Keynote & Plenary Speakers

Andrew King is an Associate Professor in Climate Science at the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century. Andrew is interested in climate change projections under the Paris Agreement and net zero emissions pathways, understanding the effect of the rate of global warming on regional climates, and seasonal prediction of climate extremes. He completed his PhD in Climate Science in 2015 at UNSW and since then has worked at the University of Melbourne. Andrew is a former ARC DECRA Fellow and will start an ARC Future Fellowship in mid-2025.

An experienced Director and Executive, Brendan is Chair of Green Collar and AustraHort and sits on the Boards of Landcare Australia, the North East Catchment Management Authority, The Talia Institute and the Australian Government’s Nature Repair Committee. He also advises Boards and Executives across the environment sector and Chairs the Advisory Board at AirSeed.

Previously CEO of Greening Australia and Chair of the Australian Land Conversation Alliance (ALCA) other roles include Corporate Affairs Manager for Alcoa, Chair of SeedX and Canopy- Nature Based Solutions, Founding Director of NatureCo, and Non- executive Director of North-East Water.

Brendan holds an MBA, an Adv. Dip in Business Management and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute Company Directors (GAICD). He was a 2011 Rotary Group Study Fellow in Iceland and a 2016 Harvard Club of Australia non-profit fellow.

Djarra Delaney is a Quandamooka person from the Moreton Bay region of Southeast Queensland. His Country extends from Minjerribah/Terrangeri (North Stradbroke Island) and Mulgumpin (Moreton Island) through many of the smaller Bay islands and onto the mainland, including Redland City. Quandamooka Country is bordered by the Yugambeh Nation to the south, the Jagera and Turrbal peoples to the east, and the Kabi Kabi, Jinibura and Butchulla peoples to the North.

Djarra completed a Masters of Environment at the University of Melbourne, centring on climate change adaptation. He graduated with distinction in 2019 after completing a thesis component that focused on community engagement for climate change planning on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. In 2020, he began his PhD research investigating how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities experience climate change adaptation and their aspirations for future adaptation action on Country. Finding through research that colonial systems of power are deeply embedded in adaptation theory and practice in Australia, re-entrenching existing, and creating new, vulnerabilities through the adaptation process.

Djarra started his professional career at the Bureau of Meteorology where he was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Engagement Coordinator and manager of the Indigenous Weather Knowledge project. He is currently employed as the Indigenous Land Management Specialist at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Australia. He has also been a member of the National First Peoples Platform on Climate Change since 2019, helping to deliver the 2021 National First Peoples Gathering on Climate Change in Cairns on Gimuy Walubara Yidinji and Yirriganjdji Country and the 2024 Gathering in Dubbo on Tubba-Gah, Wiradjuri Country.

Hon Don Punch MLA is the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; Water; Climate Resilience; South West and has been a member of the Legislative Assembly since 2017, representing the seat of Bunbury.

Don’s first experience with regional Western Australia was after migrating to Australia from Manchester in 1971, attending high school in Western Australia’s South West in Manjimup and Collie.

Prior to entering politics, Don completed a Bachelor of Psychology and post- graduate studies in Social work at the University of Western Australia and later completed an MBA at Edith Cowan University.

He also holds a Master 5 Mariners Certificate and private pilot’s licence and has worked throughout regional Western Australia as a social worker and as a Senior Executive in the public sector.

Following his undergraduate studies, it wasn’t long before returning to his roots in regional WA, working throughout the State as a social worker and as a Senior Executive in the public sector.

In 1998, Don became CEO of the South West Development and assumed responsibility for many aspects of the region’s social and economic development.

During his more than 20 years working in the region, he oversaw projects including the renewal of the Manjimup town centre with an emphasis on food-based tourism, the rejuvenation of the Bunbury waterfront and the redevelopment of Busselton airport.

He continued in this role until resigning to contest the seat of Bunbury for WA Labor in 2016.

After being elected in 2017, Don was appointed to the Community Development and Justice Standing Committee.

In 2021, Don joined the Cabinet team and held the Regional Development, Disability Services, Fisheries, Seniors and Ageing, and Volunteering portfolios.

His passion for blending social and economic development will continue to guide his Ministerial vision for the South West region.

Kate is the Senior Physical Risk and Resilience Advisor at the Investor Group on Climate Change. She is responsible for uplifting investor understanding and action on physical risk, advocating for effective adaptation policy, and supporting opportunities for private investment in resilience. She is also a member of the NESP Climate Systems Hub Steering Committee.

Previously, Kate worked in the insurance sector as a Senior Climate Analyst for WTW. She led the development of their Australia and New Zealand climate change strategy and built their first physical climate risk models, covering bushfire, flood, and cyclone.

Kate has a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) from the University of Sydney, a First Class Honours in Climate Science from the University of New South Wales and is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Melbourne.

Of Ngāpuhi, Lebanese, and Pākehā heritage, Dr. Parsons’ is a historical geographer whose research adopts transdisciplinary and decolonising approaches to examine how Indigenous communities understand and respond to intersecting processes of social and environmental changes. The majority of her research and teaching focuses on bringing a decolonial lens to theories, policies, and practices surrounding climate change adaptation and environmental governance and management, and the Indigenous environmental justice. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, the co-editor-in-chief of Climate Risk Management and associate editor of Nature: Humanities and Social Science Communications, and the contributing author to two chapters (Small Islands and Climate Resilience Development Pathways) of the IPCC WGII Sixth Assessment Report. Her current research projects include: 1) examining how different individuals, iwi/hapū (tribes/sub-tribes), communities, and institutions in Aotearoa imagine and/or enact climate justice through the policies and on-the-ground actions; 2) co-designing art activities to raise climate adaptation awareness; 3) exploring the role of Indigenous knowledge systems in responding to climate change and environmental degradation in Aotearoa, Vanuatu, and Fiji; 4) investigating ways that communities can remember and/or restore lost or destroyed landscapes and waterscapes.

Prof Mark Howden is an Emeritus Professor at ANU, a Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council and contributes to several other major national and international science and policy advisory bodies.  Mark has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation and adoption issues for over 30 years in partnership with many industry, community and policy groups via both research and science-policy roles and is a high profile public communicator. He has worked on climate change adaptation for over 30 years, helped develop the national and international greenhouse gas inventories that are a fundamental part of the Paris Agreement and pioneered sustainable ways to reduce emissions. He has been a major contributor to the IPCC since 1991, with a record number of roles across all four dimensions of the IPCC: climate science, impacts and adaptation, mitigation and GHG inventories, sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC contributors and Al Gore.

Tia is a human geographer with research interests in climate change adaptation, and monitoring and evaluation.

She is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, working with the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Climate Systems Hub. Tia’s research takes a pragmatic approach to understanding climate change adaptation in Australia, working with government stakeholders and adaptation practitioners to design tangible knowledge outputs. Through the Enabling Best Practice Adaptation project Tia has been exploring factors which enable best practice and how these can be promoted. The project has also been collecting examples of climate change adaptation across Australia and developing an adaptation database to inform the planning and decision making of adaptation practitioners.

In previous roles Tia has worked in impact evaluation for non-profit organisations and in international disaster response with the Australian Red Cross. Tia has also conducted research analysing the distribution and inequality of urban greening in greater Melbourne.