![Professor Tamara Walsh](/sites/default/files/profiles/1463.jpeg)
Overview
Background
Tamara Walsh is a Professor of Law and Director of the UQ Pro Bono Centre. She has degrees in both Law and Social Work, and her interest is in social welfare law and human rights. Her research examines the impact of the law on vulnerable people including children and young people, people experiencing homelessness, people on low incomes, people with disabilities, mothers and carers. Her research has spanned 20 years and has been widely published, both in Australia and internationally.
In 2008, Tamara designed and established the UQ Pro Bono Centre, along with Dr Paul O'Shea and Prof Ross Grantham. The UQ Pro Bono Centre facilitates student and staff participation in pro bono legal activities, particularly public interest research and law reform. It is now a flagship program of the UQ Law School.
In 2016, Tamara established the UQ Deaths in Custody Project, which she runs in partnership with Prisoners' Legal Service. This Project monitors deaths in custody across Australia, and administers a public website which is an important resource for researchers, coroners and members of the public: www.deaths-in-custody.project.uq.edu.au
In 2020, Tamara established the UQ/Caxton Human Rights Project, along with Bridget Burton at Caxton Legal Centre. This project is staffed by volunteer law students and makes information on every case that refers to the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) publicly available: https://law.uq.edu.au/human-rights-cases.
Tamara is currently undertaking an ARC Linkage project on human rights dispute resolution in Australia (2023-2025). She has recently completed an ARC Linkage project on the criminalisation of poverty and homelessness in Australia (2017-2021).
Tamara undertakes pro bono legal practice in the area of child protection, and she lectures in human rights law, and child and family law. Tamara also runs the UQ Law School's clinical legal education program.
Availability
- Professor Tamara Walsh is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Law, University of New South Wales
- Bachelor (Honours), University of New South Wales
- Doctor of Philosophy, Queensland University of Technology
- Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Queensland University of Technology
Research interests
-
Human rights law
-
Law and social justice
-
Social welfare law
-
Discrimination/equal opportunity law
Works
Search Professor Tamara Walsh’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2024
Journal Article
Twenty years of human rights protection in the Australian Capital Territory: what have we learned?
Walsh, Tamara and Allen, Dominique (2024). Twenty years of human rights protection in the Australian Capital Territory: what have we learned?. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 47 (2), 391-414.
Featured
2024
Book Chapter
From Vagrancy to Public Nuisance in 200 Years
Walsh, Tamara (2024). From Vagrancy to Public Nuisance in 200 Years. The Routledge Handbook of Global Perspectives on Homelessness, Law & Policy. (pp. 465-480) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003274056-33
Featured
2024
Journal Article
‘Back off! Stop making us illegal!’: the criminalisation of homelessness in Australia
Walsh, Tamara, Anthony, Thalia, Beilby, Jane, McNamara, Luke and Quilter, Julia (2024). ‘Back off! Stop making us illegal!’: the criminalisation of homelessness in Australia. Social and Legal Studies. doi: 10.1177/09646639241244953
Featured
2024
Book Chapter
Practical legal training in ‘child law’: lessons in collaboration, emotion and relationships
Walsh, Tamara (2024). Practical legal training in ‘child law’: lessons in collaboration, emotion and relationships. Teaching family law: reflections on pedagogy and practice. (pp. 86-100) edited by Henry Kha and Mark Henaghan. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Featured
2023
Journal Article
Solitary confinement and prisoners' human rights
Walsh, Tamara and Blaber, Helen (2023). Solitary confinement and prisoners' human rights. Monash University Law Review, 49 (1), 1-35. doi: 10.26180/23632422.v1
Featured
2023
Journal Article
An interdisciplinary classroom in law and social work: can it be done?
Venables, Jemma and Walsh, Tamara (2023). An interdisciplinary classroom in law and social work: can it be done?. Legal Education Review, 33 (1), 1-23. doi: 10.53300/001c.74263
Featured
2023
Journal Article
Comparing apples with oranges? Practitioner perspectives on the inconsistencies between family law and child protection
Walsh, Tamara, Healy, Karen and Venables, Jemma (2023). Comparing apples with oranges? Practitioner perspectives on the inconsistencies between family law and child protection. Australian Journal of Family Law, 36, 154-172.
2024
Journal Article
Hyper-policing the Homeless: Lived Experience and the Perils of Benevolent and Malevolent Policing
Anthony, Thalia, Walsh, Tamara, McNamara, Luke and Quilter, Julia (2024). Hyper-policing the Homeless: Lived Experience and the Perils of Benevolent and Malevolent Policing. Critical Criminology, 1-19. doi: 10.1007/s10612-024-09775-3
2024
Conference Publication
Deaths in and after custody
Walsh, Tamara (2024). Deaths in and after custody. Human rights and the criminal justice system, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 14 June 2024. Prisoners' Legal Service.
