Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 13 May
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Society must ensure our community’s safety – but in the process, we inevitably walk a tightrope to avoid infringing on civil liberties. What can we do to better prevent crime from occurring in the first place? When people are accused of crimes, how can we ensure they are tried fairly and treated justly? And to what extent, if at all, should judges use discretion when they impose sentences?
In this topical event, we’ll examine the social utility of our prison system, whether prisoners have any hope of rehabilitation, and whether parole should be harder for prisoners to obtain. If not paroled, how will prisoners be supported and supervised when they ultimately re-enter the community?
Jane Dixon QC, president of Liberty Victoria, discusses these challenges with a panel of legal experts. The Hon. Robert Clark MP, attorney general of Victoria, has been a strong proponent of sentencing and parole reform. He is joined by the Hon. Justice John Coldrey, current chair of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, and adjunct professor Peter Norden AO, a former chaplain at Pentridge prison and founder of the Brosnan Centre.
Together they will outline their views on how best to ensure community safety, whether the criminal justice system is working, and what prospect offenders have for genuine rehabilitation.
Featuring
John Coldrey
John Coldrey QC is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He is currently chairman of the council of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
John Coldrey was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1966 and spent 18 years as a defence barrister, including defending Aboriginal accused in the Northern Territory. From 1967 to 1969, he was a part-time teaching fellow in criminal law and family law at Monash University.
Subsequently, he was counsel assisting the inquiry into allegations against members of the Victoria Police Force; director of Legal Services for the Central Land Council in the Northern Territory; director of Public Prosecutions for Victoria, and chair of the Consultative Committee on Police Powers of Investigation – which resulted in the requirement that police interrogations be electronically recorded.
Between 1991 and 2008, John Coldrey was a justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
In 2004 he was awarded the gold medal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law in recognition of his contribution towards criminal law reform. From 2009 to 2013, he was a judicial member of the Adult Parole Board of Victoria.
In 2013 John Coldrey was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Monash University. He is an honorary life member of the Criminal Bar Association of Victoria and the Melbourne University Sports Union.
His hobbies are walking, writing and travel.
Jane Dixon
Jane Dixon QC is the President of Liberty Victoria, one of Australia’s leading civil liberties organisations. Jane has practiced at the Victorian Bar for over 20 years.
Her main fields of endeavour have been criminal and common law trials and appeals, coronial inquiries, environmental matters and some administrative hearings. She is frequently briefed in homicide trials and death in custody cases.
She has participated in a number of cases with a strong human rights focus and has been retained by PILCH for a variety of matters, including a rooming house inquest that led to changes in local laws, and an anti-discrimination case dealing with issues of religious vilification.
Jane is Chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the Victorian Bar and is a longstanding member of the Indigenous Lawyers Committee of the Victorian Bar. She is a past recipient of a Women’s Lawyers Achievement Award and a Victorian Bar Pro Bono Scheme award. She is a member of the Criminal Bar Association and the Common Law Bar association.
Robert Clark
Robert Clark is the member for Box Hill and is also the attorney-general, Minister for Finance and Minister for Industrial Relations in the Victorian government.
Clark was first elected to Parliament in 1988, and has been member for Box Hill since 1992. From 1992 to 1999, he served as parliamentary secretary to the Victorian Treasurer, Alan Stockdale.
Before entering parliament, he was a solicitor practicing in commercial, financial and labour law.
Peter Norden
Peter Norden is an adjunct professor at RMIT, and former Catholic chaplain at Pentridge. In 2009, Peter left the priesthood and the church. After decades of service, he no longer identified with the institutional Catholic Church.
He was a vocal critic of the prison system and a strong advocate for prison reform. He worked to expose the oppression that led to the 1987 Jika Jika fire that killed five prisoners, and was required to identify their bodies. Today, he continues his advocacy of criminal and social-justice reform.
Peter was Catholic chaplain at Pentridge for seven years after taking over from Father John Brosnan in 1985. He would help young or inexperienced prisoners entering the system for the first time, administer last rites to suicide or murder victims, and look after the pastoral needs of the prisoners. The job was a balancing act because he needed the permission of prison officers to access the prison while working to improve conditions for prisoners.
In 2007 he was made an officer in the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for services to community development through social research and programs aimed at assisting marginalised young people and offenders, to the mental health sector, and to the Catholic Church in Australia’.