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Speaker Type: Social Commentator
Amal Awad
Author, Education Consultant, Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator, Social Issues
Amal Awad is a journalist, author and screenwriter who is focused on issues of society, religion and popular culture. She is the author of four books and is involved in several screenwriting projects. Amal is also a public speaker and has produced and presented for ABC Radio National.
» Read more about Amal Awad
Mary Delahunty
Author, Corporate, Inspirational Speaker, Personal Development, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Mary is a writer, award winning ABC Journalist and former Education Minister. She is National Director of Writing Australia and Chair of Orchestra Victoria. She was the first female solo prime time TV newsreader in Victoria, and the first female Planning Minister in Victoria.
» Read more about Mary Delahunty
Paul Dillon (DARTA)
Author, Education Consultant, Online - Virtual Visits, Personal Development, Social Commentator, Well Within
Paul Dillon has a unique investment in the wellbeing of young people. Founder of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia and a former school teacher, Paul continues to conduct drug information sessions and workshops for school students across Australia and internationally, in countries as diverse as the UK, the Phillipines, and Indonesia.
» Read more about Paul Dillon (DARTA)
Linh Do
Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator
Linh Do is a Melbourne based activist with a globe-trotting lifestyle, having worked in over 15 countries. She’s done everything from changing one million lightbulbs (and mindsets) in Australia to working at the UN to create social change on environmental issues, and in 2013 was named as Australian Geographic’s Young Conservationist of the Year.
» Read more about Linh Do
Sean Dooley
Author, Corporate, Entertainer, Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Sean Dooley has written for TV comedies like Full Frontal, Hamish and Andy and Spicks and Specks, is author of books such as The Big Twitch and Cooking with Baz, and is currently editor of Australian Birdlife magazine. He was also the national birdwatching champion, holding the record for seeing the most birds seen in one year. Sean Dooley is the Birdman.
» Read more about Sean Dooley
Clementine Ford
Author, Corporate, Online - Virtual Visits, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Clementine Ford’s take on social issues is bold, brave and entertaining. She inspires and challenges people of all ages in equal measure.
» Read more about Clementine Ford
Jackie French
Author, Curriculum Specialist, Education Consultant, Social Commentator, Social Issues
Jackie was the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2014/15 and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. Â She is also an historian, ecologist, dyslexic, and a passionate worker for literacy, the right of all children to be able to read, and the power of books.
 Jackie’s writing career spans 25 years, 148 wombats, over 140 books, 36 languages, 3,721 bush rats, and over 60 awards in Australia and overseas.
» Read more about Jackie French
Tanya Ha
Author, Corporate, Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator, Speaking Out, Sustainability
Tanya Ha is an award-winning environmentalist, best-selling author, broadcaster, science journalist and sustainable living advocate. More hip than hippie, she makes sustainability and science easier to understand and is known for her TV shows, including ABC’s Catalyst and the SBS series Eco House Challenge.
» Read more about Tanya Ha
Maggie Hamilton
Author, Education Consultant, Personal Development, Social Commentator
Writer and social researcher Maggie Hamilton gives frequent talks and lectures; is a regular media commentator and a keen observer of social trends. She has held a number of senior roles in publishing and at the ABC. Her professional memberships have included serving on the Executive of the Sydney Peace Foundation.
Maggie enjoys sharing her research in a lively and engaging way with community groups, and at numerous conferences across Australia and New Zealand.
Her books, have been published in over a dozen countries worldwide, and include What Men Don’t Talk About, which examines the lives of real men and boys; What’s Happening to Our Girls? and What’s Happening to Our Boys? which examines the 21st century issues boys and girls face; and now When We Become Strangers; How Loneliness Leaks Into Our Lives and What We Can Do About It. www.maggiehamilton.org
» Read more about Maggie Hamilton
Belinda Hawkins
Author, Corporate, Curriculum Specialist, Journalist, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Belinda Hawkins has reported on national and international events for ABC TV and SBS TV for almost 30 years, filing from countries as diverse as Nigeria, Eritrea, Cuba, Germany and Russia. For the past twelve years she has been a senior journalist with ABC TV’s Australian Story program. Her documentary work has been recognised with a raft of awards, among them a Walkley award, seven Quill awards, four New York Festival Medals and four United Nations Media Peace Awards. She started her working life as high school teacher in country Victoria.
» Read more about Belinda Hawkins
Sophie Cunningham
Author, Social Commentator
Sophie Cunningham worked in publishing for twenty years before becoming the Chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council. She is well known for her work as the editor of Meanjin, and is the author of two novels, Geography (2004) and Bird (2008) as well as the non-fiction Melbourne.
» Read more about Sophie Cunningham
Michael Hyde
Author, Curriculum Specialist, Journalist, Social Commentator
Michael’s novels for young adults, Hey Joe, MAX and Tyger Tyger have experienced critical success and continue to be widely read and taught in many schools. Hey Joe – about the Vietnam War, the movement against it and the sixties in Australia – was named as a Notable Book in the 2004 CBC Awards. Many of his short stories for younger readers are published in the Trend/Awesome Series including the popular titles: The Footy Coach from Hell, Seal Saves the Island and How I Got a Girlfriend. Michael also edited two senior anthologies for the Australian Association of English Teachers (AATE), Hunger (CBC Notable Book 2004) and The Girl who Married a Fly (CBC Notable Book 2002). Both anthologies feature popular YA Australian writers (including Michael) and like his novels, enjoy significant sales. Michael’s Change the Game series – choose-your-own-adventure sports books became overnight favourites with young readers, 20,000 + copies being sold in one year.
» Read more about Michael Hyde
Linda Jaivin
Author, Literary Critic, Social Commentator
The author of The Shortest History of China, Linda Jaivin is one of Australia’s most versatile writers. Her work spans history, biography, memoir, travel, humour, eroticism, social issues (her novel The Infernal Optimist is set in an immigration detention centre), China studies, literary translation and cultural commentary. Her first novel, Eat Me, was a bestseller here and translated into more than a dozen languages abroad. She has been a frequent guest on television and radio and wrote and presented a Radio National Earshot program on the subject of privacy called Nothing to Hide and a four-part series on the state of arts criticism in Australia, Situation Critical, for RN’s Arts Hub. As an Australia Reads ambassador, Linda proudly champions books and reading. She also mentors emerging writers through the Australian Society of Authors and is an editor of the China Story Yearbook, produced by the Australian National University Centre for China in the World and a film translator, subtitling Chinese films including Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine and Wong Kar Wai’s Grandmaster and Zhang Yimou’s Hero.
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The Shortest History of China will also be published in the US, UK and in a number of translations including Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Greek and Bulgarian.
» Read more about Linda Jaivin
Anna Krien
Author, Corporate, Social Commentator, Speaking Out, Women's Rights
Anna Krien is an award-winning Melbourne-based journalist, essayist, fiction writer and poet. Her book Night Games: Sex, Power & Sport, won the 2014 William Hill Sports Book of the Year in the UK, and is being developed into a television mini-series. Other publications include Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests, Booze Territory, Quarterly Essay 66: The Long Goodbye: Coal, Coral and Australia’s Climate Deadlock and Quarterly Essay 45 Us and Them: On the Importance of Animals.Â
Anna’s debut novel Act of Grace was published in October 2019 and shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
» Read more about Anna Krien
Benjamin Law
Author, Corporate, Journalist, Social Commentator, Speaking Out, Well Within
Benjamin Law is a Sydney-based journalist, columnist and screenwriter. He is the author of two books: the black comedy memoir The Family Law (2010) and the travelogue Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East (2012). The Family Law has been translated into French and is currently being developed for television. Gaysia was published in India in 2013, with the US and other territories to follow in 2014. Both of his books were nominated for Australian Book Industry Awards, and he is currently working on his third.
» Read more about Benjamin Law
David Nyuol Vincent
Author, Corporate, Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
David Nyuol Vincent is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He was trained as a child soldier in Ethiopia and lived as a refugee in Kenya until he was twenty-six. Since rebuilding his life here in Australia, David has become an advocate for refugees and the Sudanese community and he is a Victorian Human Rights Youth Ambassador and a People of Australia Ambassador. He also helped to set up an all-Sudanese refugee football team, the Western Tigers, in the Brimbank soccer league. David is a true humanitarian and is committed to achieving peace for his people in Sudan.
» Read more about David Nyuol Vincent
Trent Southworth
Corporate, Personal Development, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Trent Southworth is a former NSW Police Officer with over fourteen years policing experience, including eight years employed in the Youth Liaison role. In his role, Trent worked closely with numerous government and non government agencies to identify youth related initiatives such as underage drinking programs, truancy, road safety, drug programs, and bullying.
