Speakers Bios
Prof Patrick Parkinson
Prof John Whitehall
Patrick Parkinson is the Academic Dean and Head of School for the TC Beirne School of Law. Professor Parkinson is a specialist in family law, child protection, law and religion and the law of equity and trusts.
Professor Parkinson served from 2004-2007 as Chairperson of the Family Law Council, an advisory body to the federal Attorney- General, and also chaired a review of the Child Support Scheme in 2004-05 which led to the enactment of major changes to the Child Support Scheme.
He was President of the International Society of Family Law from 2011-14 and is also well-known for his community work concerning child protection. He has been a member of the NSW Child Protection Council, and was Chairperson of a major review of the state law concerning child protection which led to the enactment of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.
In 2018, Professor Parkinson was awarded a Doctor of Laws by the University of Sydney for his book, Family Law and the Indissolubility of Parenthood (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
John Whitehall is Professor of Paediatrics in Sydney, Australia. His 50 year career in clinical and academic paediatric medicine, has involved professorships at leading universities in Australia as well as working extensively in developing countries, including PNG, Sri Lanka and Madagascar.
His clinical work has included 15 years as a Director of Neonatal Intensive Care in North Queensland, which included ante-natal diagnosis, resuscitation, management and transportation of premature, dysmorphic and sick neonates, many of whom were Indigenous.
He was deeply involved in the establishment of the medical school at James Cook University and, for 20 years, taught modules of Tropical Paediatrics in the Masters programme in the School of Public Health.
In recent years he has become a leading critic of Gender Ideology especially the Medical approach and its as it impact on the young.
He is currently i the Chairman of the Australian Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship.
Dr Elisabeth Taylor
Prof Dianna Kenny
Dr Dianna Kenny held two professorships (in Psychology and Music) when she retired from the University of Sydney in 2019 after 31 years of service.
She recently entered full-time private practice as a consultant psychologist and psychotherapist.
She continues to undertake research in the areas of developmental psychology and psychopathology, psychoanalysis, behavioural science and music psychology.
She is the author of several books and over 200 journal articles and reports. Her books include: God, Freud and Religion: The Origins of Faith, Fear and Fundamentalism (2016), From Id to Intersubjectivity: Talking about the Talking Cure with Master Clinicians (2014) and Australia's adolescents: A health psychology perspective (1995)
Her current projects include gender dysphoria in children and adolescents and music performance anxiety.
Dr Elisabeth Taylor is a Commonwealth scholar with a PhD research in Medieval Women’s History from Cambridge University.
She now works as a researcher, writer and speaker. Her interests include gender and sexuality: the history of sexual rights activism; the ideological roots of the sexual revolution; the evolving concept of “gender”; queer theory and how these are influencing contemporary political debates.
She has published and presented on subjects including; “the queer revolution”, comprehensive sexuality education, pornography, the Safe Schools program.
She is particularly concerned at the how the converging personal, commercial and political agendas of sexual liberationists, Neo-Marxists and the global eugenics movement promise to affect children, the family and democracy more broadly.
Rev Dr Paschal Corby
Dr Caroline Norma
Fr. Paschal is a priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and assistant priest of St. Joseph’s Parish, Springvale.
He received his Doctorate in Moral Theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family (Rome) and was awarded the Sub Auspiciis Prize for outstanding dissertations.
He currently lectures in Moral Theology at Catholic Theological College (Melbourne) and the University of Notre Dame (Sydney). He is the author of The Hope and Despair of Human Bio-enhancement (Pickwick, 2019
and other recent publications which include: “The Imperative of Conscientious Objection in Medical Practice,” National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (Winter 2018) and “Awakened by Love: Saint Francis of Assisi as Model for the Church’s Mission to Health Care and Charitable Service.” The Linacre Quarterly (2018).
Dr Caroline Norma is a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University. She received her Doctorate in Political Science and her Master of Arts in History from the University of Melbourne.
Caroline’s research focuses generally on prostitution, pornography and trafficking in Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Caroline is an Editorial Board Member for Women’s Studies International Forum and is also a member of Collective Shout, an organisation that campaigns against the objectification and sexualisation of women and girls.
More recently she has been one of the few Australian voices speaking out about the negative impacts of the Transgender Movement on women and girls, from a feminist perspective.