2024
Conference Publication
Incorporating law students in community legal practice: burden or benefit?
Walsh, Tamara and Williams, Rosalind (2024). Incorporating law students in community legal practice: burden or benefit?. CLCQ Annual Conference, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 21-22 May 2024.
2023
Conference Publication
Learning from Children as Experts by Experience to Inform Research, Policy and Practice
Walsh, Tamara (2023). Learning from Children as Experts by Experience to Inform Research, Policy and Practice. Children, Trauma and the Law, Lismore, NSW Australia, 12-13 October 2023.
2023
Journal Article
Looked after children's right to contact with birth parents: an Australian study
Healy, Karen, Walsh, Tamara, Venables, Jemma and Thompson, Kate (2023). Looked after children's right to contact with birth parents: an Australian study. Child and Family Social Work, 28 (3), 659-668. doi: 10.1111/cfs.12992
2023
Other Outputs
Submission to the inquiry into Australia's Human Rights Framework
Walsh, Tamara and Allen, Dominique (2023). Submission to the inquiry into Australia's Human Rights Framework. Brisbane, QLD, Australia; Melbourne, VIC, Australia: The University of Queensland; Monash University.
2023
Conference Publication
What does access to justice actually mean?
Walsh, Tamara (2023). What does access to justice actually mean?. National Access to Justice and Pro Bono Conference, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 21-23 June 2023.
2023
Journal Article
Supporting birth parents’ relationships with children following removal: a scoping review
Healy, Karen, Venables, Jemma and Walsh, Tamara (2023). Supporting birth parents’ relationships with children following removal: a scoping review. Children and Youth Services Review, 149 106961, 106961. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106961
2023
Other Outputs
Safety through support: building safer communities by supporting vulnerable children in Queensland's youth justice system
Walsh, Tamara, Beilby, Jane, Lim, Phylicia and Cornwell, Lucy (2023). Safety through support: building safer communities by supporting vulnerable children in Queensland's youth justice system. Brisbane, QLD Australia: The University of Queensland.
2023
Journal Article
'We're not doing any harm... just leave us alone': why street offences should be decriminalised'
Walsh, Tamara (2023). 'We're not doing any harm... just leave us alone': why street offences should be decriminalised'. European Journal of Homelessness, 17 (1), 105-118.
2023
Journal Article
Can we fix it? Law, lawyers and social change
Walsh, Tamara (2023). Can we fix it? Law, lawyers and social change. Bond Law Review, 34 (1), 1-20. doi: 10.53300/001c.68067
2022
Journal Article
Are human rights ‘toothless’ in Australian child protection matters? Perspectives of lawyers and social workers
Walsh, Tamara, Healy, Karen, Venables, Jemma and Thompson, Kate (2022). Are human rights ‘toothless’ in Australian child protection matters? Perspectives of lawyers and social workers. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 36 (1) ebac028, 1-16. doi: 10.1093/lawfam/ebac028
2022
Conference Publication
Preparing social work students for interdisciplinary practice with lawyers: Student views on a pilot interdisciplinary teaching initiative
Venables, Jemma and Walsh, Tamara (2022). Preparing social work students for interdisciplinary practice with lawyers: Student views on a pilot interdisciplinary teaching initiative. Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research Symposium, Melbourne, VIC Australia, 10-11 November 2022.
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Tamara Walsh is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
-
Human rights and social welfare law
The PhD program provides students with an opportunity to examine the legal and social impacts of human rights law, and explore in depth the effects of the law and legal systems on people experiencing social and economic disadvantage. Students could apply human rights law, and related scholarship, to a number of different legal areas and problems, including:
- Social welfare
- Child protection
- Housing and homelessness
- Criminalisation, policing and corrections
For further information contact Professor Tamara Walsh, e: t.walsh@law.uq.edu.au.
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Human rights and COVID: What did we learn and where to from here?
Principal Advisor
Completed supervision
-
2018
Doctor Philosophy
Capacity and Treatment Refusal: How Law Should Deal with the Case of Anorexia Nervosa
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Malcolm Parker
-
2019
Doctor Philosophy
Plain language and the law: Rethinking legal information for vulnerable people in Australia
Associate Advisor
-
2007
Doctor Philosophy
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL?: An Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) as a Tool for the Delivery of Equality of Opportunity in Education to People with Impairments
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Tamara Walsh directly for media enquiries about:
- Child protection
- Civil rights
- Community justice
- constitutional law
- Corrections and law
- Criminal law
- Disability
- Discrimination
- Homelessness and the law
- Human rights law
- Justice
- Law - homelessness
- Law and homelessness
- Law and poverty
- Moving on powers
- Police and impoverished people
- Poverty and the law
- pro bono law
- Right to education
- Social justice
- Social security law
- Social welfare law
- Summary offences law
- Youth justice
Need help?
For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team: