Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO

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Chair of the National Human Rights Consultation Committee

October 14, 2009

"The Findings of the National Human Rights Consultation"

Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO is chair of the National Human Rights Consultation Committee.  The Committee will have presented its report to the Attorney General on 30 September 2009.   This will be the opportunity for the chair of the committee to face the national media and to outline the key findings of this significant national inquiry which has received over 35,000 submissions, having conducted community roundtable discussions all around Australia.

Frank Brennan is a Jesuit priest, professor of law at Australian Catholic University and professorial visiting fellow at the University of New South Wales Law School.  He was the founding director of Uniya, the Australian Jesuit Social Justice Centre.

His books on Aboriginal issues include The Wik Debate, One Land One Nation, Sharing the Country and Land Rights Queensland Style.  His books on civil liberties are Too Much Order with Too Little Law and Legislating Liberty.  His book Tampering with Asylum compares Australia's asylum policies with other first world countries.  He wrote the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council's paper The Timor Sea's Oil and Gas:  What's Fair?.  His latest book Acting on Conscience looks at the place of religion in Australian politics and law.  At the launch, Kevin Rudd described Frank as "an ethical burr in the nation's saddle".
He is a contributor to Bernadette Brennan's Just Words.

He is an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to Aboriginal Australians, particularly as an advocate in the areas of law, social justice and reconciliation.  The National Trust has classified him as a Living National Treasure. He is presently chairing the National Human Rights Consultation Committee.