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Keynote speakers

Speakers are listed in order of presentation time. More speakers will be announced over the coming weeks.

Dr Sean Brady

Forensic Engineer

Monday 18 August 2025

Dr Sean Brady

Sean Brady is a forensic engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Australia.

In 2020 he completed the Brady Review, which investigated the causes of fatalities in the Queensland mining industry. The review was tabled in parliament and made 11 recommendations to the regulator and mining companies on how to improve safety.

He also speaks and writes on the causes of technical and organisational failure.

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Helen Fitzroy

Safety Advocate & Author

Monday 18 August 2025

Helen Fitzroy

Helen Fitrzoy's passion for workplace safety commenced following the death of her husband in 1991, in an underground mining accident in Norseman, WA – leaving her a widow at the age of 33 years, with three young children to raise alone. At the time of her husband Steve's death, mining fatalities in particular were largely 'normalised' – by not only companies, but also government agencies. Such tragedies were considered part of the business and virtually no support was offered to families, to enable them to move forward with their lives.

One of the strategies that Helen used in coping with her circumstance, was to write – she wrote to her husband, but wrote largely for herself and small children and several years later, Just a Number was published. The book outlines the journey Helen and her children took for the five years after Steve's death, as they waded through the quagmire of emotional, legal and bureaucratic processes that make up the life of families bereaved by a workplace fatality.

Just a Number is now used largely throughout the resources industry around Australia, as a means of informing workers and their families of the dire consequences on loved ones, of the devastation of a workplace fatality. For the past decade, Helen has also travelled extensively throughout Australia, and internationally, delivering safety presentations to companies and their employees, to illustrate the importance of both parties' commitment to safety at work. This has also been accompanied by the production of a DVD of the same name in 2007.

For the past two decades, much of Helen's time has been devoted to campaigning for, not just improved safety within the mining sector, but also for improved, on-going support for bereaved family members. This has culminated in the establishment of the Western Australian Resource Workers Legacy Scheme Incorporated (known as The Miners Promise), of which she was the Deputy Chair, before taking on the role of Family Support Advisor, working directly with affected families for two years. This organisation ensures that no family of a resource worker is left in a position of poverty or isolation following a crisis event, including the death of a loved one, predominantly in WA and members receive a diverse range of on-going support.

Her goal is to see this initiative developed, not just Australia-wide, but internationally.

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Prof Naomi Rogers

Specialist Fatigue Consultant

Monday 18 August 2025

Prof Naomi Rogers

Professor Rogers has an international reputation in the areas of circadian disruption, sleep loss, and fatigue. She has received numerous awards, including an NHMRC Howard Florey Centenary Research Fellowship and a Tall Poppy Award. She is a past President of the Australian Society for Medical Research, and past Director of the Australasian Sleep Association and the Sleep Health Foundation and served on the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Sleep Societies.

Professor Rogers has authored more than 50 peer review journal articles and 9 book chapters. She has presented invited papers at national and international conferences, in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Europe and Asia

She works as a Specialist Fatigue Consultant in various industries including coal mining in Queensland and NSW, maritime, transport, defence, NASA and health care; and has served as an expert witness in coronial inquests and other legal cases, as well as consulting for the Queensland Police Forensic Crash Unit.

Naomi works extensively within Queensland Mining, with various companies and mine sites, the SSHRs and ISHRs.

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John Tate

Barrister

Monday 18 August 2025

John Tate

John is admitted to practice law as a Barrister. He has practised both privately and in government in a number of Australian jurisdictions – in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Norfolk Island and Queensland.

Since 1996, John has acted as Counsel Assisting in Mining Warden’s and Coronial inquiries in virtually all mining, explosives, petroleum and gas fatalities in Queensland. Additionally, he has been retained in a range of other fatality inquiries where the primary issue has concerned hospital misadventure, aircraft failure, fatigue, or the suspicion of murder. To this point, John has acted as Counsel Assisting in over 90 public fatality inquiries.

For many years, John’s interests and experience have focused on the critical review of safety and health management and training systems, on accident investigation methodologies, and on compliance issues. Reflecting this, he is frequently engaged as a speaker in public forums and conferences.

