Adjudication Panel

When a complaint about an advertisement is received, it is sent on to the Chief Adjudicator of The ABAC Scheme. Currently, the Chief Adjudicator is Professor the Hon Michael Lavarch. (Reports of the Chief Adjudicator are presented in each Annual Report.)

Currently there are five Panel members. A minimum of three Panel members can adjudicate on a particular complaint. One of these three will always be a Panel member with a professional background related to public health, nominated by the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy. A brief biography of each panel member is provided below.

No member of the Panel may, at the time of or during the term of his or her apointment to the Panel (a) be a current employee of member of the alcohol beverages industry; or (b) have been an employee or member of that industry during the period of five (5) years prior to the date of his or her appointment.

The ten steps in the Adjudication Process are described in the 2005 Annual Report. The Chief Adjudicator is assisted in adminstering the complaints process by an ABAC Administrator.

ABAC Adjudication Panel Members

Chief Adjudicator, Professor the Hon Michael Lavarch

Professor Lavarch has been the Chief Adjudicator of the Panel since its inception. He is a former Commonwealth Attorney General and is currently a Professor of Law and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Queensland University of Technology.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Law degree from QIT and practiced as a solicitor prior to being elected to Federal Parliament. In 1996 he recommenced his legal career as Special Counsel to the legal firms of Dunhill Madden Butler and Deacons, where he specialised in land access issues for major infrastructure projects. From 2001 to 2004 he was the Secretary-General of the Law Council of Australia, the peak industry body for the legal profession. Michael holds a number of directorships on national companies and organisations and has undertaken a number of significant community service and education roles. He has also carried out extensive work in the field of constitutional law.

Professor Fran Baum

Professor Baum was the first health sector member of the Panel, appointed in October 2004. She is a Professor of Public Health, the Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University where she is also Director of the Southgate Institute of Health, Society and Equity and of the South Australian Community Health Research Unit.

Fran holds a BA(hons) and PhD. She was awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship in 2008. She has published extensively on the social and economic determinants of health. Her professional activities include Commissioner on the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, life member and Past National President of the Public Health Association of Australia, Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in Australia and of the Health Promotion Association and Co-Chair of the Global Steering Council of the People’s Health Movement.

Professor Richard P. Mattick

Professor Mattick is a health sector member of the Panel and was appointed in June 2007. He is the Professor of Drug and Alcohol Studies in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Sydney where he is also the Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. He is a member of the Prime Minister's Australian National Council on Drugs, and a regular adviser to the World Health Organization and the United Nations in Vienna.

Richard holds a Bachelor of Science Degree, Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and PhD. He has authored over 200 scientific articles and books on the assessment, nature and treatment of alcohol, opioid, and other drug use problems. His major current research interests are in clinical trials for management of alcohol and other drug dependence, psychostimulant substitution therapy, treatment of young drug dependent people, and the effects of injecting drug use on health. He has been an Editor on the Cochrane Review Group for Drugs and Alcohol, and Assistant Editor and Executive Editor (respectively) on the international journals Addiction and the Drug and Alcohol Review.

Ms Debra Richards

Ms Richards was appointed as a general member of the Panel on 15 September 2010. She has been involved in the broadcasting industry in both the public and private sector for over 25 years most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Subscription Television & Radio Association (ASTRA). Her key achievements include achieving copyright and other legislative reforms in respect of the subscription television industry, developing and implementing the first and subsequent Codes of practice covering all subscription television services and businesses in Australia, and leading an established government structure into a new structure and mode of operation as a result of legislative reform.

Debra holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree and Graduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Arts. She is a member of numerous communications industry bodies including member and director of the Communications & Media Law Association (CAMLA) and member and Vice President of the Australian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications (IIC). She also lectures on Media in Australia for Boston University.

Ms Jeanne Strachan

Ms Strachan has been a general member of the Panel since its inception. She is a director of Inview Pty Ltd, a company specializing in market research which she founded in 1965. Since 1965 she has been involved continuously in the provision of both quantitative and qualitative market research services throughout Australia to a wide variety of businesses. Her work has included evaluating the effectiveness of television commercials, advertising campaigns and pack designs for the commercial sector and also sociological research for the public sector. Her recognised field of expertise is understanding consumer behavior. In this capacity she is frequently retained as an expert witness by the Federal Court of Australia.

Ms Strachan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Psychology and Urban Geography from the University of Sydney. Prior to establishing Inview she was employed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission as an Audience Research Officer responsible for evaluating the reaction of consumers to both television and radio programs. Inview was a foundation member of the Australian Market Research Organisation.