Impact, Include, Inspire
Speakers
Information on the plenary speakers already confirmed are provided below. Details of more speakers will be provided here once confirmed.
Opening Address
Hon. David Templeman MLA
WA Minister for Culture and the Arts; Sport and Recreation; International Education; Heritage
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Hon. David Templeman MLA
David was born in Northam, Western Australia and proudly calls himself a country boy at heart. After being educated there he trained to be a drama teacher and commenced his teaching career in Three Springs before moving to Mandurah in 1988. David has always had a deep interest in the local communities he has lived in and in 1994 was elected to the City of Mandurah Council and served the Council for seven years, the last four as Deputy mayor, before his election to the State Parliament in February 2001.
David was re-elected as Member for Mandurah in 2005, 2008, 2013, 2017 and 2021. He was Minister for Child Protection, Seniors and Volunteering, Youth and the Peel Region from 2006 to 2007 then as Environment Minister, Minister for Climate Change and the Peel Region from 2007 to 2008. In March 2017 David took on the ministerial portfolios of Local Government, Heritage, and Culture and the Arts. After the 2021 election, he was sworn in as Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Arts and Heritage. Following a Cabinet reshuffle in late 2021, he became Minister for Culture and the Arts; Sport and Recreation; International Education; and Heritage. He is the nation’s longest serving Culture and Arts Minister and the State’s inaugural International Education Minister.
David’s passions include the arts, the environment, education, youth and community development. He is particularly interested in looking at how we can create opportunities for those people in our community who, for whatever reason, find themselves marginalised or isolated. Linked to this is a desire to develop a strong sense of identity for Mandurah. This desire to develop community and create a more cohesive approach to community concerns was his main motivation to stand for Parliament.
David has been an active participant in the Mandurah Arts sectors for many years and still performs in his annual Christmas Charity Show at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, which raises money for a Performing Arts Fellowship. The Fellowship supports local young people from the Peel Region who are pursuing careers in the Arts.
David lives in Mandurah with his wife Donna and their four children.
Keynote Speaker
Rabia Siddique
QCVS BA LLB GAICD FAIM CSP
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Rabia Siddique
Rabia is an international humanitarian lawyer, retired British Army senior officer, former war crimes and terrorism prosecutor and hostage survivor.
She has undertaken humanitarian aid work in Asia, South America, Europe and the Middle East, for which she was decorated by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Having survived a hostage crisis in Iraq in 2005 Rabia sued the British Government for discrimination when both the military and government tried to cover up her involvement in the incident, which saw her leading hostage negotiations for the release of two British Special Forces illegally kidnapped and detained by Iraqi based terrorists. Rabia was held hostage for over eight hours and subjected to cruel and unusual treatment in front of her male colleagues. After their eventual rescue Rabia’s colleagues were recognised, psychologically supported and decorated for their efforts and bravery, however Rabia was gagged, ignored and ordered to never speak of the role she played on that fateful day where she almost lost her life.
As a result of her betrayal at the hands of her military superiors and the then Prime Minister of Great Britain Rabia was diagnosed with post traumatic stress (PTS) and after her recovery she held both the British Army and Government to account for their systematic discrimination of women and ethnic minorities. Her landmark case made international news and saw the floodgates open for many similar cases. It heralded profound changes in defence and public policy, attitudes and the support offered to female soldiers serving on the frontline, ethnic minorities and military personnel suffering with PTS.
Rabia’s best selling memoir “Equal Justice: My Journey as a Woman, a Soldier and a Muslim” was published by Pan MacMillan in 2013 and work is currently underway to adapt this to a movie.
Rabia is now a multi award winning storyteller, global inspirational speaker, leadership consultant, media commentator, non-executive director, philanthropist and human rights advocate. She is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), the highest accreditation bestowed upon speakers internationally, and in 2022 was chosen by the British Museum to feature in the ‘Feminine Power’ global exhibition, as one of only five strong female voices from around the world.
Human rights, peace and the sustainability of our planet is what drives Rabia. But her biggest challenge and joy is being a mother to her teenage triplet boys!
