Service Learning Community Internship Impact Project Environmental Sustainability Launch Event
Australia is one of the most unique and biodiverse nations in the world, its First Peoples belong to this country and are the oldest living civilisation on Earth. Practices of attending to and understanding the interconnectedness of land, water and all living beings is critical to understanding how we sustainably manage, interact with and look after the environment. Currently Australia is facing one of the highest rates of species extinction in the world, and increased pressures on biodiversity and natural resources continue due to land clearing, development, climate change, land-use pressures and pollution. To address the diversity of complex environmental issues Australia needs to set bold new priorities for change, and develop solutions that meet environmental, economic, social and cultural goals.
The Service Learning Community Internship aim is to bring together students, advocates and industry experts to engage in a discussion to develop awareness of complex environmental issues, and generate innovative and effective solutions to encourage actions which work towards achieving outcomes aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Service Learning Impact Project Environmental Sustainability Project
Service Learning Impact Project Environmental Sustainability Project Website
Keynote Speaker
Terri Butler MP
Terri Butler is the Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water, and the federal Labor Member for Griffith, located on Brisbane’s Southside. She has previously served as Shadow Minister for Youth, and Shadow Minister for Employment Services, Workforce Participation and the Future of Work, as well as in earlier shadow assistant minister roles. Her parliamentary committee work has included the House Standing Committees on Social Policy; Employment, Education and Training; Procedure; Tax and Revenue, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
In parliament Terri has championed marriage equality, co-founded a parliamentary group on innovation and enterprise, and has spoken out on a range of issues from environmental law to her own region’s infrastructure needs. Her first book, Labor of Love, on the importance of political participation, was published in 2017. Terri has contributed chapters to a recently published book from the Australian Catholic University on human rights and a forthcoming book in which she discusses water and the COVID-19 recovery.
Terri entered the parliament in 2014, in a by-election that arose following former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s resignation. Prior to that, she was a partner at Maurice Blackburn, a national law firm, and a recognised leader in industrial and employment law. She holds a Bachelor of Law (Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) from the Queensland University of Technology, and has recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Economics at the University of New England, winning prizes in economic history and banking and finance.