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Dr Nicholas Mabbott

Fatigue Risk Management Specialist

Monday 18 August 2025

Dr Nicholas Mabbott

Dr Nicholas Mabbott is a Fatigue Risk Management Specialist with over 28 years of experience in sleep and fatigue risk management. He has provided sleep and fatigue management training and education to over 34 thousand people from a wide range of industries. While others tell employees to get eight hours of sleep, Dr Nick educates people on the benefits of sleep and how to get the best sleep possible, and which is appropriate to their rosters. Feedback from a Vice-President of Safety and a Production Manager at one site mentioned the incredible improvement in employee happiness in the workplace.  Dr Nick has also been successful in returning full sleep to people who have had sleep disorders, reducing their sleep to as low as three hours a night.

Dr Nicholas Mabbott is a passionate Fatigue Risk Management Specialist, sought out for his highly interesting and informative content on sleep and performance, coupled with his ability to connect with the audience. He uses storytelling to illustrate sleep’s effects on people, both positive and negative, drawing from discussions with some of the 34,000 people educated. He walks the talk with his love of sleep and desire to share the range of benefits of good sleep - from safety to health and wellness, and improved productivity. Nick’s information has changed lives and has the ability to save lives. He recently published his life’s work, with a book titled: “The Wonder of Sleep: Beyond Midnight”.

Dr Nick uses practical strategies to assist people to understand and get better sleep, helping them improve their health and wellness, and safety at work and on the road. He has provided fatigue risk assessments, roster assessments, fatigue incident investigations, assistance with the implementation of fatigue technologies, and training and awareness sessions, to clients in coal and metalliferous mining.

Dr Nick has represented the WA Police Major Crash Division on 19 alleged fatigue crashes (16 fatal), supplying expert evidence to courts and coroners. He assists groups at the workforce and corporate level to better manage workplace safety and performance through enabling the workforce to obtain the best sleep possible. He assists mining groups at the Australian and global level, helping Glencore Coal Assets deliver an Australian “Fatigue Protocol” and assisting AngloAmerica with global implementation of a “Fatigue Standard”.

In the last 15 years he has implemented his theory on sleep timing to assist people to get to sleep within minutes and achieve a full night of sleep. Many employees are now benefitting from increased quality and length of sleep, including those working night shifts. Dr Nick’s main drawcard is his ability to engage people to discuss sleep and fatigue management, not only in the safety space but within the health and wellness arena. People find Dr Nick’s knowledge, coupled with his wit, stories and ability to adapt to different groups, easy to believe and understand. Attendees enjoy taking their learnings home to their families.

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Prof Sidney Dekker

Human Factors & Safety Expert

Monday 18 August 2025

Prof Sidney Dekker

Sidney Dekker (PhD Ohio State University, USA, 1996) is Professor and Director of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Sidney has lived and worked in seven countries across four continents. He coined the terms ‘Safety Differently’ and ‘Restorative Just Culture’ in the 2010s, which have since turned into global movements for change. They encourage organisations to declutter their bureaucracy and enhance the capacities in people and processes that make things go well—and to offer compassion, restoration and learning when they don’t. His work has inspired generations of professionals and consultants globally. Many today will recognise Sidney’s ideas and concepts in for example ‘HOP,’ ‘Learning Teams,’ the ‘New View,’ and more.

An avid piano player and pilot who learned to fly at age 14, he has been flying the Boeing 737 for an airline on the side.

He is a trained mediator and Crisis Chaplain.

Sidney is prolific and bestselling author of, most recently: Ten Virtues of a Positive Safety Culture; Random Noise; Stop Blaming; Foundations of Safety Science; The Safety Anarchist; The End of Heaven; Just Culture; Safety Differently; The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’; Second Victim; Drift into Failure; Patient Safety; Compliance Capitalism; and Do Safety Differently.

He has co-directed the documentaries ‘Safety Differently,’ ‘Just Culture,’ ’The Complexity of Failure,’ and ‘Doing Safety Differently.’

His work has well over 21,000 citations and an h-index of 64.

Stanford has ranked Sidney among the world’s top 1% most influential scientists since Newton.

