.
Vivienne and Tom are already
contributing fresh perspectives to our organisation, and Tom is putting in a
massive effort on a voluntary basis to the redesign of our website (watch this
space).
Australia21 is delighted to announce the appointment of our
new Executive Officer, Lyn Stephens, who joined us in January following Rachel
Oliphant’s acceptance of a position in the Australian Pubic Service.
Lyn’s experience ranges across psychiatric social work,
human resource management and public sector management, all of which fit her
well for the multifaceted demands of the part time Australia21 role.
She is currently an organizational development consultant
with a particular interest in dialogue and community consultation.
She retains a visiting fellowship at the College of Law at
the Australian National University, which was initiated while she was Director
of the Centre for Dialogue Project at the ANU.
On Tuesday 31 January 2012 Australia21 convened a roundtable
hosted by Sydney University to consider the following question:
What are the likely costs and benefits of a change in Australia’s current
policy on illicit drugs?
The decision to convene this roundtable was prompted by the June
2011 release of the Report of the Global Commission on Drug
Policy (downloadable from here), which
definitively concluded that the 40 years old global war on drugs has failed and
recommended, inter alia, that
governments be encouraged to experiment with models of legal regulation of
drugs to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and
security of their citizens.
Prior to the roundtable Australia21 commissioned a
discussion paper by Mr David McDonald, a social research consultant at the
Australian National University who specialises in issues at the boundary where
public health issues and the criminal law intersect. Mr McDonald’s paper canvassed the issues
raised by the Global Commission Report and set them in an Australian context,
addressing issues such as the extent and nature of drug availability and use in
Australia, the principal sources of drug related harm in Australia, and the
core challenges Australia faces to day in relation to drug policy.
We were fortunate to be able to bring together an
extraordinarily high level and diversified group from across the political
spectrum to consider this important and sensitive topic. In alphabetical order the participants were:
Mr Paul Barratt AO
Chair Australia21 and former
Secretary, Department of Defence and Department of Primary Industries and
Energy
Hon Dr Peter Baume AC
Former Chancellor Australian
National University; Federal Senator and Health Minister in the Coalition
Government led by Malcolm Fraser
Mr Chris Berg
Research Fellow, Institute of
Public Affairs, and newspaper columnist
Mr Bill Bush
Retired International Lawyer and
Member of Families and Friends for Drug Reform
Hon Bob Carr AC
Former Premier of NSW
Hon Kate Carnell AO
Former Chief Minister of the
Australian Capital Territory
Professor Nicholas Cowdery AM, QC
Former Director of Public
Prosecutions, NSW
Professor Bob Douglas AO (Chair)
Former Director, National Centre
for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University;
Director Australia21
Hon Professor Geoff Gallop AC
Former Premier of Western
Australia
Professor Margaret Hamilton AO
Formerly Founding Director of
Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Center Victoria, Current Drug Policy Advisor
Mr Brian McConnell
President, Families and Friends
for Drug Reform
Ms Marion McConnell
Parent of a son who lost his life
to a heroin overdose
Mr David McDonald
Social Research Consultant
Mr Tom Merrett
Second Year University Student,
University of Adelaide
Hon Professor Michael Moore
Executive Officer, Public Health
Association of Australia and former ACT Health Minister
Ms Vivienne Moxham-Hall
Arts and Science Graduate and
Student Representative Councillor, University of Sydney
Mr Mick Palmer, AO, APM
Former Commissioner, Australian
Federal Police
Professor Alison Ritter
Director Drug Policy Modeling
Program
University of New South Wales
Professor Robin Room
Drug policy researcher and
current Director, Turning Point, Victoria
Ms Lyn Stephens
Executive Officer, Australia21
Mr Nick Stump
Former mining industry executive,
Director Australia21, Chair Construction Industry Advisory Board on Drugs in
the Workplace
Dr Alex Wodak AM
President Australian Drug Law
Reform Foundation and Former President, International Harm Reduction
Association
Hon Dr Michael Wooldridge
Former Federal Minister for
Health in the Coalition Government led by John Howard
The report of the roundtable is now at the printers, and it
will be launched by roundtable participant Nicholas Cowdery QC, former NSW
Director of Public Prosecutions, in a Committee Room in Parliament House,
Canberra, at 10.00 am for 10.30 am on Tuesday 3 April.
Other roundtable participants at the launch will be Paul
Barratt, Chris Berg, Bob Douglas, Brian and Marion McConnell, David McDonald,
Mick Palmer and Alex Wodak.
Australia21 expresses its appreciation to ACT Senator Garry
Humphries for sponsoring the launch event at Parliament House, to the
University of Sydney for providing us with the venue for the roundtable, and to
the donors who generously assisted us financially with this project.