Trent assisted in the implementation and monitoring of the State Governments Young Offenders Act, which targets all young offenders aged between 10 and 18 years of age. Through his experience in the NSW Police, Trent witnessed first-hand the importance of ongoing education of young people in today’s society.
Since leaving the Police, Trent has developed and facilitated numerous seminars for students, teachers, parents and community groups Australia-wide.
» Read more about Trent Southworth
Sheree Marris
Author, Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator
Aquatic Scientist Sheree Marris is one of Australia’s youngest environment ambassadors. She is committed to educating the community about their responsibilities in water preservation, marine life and other environmental issues such as recycling. Among her many accolades, she was Young Australian of the Year (Victoria) in 2002.
» Read more about Sheree Marris
Najaf Mazari
Author, Social Commentator
A shepherd boy from the mountains of Afghanistan, Najaf became a rugmaker of genius but was forced to flee his homeland under the onslaught of the Taliban. He painstakingly rebuilt his life in Australia and rescued his family from the despair of Pakistan’s refugee camps.
» Read more about Najaf Mazari
Dr Michael Nagel
Author, Corporate, Education Consultant, Personal Development, Social Commentator
Dr Michael Nagel is an Associate Professor and the Head of Education Programs in the School of Science in Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Dr Nagel teaches and researches in the areas of cognition, behaviour and learning and human development and early learning.
» Read more about Dr Michael Nagel
Angela Savage
Author, Social Commentator
Angela Savage’s crime novels are inspired by the six and a half years she spent living in South-east Asia in the late 1990s, working for the Red Cross on HIV/AIDS programs. Her love affair with Asia continues, and in 2008 she spent the year in Cambodia with her partner and their two-year-old.
» Read more about Angela Savage
Ellen Sandell
Corporate, Inspirational Speaker, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Ellen has been National Director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, one of Australia’s largest non-profit climate organisations. During her leadership, the organisation grew from a handful of friends wanting to change the world to a national organisation with over 80,000 members and the ear of politicians and business leaders due to it’s quirky and innovative campaigns.
Ellen has become one of Australia’s leading commentators and campaigners on the issue of climate change. Since leaving the AYCC in late 2012 she has worked in politics, as Campaign Manager for Simon Sheikh’s Senate campaign in the ACT (mobilising thousands of volunteers and just missing out on a Senate seat) and as a Senior Campaigns Advisor for Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.
» Read more about Ellen Sandell
Andrew Rule
Author, Corporate, Journalist, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Since starting on a country newspaper in 1975, Andrew Rule has worked on three metropolitan newspapers and in both radio and television production. He has written, co-written, edited and published many books, including the Underbelly true crime series and the Chopper series, which inspired the successful feature film. He hosts a regular fortnightly spot on Triple M’s Hot Breakfast called In The Rule World.
» Read more about Andrew Rule
Alice Pung
Author, Corporate, Curriculum Specialist, Inspirational Speaker, Online - Virtual Visits, Personal Development, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Alice Pung is a writer and lawyer who loves teaching. Alice’s books are studied in secondary schools and universities in Australia as well as the United States, and she has taught writing workshops to students from the ages of 8 to 80 in Australia, China and the States. Alice is also an Ambassador for the 100 Story Building Project, a social enterprise which helps promote literature and literacy skills to young people in the Western suburbs.
» Read more about Alice Pung
Ben Pobjie
Author, Journalist, Social Commentator
Ben Pobjie is the author of the Reality Recap of Australian History Error Australis and Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. He is the resident satirist for Medium and TV writer for the Saturday Age, he co-hosts the comedy podcast Gather Around Me, and is a regular voice on ABC radio,Triple R and 3CR as well as writing occasionally for TV.
» Read more about Ben Pobjie
Tim Pegler
Author, Journalist, Social Commentator
Acclaimed YA author Tim Pegler is an award-winning journalist, extensively published in newspapers, magazines and online. Tim’s experience covering social issues, such as homelessness, disability and juvenile justice, provides the foundation for much of his writing for young adults.
» Read more about Tim Pegler
Clare Wright
Author, Broadcaster, Historian, Social Commentator, Women's Rights
Professor Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare holds a PhD in Australian Studies from the University of Melbourne and an MA in Public History from Monash University and is currently a Professor of History at La Trobe University.
Her best-selling first book, Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans (Text) met with both critical and popular acclaim. Her best-selling second book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (Text), was based on a decade of archival research into women’s role in the Eureka Stockade. The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka won the 2014 Stella Prize and the NIB Literary Award (and People’s Choice Award) and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the NSW Premier’s History Awards, the WA Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Community History Awards, and long-listed for a Walkely Award.
