Patron-in-Chief
Her Excellency the Hon Ms Sam Mostyn AC
Ms Sam Mostyn AC was sworn in as Australia’s 28th Governor-General on 1 July 2024.
A businesswoman and community leader, Ms Mostyn is known for her exceptional service to the Australian community. She has a long history in executive and governance roles across diverse sectors, including business, sport, climate change, the arts, policy and not-for-profit.
In 2024, Ms Mostyn was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service in the social justice, gender equity, sporting, cultural and business sectors, to reconciliation, and to environmental sustainability. She had previously been appointed an Officer of the Order in 2021.
For her continued contribution as an advocate for gender inclusion and equality, sustainability, and climate change action, Ms Mostyn was awarded the 2020 United Nations Day Honour Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Australian National University in 2018.
The Hon Linda Dessau AC CVO CF
Co-Patron
In 2015, before commencing what became an eight-year term as the Governor of Victoria, the Honourable Linda Dessau AC CVO CF was a member of the Board of the Trust and Chair of the Victorian Selection Committee.
In 1994 she was awarded the Percy Baxter Churchill Fellowship, travelling to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to identify strategies to reduce cost and delay in the criminal justice system.
Linda graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1973 with a Bachelor of Law with Honours degree, one of the university’s youngest law graduates.
After working in private practice, she spent three years in Hong Kong as a Crown Counsel and Senior Crown Counsel, before being appointed as a Magistrate in the Magistrate’s Court of Victoria. Between 1995 and 2013 she was a Judge of the Family Court of Australia.
Among other roles before her appointment as Governor, Linda served as a Commissioner on the AFL Commission, a Trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria and Chair of the Melbourne International Arts Festival.
In 2010 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia. In 2016 she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia and in 2023 she was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by His Majesty King Charles III.
In 2022 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by La Trobe University.
Professor Tom Calma AO
Co-Patron
Professor Tom Calma AO (Patron) is an Aboriginal elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja tribal group whose traditional lands are south west of Darwin and on the Coburg Peninsula in the Northern Territory of Australia, respectively.
He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at all levels and worked in the public sector for 45 years and is currently on a number of boards and committees focusing on rural and remote Australia, health, mental health, suicide prevention, education, justice reinvestment, research, reconciliation and economic development. These include the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, Poche Centres for Indigenous Health Network, Ninti One Ltd, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership in Mental Health, Cancer Australia’s Leadership Group on Indigenous Cancer Control and The Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust (CPST). The CPST provides scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to study post graduate courses at Oxford and Cambridge universities in the UK.
Professor Calma was appointed National Coordinator, Tackling Indigenous Smoking in March 2010 to lead the fight against tobacco use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Professor Calma was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2010. He also served as Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2004 until 2009.
Professor Calma has chaired the Close the Gap Steering Committee for Indigenous Health Equality which has effectively brought national attention to achieving health equality for Indigenous people by 2030.
Professor Calma has been an expert consultant to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (UWA); a Chief Investigator on the ARC Project ‘Reducing Incarceration using Justice Reinvestment: A Case Study’ (ANU); a member of the Review Panel of the David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research of the University of South Australia; and a member of the Indigenous Research Ethics Guidelines Review Working Committee of the National Health & Medical Research Council.
In 2007, Professor Calma was named by Bulletin Magazine as the Most Influential Indigenous Person in Australia; in 2008 he was named GQ Magazine’s 2008 Man of Inspiration for his work in Indigenous Affairs.
Professor Calma was the 2013 ACT Australian of the Year and in 2014 became the 6th Chancellor of the University of Canberra, the first Indigenous male Chancellor of an Australian university and was awarded an honorary Doctor of the University from Flinders University and was awarded the Indigenous Allied Health Australia Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his lifelong dedication to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians.