Expendable Australians
What is an Australian passport worth? Australians abroad have found themselves in harm’s way in recent years. As COVID slammed the doors of Australia shut and authoritarian regimes acquired the nasty habit of turning Australians into political prisoners, the world became a more dangerous place. With global crises proliferating, where is it too dangerous to go? If an Australian passport does not protect you, what are you owed by your government?
Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Kylie speaks several Middle Eastern languages and has spent significant periods travelling and conducting academic research in the region. She was falsely charged with espionage and imprisoned in Iran from September 2018 to November 2020 before being released in a prisoner exchange deal negotiated by the Australian government.
Ian Kemish
Ian Kemish AM served as Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ambassador to Germany, Head of the Prime Minister’s international division, and Head of the consular service in a diplomatic career that spanned twenty-five years. He was awarded membership of the Order of Australia for his leadership of Australia’s response to the 2002 Bali bombings. Ian is an adjunct professor in history at the University of Queensland, a non-resident fellow with the Lowy Institute, a director of the Australia–Indonesia Centre and an Honorary Fellow of Deakin University. Ian is also actively engaged in the international development and not-for-profit sectors, and writes regularly on Indo–Pacific strategic issues.
Sangeetha Pillai
Dr Sangeetha PIllai is a constitutional lawyer and a Senior Research Associate at the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney. She is an expert on Australian citizenship law and the scope of government power over citizens and non-citizens. She has published widely on this topic, and is a regular commentator on legal issues relating to citizenship, immigration and refugees in a range of media outlets.
Peter Greste
Peter Greste is a journalist, author, media freedom activist and professor at Macquarie University. Before joining academia in 2018, he spent 25 years as a correspondent in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. In 2013, he and two colleagues were arrested in Cairo on terrorism charges. They were convicted and sentenced to seven years in a case regarded as an attack on press freedom. Egypt released Peter after 400 days, and he has since become a press freedom advocate.
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