The State of Free Speech in Australia

Lorraine Finlay has been Australia's Human Rights Commissioner since November 2021. In that role she carries particular responsibility for protecting and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms - freedom of speech, religion, movement and association - and leads the Commission's work on technology and human rights, business and human rights, and modern slavery.

Before joining the Commission she was Senior Human Trafficking Specialist with the Australian Mission to ASEAN, taught constitutional, criminal and international human rights law at Murdoch University for over a decade, and worked as a State Prosecutor in Western Australia and as an associate at the High Court of Australia. She holds a PhD in law from the University of Queensland and a dual masters from New York University and the National University of Singapore.

Commissioner Finlay has been a frequent and frank contributor to public debate on hate speech laws, online content regulation, and academic freedom - often arguing that free expression is too readily traded away. She speaks on freedom of speech from the vantage point of the office charged with defending it.