Uluru Statement from the Heart

Across the public and private sectors, David Brown has extensive corrections experience spanning two decades.

Prior to joining the South Australian Department for Correctional Services David work for G4S, a multi-national security, care and justice company. Based in Canberra he had responsibility for leading the operation of immigration detention services across Australia. David worked as both the General Manager of Maryborough Correctional Centre in Queensland and as the Assistant General Manager of Acacia Prison in Western Australia.

He has successfully commissioned four new correctional facilities totalling more than 1,300 high security beds.

David joined DCS as Executive Director, Custodial Services in 2009. Since then he has played a key role in strengthening security and emergency management standards across the system; placing a renewed focus on offender rehabilitation, education and vocation training; and building community partnerships to improve reintegration of offender back into society once they leave prison.

David is passionate about creating an integrated approach to offender management that involves meaningful activity combined with targeted rehabilitation.

Appointed as Chief Executive in September 2012, David has overseen a critical period of growth across the Department for Correctional Services. He has led the commissioning of 1,280 beds and critical support facilities across the correctional system.

The South Australian Department for Correctional Services is pursuing the ambitious goal of reducing re-offending by 10 % by 2020. David is focussed on implementing strategies that drive down the rate of re-offending including increased investment in rehabilitation programs, strengthening alternatives to custody such as Home Detention and building better prison services.

Leadership development and succession planning has been a key focus for David with the Department for Correctional Services well positioned with an experienced Executive and Senior Management group.

Kim is a partner with PwC. His areas of expertise include cybersecurity, governance, risk management and internal audit. He is the former Managing Partner for Adelaide.
Kim has led PwC's Reconciliation efforts over the past 5 years. In that time, PwC and PwC Indigenous Consulting have achieved Elevate RAP status (one of only 19 businesses in Australia). Kim now co-chairs the National Reconciliation Governance Group.

He has been a leader in indigenous employment over many years and is an Ambassador to the Aboriginal Employment Industry Cluster Program in South Australia.
In 2020, Kim was recognised as a Distinguished Alumni by Flinders University for contribution to business in SA and to reconciliation.

Professor Megan Davis is Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous and Professor of Law at UNSW. She is Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court and was recently appointed the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law. She was a member of the Referendum Council and the Experts Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples in the Constitution; was an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011-2016); and is currently a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.

Professor Davis is also a Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission and, like any good Queenslander, she supports the North Queensland Cowboys and the Queensland Maroons.

Arrin Hazelbane is a proud Warai and Kokatha young man with strong cultural connections to the Finniss River region in the Northern Territory and the Far West Coast in South Australia.

Arrin is currently in his final year at the University of Adelaide studying a Bachelor of Laws. Whilst studying, Arrin has worked within various sections of the Crown Solicitor’s Office of South Australia and undertaken secondment placements in the Office of the Treaty Commission and Department of Child Protection.

Arrin is a current member of the South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council, which is the South Australian government’s peak advisory body on matters of Aboriginal affairs, programs and policy.

Arrin was a Project/Policy Officer with the Office of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People and is a strong advocate for the rights and safety of Aboriginal children and young people and their inherent rights to family, culture and community. Arrin was a participant at the First Nations Regional Dialogue in Adelaide and a delegate to the First Nations National Constitutional Convention in Uluru.

Jim McDowell commenced as Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in September 2018. As Chief Executive, Jim supports the Premier and Ministers to deliver the government’s vision for South Australia, with a focus on building strong collaborative partnerships across government and with the community and business sectors.

Jim brings a broad experience to the role, from growing up in Belfast to working in the private sector in the USA, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, where he has held many executive, non-executive and advisory roles.

Moving to South Australia in 2001, to establish the Adelaide-based headquarters for BAE Systems Australia, Jim was most recently the Chancellor of the University of South Australia.

Jim serves on the State Government’s Infrastructure South Australia and the Urban Renewal Authority Boards.

Jim is a current board member at the Adelaide Football Club, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and St Peters College.

A Yuwallarai woman from northern NSW, Kirstie Parker has had a long and distinguished career in Indigenous affairs. Currently Director of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation within the SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet, her previous roles include CEO of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, elected female Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, Editor of the Koori Mail newspaper, and Director of Tandanya – National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. Kirstie has been honoured with an Australian Centenary Medal (2001), a national Human Rights Award – Media Category (2008), an inaugural 100 Women of Influence Award (2012), and an Australian Peacewoman Award (2015). She is also a Director of Reconciliation Australia, and a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Kirstie’s fiction manuscript The Making of Ruby Champion is due for publication by University of Qld Press in 2020.