David Jackson AM QC (Chair)

David Jackson AM QC was called to the Bar in December 1964 and has been a Queen’s Counsel since 1976. 

He has appeared in numerous constitutional cases in the High Court of Australia and advised and written on many constitutional issues. 

In 1986-87 he was Chairman of the Constitutional Commission’s Advisory Committee on the Australian Judicial System, in 1996 he conducted the Southern Cross Syndicate Inquiry and in 2004 the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation established by the James Hardie Group.

Professor George Williams AO

George Williams is the Anthony Mason Professor, a Scientia Professor and the Foundation Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. He is also an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. He has worked at the Australian National University, Blake Dawson Waldron and as Associate to Justice McHugh of the High Court, and has held visiting positions at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Columbia University Law School in New York and University College London.

George has written and edited 26 books, including Australian Constitutional Law and Theory and The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia. His latest book is People Power: The History and Future of the Referendum in Australia. As a barrister, George has appeared in a number of the High Court cases and in the Supreme Court of Fiji.

In 2005 he chaired the Victorian Human Rights Consultation Committee that lead to the enactment of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. In 2007 he chaired a NSW Government inquiry into Options for a New National Industrial Relations System, and was also a member of the High Level Advisory Group on Federal-State Relations to Kevin Rudd. He is currently a member of the Northern Territory Constitutional Convention Committee.

Dr Elaine Thompson

Dr Elaine Thompson is a retired academic having formerly held the post of Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of New South Wales.  She has also lectured at Macquarie University and Michigan State University Summer School.  

Dr Thompson has provided extensive media commentary and published widely on issues relevant to Parliamentary democracies.