About the Commissioner

 

Born in Brisbane, Kate grew up in the Kimberley, Darwin, Queensland and finally Victoria. 

Kate holds tertiary qualifications in environmental science, law and history, having graduated from University of Melbourne (Arts  Hons/Law), Monash University (Masters in Environmental Science), and La Trobe University (PhD in Law and Legal Studies). She also holds a Diploma of International Environmental Law from UNITAR. Kate is member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand and is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kate has worked in agriculture and academia, as a solicitor in her own law firm, and as a barrister. 

She was a senior lawyer for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia where she worked to incorporate an understanding of the underlying issues across a very broad spectrum of sectors.

She has also held appointments as the senior regional magistrate for the Magistrates’ Courts in north east Victoria and courts in the Western Desert in Western Australia, extending as far north as Kiwikurra and as far south as Esperance.  She has also worked as a Mining Warden in the Western Australian goldfields.

Kate’s employment has taken her all over Victoria and Western Australia and her work has involved extensive community consultation and reporting across sectors.

Her career has seen her undertake a number of consultancies, including the development of curriculum and reports on natural resource management, native title, Indigenous issues, and the choices facing local government in regard to a rapidly changing climate.

In 2008, Kate was appointed a Charles Joseph LaTrobe Fellow with the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at LaTrobe University. In 2008 and 2009, she was the Chair of the Victorian Ministerial Reference Council on Climate Change Adaptation and also a member of the Premier's Reference Committee on Climate Change.

Kate is an Adjunct Professor at the LaTrobe Institute for Social and Environmental Sustainability Centre within the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability) at La Trobe University, Chair of the National Rural Law and Justice Alliance and a board member of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network.

Kate was appointed by the Victorian Government in June 2009, for a five year term, as the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Victoria.