JULIE MACKEN

Professor carmen lawrence

Julie is an experienced journalist based in Sydney. She was a senior feature writer for the Australian Financial Review, head of media at Greenpeace, and has worked as a communications consultant in federal and state politics. Julie's true passion and experience belongs to investigative journalism and research, and has most recently written a report on the treatment of women and children in  offshore detention on Nauru - you can read it here. Please contact Julie for any media enquiries at jmacken@vtown.com.au

Professor Carmen Lawrence is a former Australian politician. She was the Premier of Western Australia and the first woman to become Premier of a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. During the 2001 federal election campaign, Lawrence strongly disapproved of Beazley's support for the government's policy of detaining asylum-seekers. In December 2002 she resigned from the Shadow Cabinet, describing the party's policies on asylum and immigration as "brutal and inhumane". Carmen can be contacted by email at carmenlawrence@bigpond.com

LUISA LOW

Luisa is a communications strategist based in Sydney who specialises in public relations, social media activation, messaging, branding, rapid-response and crisis communications. Please contact Luisa for any administrative enquiries at luisa.low@gmail.com

professor wendy bacon

Professor Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist and political activist. Wendy's emphasis is on information that she hopes will empower people to take action. She has worked for independent, alternative and mainstream media, has been a contributing editor to New Matilda and has reported for Crikey,  the Sydney Morning Herald, The Conversation and GuardianAUS. Wendy can be contacted at wendybacon1@gmail.com

PAMELA CURR

Claire o'connor sC

Pamela Curr is a refugee and detention rights advocate, and was the former campaign coordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. She was admitted to Victorian Women's Honour Roll in 2009. She has worked with detainees from Woomera, Christmas Island, Maribrynong, Baxter, Curtin and Port Hedland detention centres. She first became involved with asylum seeker issues in the early 2000s because of her concern about the changes that were made to asylum policy and mandatory detention under John Howard. As an advocate, Curr heard first hand accounts of the mistreatment, neglect and abuse of asylum seekers detained in Australia and offshore.

Claire O'Connor SC is prominent human rights barrister who has appeared in the Federal and High Courts in refugee and criminal matters, acted for Cornelia Rau in the Palmer Inquiry into her unlawful detention and has also appeared for the plaintiff in the so far only successful suit for damages in a stolen generation case (Trevorrow v The State of SA). She has received a number of awards for her work on human rights both in South Australia and nationally. Claire can be contacted at coconnor@villeneuve.com.au