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Ben Houlison

Champion Adaptive Rower

Monday 18 August 2025

Ben Houlison

Ben Houlison is a champion adaptive rower and has represented Australia, winning bronze at the 2009 World Championships in Poland.

In 2004 Ben was working as a coal miner when he became paraplegic after a workplace accident.

Ben took up rowing a short time later and by 2006 became the New South Wales state champion shortly followed by Australian champion and then international success.

Ben has retired from the early mornings to focus on other pursuits including setting up his own business in cattle farming and wine growing. He now also has time to follow his beloved West Tigers.

Ben shares his story in the hope of teaching others about the impacts a work injury can have. “Once you experience a workplace accident, you never want someone to go through what my family had to”.

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Casey Stoner

MotoGP Legend & World Champion

Monday 18 August 2025

Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner is a MotoGP Legend and two-time MotoGP World Champion (2007 and 2011). He boasts 45 victories, 17 second-position finishes and 89 podium finishes. Casey was named Young Australian of the Year in 2008 and was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for his service to motorcycle racing in 2013.

Casey's principles for success are highly relevant in the business world. A great Australian ambassador, with an easy-going nature, he delivers strong and important messages.

Wins: Casey debuted in the MotoGP in 2006 at 26 years of age, taking pole position in his second race in Qatar and coming in as runner-up in the GP in Turkey. He finished eighth overall in his rookie season. He joined the Factory Ducati Marlboro Team in 2007 and won the first race of the year on a new bike. After a dominant season, Casey secured his first MotoGP World Championship.

In 2011, Casey joined the Repsol Honda Team and won three out of the first five rounds of the season. His victory in the Australian MotoGP was his fifth in succession, dating back to 2007. He also won the MotoGP World Championship, making him the only rider to win the title twice in his first year on a new bike.

Recognition: On his retirement, Casey was named a Moto GP legend and added to a list of greats that included countrymen Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner. The owners of the Phillip Island circuit have named turn three after Casey and created a bronze bust in his honour.

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Bastien Treptel

Cybersecurity Leader

Wednesday 20 August 2025

Bastien Treptel

Bastien Treptel is a former black-hat hacker turned trusted cybersecurity leader. At just 16, he infiltrated one of Australia’s largest banks. Today, he is one of the country’s most sought-after experts on how businesses can protect themselves against increasingly sophisticated digital threats.

As founder of CTRL: Cyber, a company valued at over $100 million and acquired in 2021, Bastien has advised leading enterprises on securing their systems from internal and external attack. His new venture, Ironclad ID, addresses the fastest-growing threat in cybercrime: social engineering. His mission is to eliminate identity-based breaches across Australian organisations.

Bastien’s keynotes are fast-paced, eye-opening and highly practical. He combines insider knowledge with compelling real-world cases to help audiences understand how hackers think, where vulnerabilities lie, and what actions leaders must take to reduce risk.

He hosts CyberHacker, a podcast with more than 100,000 subscribers, and works with startups and business leaders to build a safer digital future.

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Johnathan Thurston

Former NRL Star

Wednesday 20 August 2025

Johnathan Thurston

After retiring from a rewarding rugby league career, Johnathan Thurston is now focusing on projects he is passionate about which encourage young Australians to lead their best lives and enjoy success in education, sport and employment.

Through his academy he aims to be a leading national provider of outstanding employment initiatives and training programs aimed at health, wellbeing, sport and education across Australia. The academy's key strength is developing and delivering high quality programs to individuals, equipping them with the right skills, knowledge and attributes to make significant and positive future impact.

Through strong education, community and industry partnerships he is committed to supporting individuals to reach personal, educational and career goals.

He sees his work as a way of reaching out to disadvantaged communities and youth and offering them ways forward to help them achieve and enjoy success whatever that may look like for each of them.

He is contracted to the North Queensland Cowboys as a mentor and ambassador and continues to partner with Channel Nine where he commentates and offers expert insight into the game.

He also continues to be an Ambassador for the Queensland Reconciliation Awards and for the Apunipima Cape York Health Council's anti-ice campaign. 

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