The First Peoples of Australia belong to the oldest continuing cultures and civilisation on earth. Yet Australia is the only British colony where treaties were not negotiated with First Nations peoples. Over the past decade state and territory governments have sought to address this anomaly by commencing consultations and negotiations towards treaty making. The NSW Government has recently committed to consult with Indigenous peoples on treaties and agreements, and the form they could take. The Uluru Statement from the Heart (2017) also recommended the establishment of a Makaratta Commission to oversee agreement making between First Peoples and the Australian government. This panel will discuss the current treaty making processes taking place around Australia. Our speakers include leading legal and academic experts in treaty negotiations and analysis in Australia and overseas.

Meet the panelists:

Shane Hamilton

Shane is a Wakka Wakka and Bundjalung man from Queensland. Shane is a respected leader with executive experience across housing, corrections and professional services sectors in government, non-government, and corporate enterprises.

Shane is the current Deputy Secretary Aboriginal Affairs at the Premiers Department in the NSW Government. He came to the role after almost four years in Management consulting with PwC’s Indigenous Consulting and Inside Policy, where he was the Managing Director a role that required him to leverage the strong relationships he built and fostered in his previous roles.

Prior to that, Shane made a significant contribution to the Aboriginal Housing Office in NSW, leading the business through an organisational transformation, and re-establishing the AHO as a place of innovation and commitment through its support of Aboriginal communities and businesses, and promoting choice and equal access to housing for Aboriginal families.

Shane is experienced in the development of business partnerships between the corporate sector and NFP or Government entities and was instrumental in establishing Position Promo and First Nations Blockchain, both Indigenous majority-owned businesses.

Dr Tony McAvoy SC

Tony is a Wirdi man from Central Queensland. He is a barrister and the first Indigenous person appointed as Senior Counsel, and holds an honorary doctorate from UTS. Dr McAvoy’s legal practice includes native title, environmental law, administrative law, human rights and discrimination, coronial inquests and criminal law. He was the acting Northern Territory Treaty Commissioner from 2021-2022, and Senior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory in 2016. Dr McAvoy has served as Acting Commissioner with the NSW Land and Environment Court from 2013-2014 and has held numerous board appointments and worked in government prior to going to the bar.

Professor Lindon Coombes

Professor Coombes is an Industry Professor and the Director of Research, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, UTS. Professor Coombes is a descendent of the Yuallaraay people of northwest NSW and has worked in Aboriginal affairs in a range of positions, including Director at PwC Indigenous Consulting, CEO of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, and CEO of Tranby Aboriginal College in Glebe. He is co-editor of Treaty-Making Two Hundred and Fifty Years Later (Federation Press, 2021).

Associate Professor Harry Hobbs, UTS Faculty of Law

Associate Professor Hobbs is an experienced constitutional and human rights lawyer working at the forefront of academic research and legal and political debate about Indigenous-State treaty making. Harry is committed to understanding how Indigenous sovereignty can be better recognised by, and in, national and international legal systems. Harry has particular expertise and interest in the treaty debate in Australia. He is co-author of Treaty (Federation Press, 2nd edition, 2020 – with Professor George Williams) the leading book on modern treaty-making between Indigenous peoples and governments in Australia and co-editor of Treaty-Making Two Hundred and Fifty Years Later (Federation Press, 2021, with Alison Whittaker and Lindon Coombes).

Facilitated by Dr Marcelle Burns, Associate Dean Indigenous Leadership and Engagement, UTS Faculty of Law

Dr Burns is a Gomeroi-Kamilaroi woman with extensive experience in the field of Indigenous peoples and law, as both a lawyer and academic. Her research interests include the recognition of First Nations in international and domestic laws, and Indigenous knowledges and cultural competency in legal education. From 2015-2019 she was the Project Leader for the Indigenous Cultural Competency for Legal Academics Project (funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training). She has published journal articles and book chapters with leading academic publishers including Routledge and Federation Press. She is the co-chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans First Peoples Partnership Working Group.

Key event times

5.30pm Doors Open (in-person attendance)
6.00pm - Event commences
7.15pm - Event formalities conclude and networking commences
8pm - Event closes

This event is open to all UTS Law students, alumni, community members and staff. UTS Law students must provide their student identification number at check out in order to receive Brennan ROJ points. Whilst in-person tickets are limited, there is plenty of space to tune in via a Zoom live stream, the link for which will be sent upon registration and provided again closer to the event.