Plenary Speaker
Professor Mark Pegrum
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Professor Mark Pegrum
Professor Mark Pegrum lectures on digital learning in the Graduate School of Education at The University of Western Australia in Perth, where he is also the Deputy Head of School (International). His current research focuses on mobile and emerging technologies, including extended reality (XR) and generative artificial intelligence (AI); digital literacies, including attentional literacy and AI literacy; and the forms digital learning takes in diverse contexts across the Global North and South. His books include: Mobile Learning: Languages, Literacies and Cultures (2014); Mobile Lenses on Learning: Languages and Literacies on the Move (2019); and Digital Literacies (2nd ed.; co-authored with Nicky Hockly & Gavin Dudeney, 2022). Further details can be found on his website at https://markpegrum.com/about-mark-pegrum/biodata/.
Workshop Speaker
Stephen Walker
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Stephen Walker
Academic Manager: English Language Assessment
UQ College – The University of Queensland
Stephen is responsible for the development and validation of English language assessment used at UQ College and at the University of Queensland.
He is also Teacher Representative for the Association for Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ) and an English Australia Assessment SIG co-convenor.
His current interests include assessment design, development and validation, the design of adaptive and multistage adaptive tests, and the use of Rasch measurement in language assessment.
Stephen has over 30 years of varied experience as a Director of Studies, teacher trainer and English language assessment manager. He has worked in Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and Australia.
He is the proud owner of a twenty-five-year-old land rover.
Workshop Speaker
Ben Beaument
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Ben Beaumont
Head of English Language Teacher Strategy and Publishing
Trinity College London
Ben Beaumont is an educator and researcher who specialises in teacher development in ELT and English-medium instruction contexts. Having worked in teaching, assessment and training roles in a variety of sectors, Ben is keen to share emergent good practice with peers, helping support a balanced, localised and contextual approach to teacher development. As Head of Teacher Strategy and Publishing at Trinity College London, Ben’s work allows him to critically engage with, and research, teachers’ professional development practices, with the ultimate goal of maximising opportunities for effective learning.
Session Speaker
Frances Baxter
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Frances Baxter
Frances Baxter is an intercultural educator who has designed and facilitated learning programs for business, volunteers, students, and educators across Australia and in a diverse range of countries worldwide. Over the last decade she has designed and managed government funded projects including the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program for DFAT, and the Victorian Young Leaders Programs to China, India and Indonesia on behalf of the Victorian Department of Education, Global Competence for IES Abroad for University students in Japan. Fran is a qualified administrator of a range of intercultural assessment tools including the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale, Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), GlobeSmart, Global Competence Inventory(GCI)and the Inclusive Behaviours Inventory (IBI).
Session Speaker
Marcela Lapertosa
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Marcela Lapertosa
Marcela Lapertosa is a Cross Cultural Psychologist with a passion for fostering intercultural understanding. Marcela is also an intercultural facilitator and trainer who has travelled the world providing intercultural learning training and coaching to students, host families, volunteers, executives, and educators. Marcela led the development of multiple intercultural learning curricula to enhance study abroad experiences including the AFS Global Competence Certificate (GCC), a blended learning program for 18+ study abroad participants. Over the last few years Marcela has been an advocate for Global Citizenship education organising and speaking at several conferences around the world. She is on the executive team for the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence and she is a former faculty at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication and is also a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory.
Closing Speaker
Chris Varney
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Chris Varney
Chris Varney is Founder and Chief Enabling Officer of I CAN Network Ltd.
I CAN Network Ltd is Australia’s largest Autistic-led organisation with 83 Autistic staff and 3,000 young people engaged in its group mentoring programs.
Chris was inspired to start I CAN from the support his family, schools and mentors gave him, which he shared in his TEDx ‘Autism – How My Unstoppable Mother Proved the Experts Wrong’.
Chris has a background in children’s rights. Chris spent 11 years with World Vision Australia and World Vision International where his roles included Youth Ambassador, VGen Co-Director and Manager of Youth Supporters. VGen
was instrumental in achieving commitments to fair-trade from big chocolate companies.
In 2009 Chris was Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. In this role Chris successfully campaigned for the closure of the Magill Training Centre and created Dear
Kevin: a book of 789 handwritten letters by children and young people given to then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
In addition to I CAN, Chris is National Patron of the Australian Association for Special Education and Chair of the Victorian Disability Advisory Council.