 We Are the Rebels, a Young Adult version of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, was published by Text in 2015 and has been shortlisted for the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards.
The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka is currently being developed into a ten-part television drama series with Ruby Entertainment and Hollywood screenwriter/producer, Anne Kenney.
Clare’s latest book is the best-selling You Daughters of Freedom (Text), published in October 2018. It is the second book in her Democracy Trilogy. You Daughters of Freedom was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award, and is currently shortlisted for the Australian History Association’s Margarey Medal for Biography.
Clare has worked as a political speechwriter, university lecturer, historical consultant and as a broadcaster in both radio and television.
She is a popular public speaker and has presented numerous keynote addresses and dinner talks at academic conferences, AGMs, Writers Festivals, book stores and community and corporate events. Clare is a former Director on the Board of the The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.
Clare’s thought-provoking essays, reviews and opinion writing have appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Conversation, Overland, Crikey and Meanjin as well as leading national and international scholarly journals.
Clare researched, co-wrote and presented the acclaimed television documentary, Utopia Girls: How Women Won the Vote, which first screened on ABC1 in June 2012.
Clare created and co-wrote the four-part documentary series, The War That Changed Us, for Electric Pictures and ABC1. The series premiered on 23 August 2014 as part of the ABC’s centenary of WW1 programming. The War That Changed Us won an ATOM Award for Best Documentary and was nominated for a Logie for Most Outstanding Factual Program.
Clare is the writer and host of the ABC Radio National history series and podcast, Shooting the Past and co-hosts the history podcast, Archive Fever.
As a freelance historical consultant, Clare’s clients include Sovereign Hill Museums Association, the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka and many television production companies. She runs her consultancy practice as Done Gone Productions.
For Clare’s scholarly outputs, see here.
In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours list for “services to literature and to historical research”.
Clare is currently Professor of History and Principal Research Fellow in the History Program at La Trobe University. She holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship for the project Red Dirt Dreaming: A New History of Australian Mining.
Dianne Todaro-Wells
Author, Personal Development, Social Commentator
Dianne Todaro-Wells (Diploma of teaching), is an experienced educator and author specialising in relationship and sexual identity education. Dianne has a community radio program called ‘Speak up’ that serves communities to talk about information that inspires us all to have our ‘voice’.
» Read more about Dianne Todaro-Wells
Angela Pippos
Author, Corporate, Inspirational Speaker, Journalist, Social Commentator, Speaking Out
Angela Pippos is a journalist, TV and radio presenter, columnist and author of The Goddess Advantage – One Year in the Life of a Football Worshipper. It’s as much about love, loyalty, stuffed tomatoes and Greek mythology as it is about Australian rules football.
» Read more about Angela Pippos
Mariam Issa
Author, Online - Virtual Visits, Social Commentator, Social Issues
Mariam Issa is a visionary storyteller and delivers a story of determination and strength that is uniquely inspirational.
As an author and renowned speaker, Mariam tailors her talks to the interests of her audiences, and has spoken about a wide variety subjects including leadership, community building, culture and diversity, gender issues, social justice, social inclusion and cohesion, as well as advocacy on FGM.
» Read more about Mariam Issa
Jenna Guillaume
Author, Inspirational Speaker, Journalist, Social Commentator
Jenna Guillaume is a lively and engaging author and journalist with a passion for empowering young people – and having a lot of fun along the way. She loves to talk about things like body image, social media and online toxicity, the intersection of feminism and pop culture, digital media, mental health and self-love.
» Read more about Jenna Guillaume
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Author, Social Commentator
Randa is a prominent Australian author, academic, human rights advocate, former lawyer and mother of four children. She was recently nominated for Sweden’s Astrid Lindgren Award, the world’s biggest children’s and young adult literature award. The award-winning author of 11 novels published and translated in over 20 countries, Randa writes across a wide range of genres and actively seeks to translate her academic work into creative interventions which reshape dominant narratives around race, human rights, multiculturalism and identity in popular culture. She has been publishing her op eds in Australia’s national and international newspapers and journals since 1998. She has had regular appearances on Q&A, the Drum, Lateline and the 7.30 Report and radio interviews (RN Drive, ABC Books and Arts, the Conversation Hour etc).
» Read more about Randa Abdel-FattahAudience
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