Indigenous magistrate to host lecture
QUEENSLAND’S first indigenous Magistrate Jacqueline Payne will discuss the relationship between early childhood trauma and criminal behaviour in Toowoomba tonight.
As part of Shine Lawyers’ University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice public lecture series, Magistrate Payne will present “Criminal Justice and Neuroscience” in A Block at USQ.
She will discuss what neuroscience tells us about the impact of trauma on the brain, and whether brains can be retrained.
Magistrate Payne was the first indigenous woman to be admitted as a solicitor in Queensland.
She worked in criminal defence for 14 years for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation Legal Service and later in her own successful private practice.
In 1999 she became the first indigenous person to be appointed to the judiciary in Queensland. She currently sits in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
USQ School of Law and Justice’s Professor Reid Mortensen said the university was honoured to host legal professionals, law students and academics at the annual lecture.
“NAIDOC Week this year celebrated the leadership of Indigenous women – ‘Because of Her, We Can’,” he said.
“Magistrate Payne was a pioneer of an Indigenous presence in the legal profession and judiciary and is a great example of what any Australian can be.”
The lecture starts from 6pm.