STOP MEDICAL CENSORSHIP SYMPOSIUM WA

Dr Joe Kosterich

MBBS 

GP, speaker, author, and health industry consultant, Joe is a regular in the media and is often called to give opinions in medico-legal cases.

He is WA State Medical Director for IPN, Clinical editor of Medical Forum Magazine, a Medical Advisor to a medicinal cannabis company and chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association.

Dr Kosterich teaches students at both UWA and Curtin Medical schools and has been actively involved in postgraduate education for over 20 Years.

Previously he held senior positions in the Australian Medical Association and sat on numerous industry and government boards and has extensive experience in the management of medical centres.

Dr Monique O’Connor

MBBS FRANZCP

Dr O’Connor is a Consultant Psychiatrist and an Australian expert in grief following bereavement.

She graduated in medicine from King’s College, University of London, UK and undertook psychiatry fellowship training in Western Australia.

She has had broad experience in clinical psychiatry, with special interest in Psychiatry of Old Age and Palliative Care.

She was the Director of Advanced Training in Psychiatry of Old Age in WA for five years,

Dr O’Connor developed an interest in bereavement and grief, a neglected subject in both medical training and health service delivery. 

She undertook specialist training at the Centre for Prolonged Grief, Columbia University, New York under Dr Kathy Shear.

In 2017, Dr O’Connor established a private practice specialising in care of the bereaved and providing Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy.

Dr O’Connor shares her expertise through teaching, supervision and academic publication. She is a passionate advocate of 'grief education' promotion in health sciences. 

Her ambition is to improve management of high-risk bereavements, with the aim of reducing suicide risk and the burden of chronic mental illness associated with unrecognised prolonged grief.

Dr Stas Vashevnik

MBBS FRANZCOG

Stas was born in Ukraine in 1975 and has grown up in Melbourne since 1988 and attended McKinnon and Melbourne High Schools and graduated from Monash University.

Stas has been working in the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology since 2002. Throughout this time he has worked in many different settings and hospitals: - from small rural hospitals to major central tertiary centres. This breadth of experience allows Stas to better meet the needs of his patients in many areas. Pelvic pain, infertility, menstrual and pelvic floor disorders are my main areas of interest including advanced laparoscopic and pelvic floor surgery.

In 2011 after obtaining the Fellowship of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists he moved to Frankston and Mornington Peninsula to work at Peninsula Private, Beleura, The Bays, Frankston and Rosebud Hospitals.

Professor Augusto Zimmermann 

 PhD, LLM cum laude, LLB (Hons.), CIArb, DipEd. 

Augusto Zimmermann is Professor of Law and Head of Law at the Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, Perth. He is also a former Law Reform Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australian (2012-2017), a former Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and a former Associate Dean (Research) and Postgraduate Research Director at Murdoch University’s School of Law.

Professor Zimmermann is also the founder and President of the Western Australian Legal Theory Association (WALTA), a former Vice-President of the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy (ASLP), an Elected Fellow at the International Academy for the Study of the Jurisprudence of the Family, and Editor-in-Chief of the Western Australian Jurist. A prolific writer and the author of numerous articles and academic books, he was awarded the 2012 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research, and two School Dean’s Research Awards, in 2010 and 2011.

Professor Zimmermann served on numerous academic bodies at Murdoch, including: the Research Degree and Scholarships Committee; the Vice Chancellor’s Awards and Citations Committee; the Academic Council’s Freedom of Speech in Policies and Procedures Advisory Group; and the Academic Staff Promotions Advisory Committee. In January 2015, he was invited by the Tasmanian Chief Justice to address the ‘Opening of the Legal Year’ in that State.

Professor Zimmermann is generally recognised as a fierce advocate for free speech and the Rule of Law, contributing with numerous articles on the subject, including for The Legal Doctrines of the Rule of Law and the Legal State (Rechtsstaat) (Springer, 2014), a book edited by the President of the American Bar Association (ABA) that explores the development of both the civil law and the common law conceptions of the Rule of Law. He is the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of numerous academic articles and books, including Emergency Powers, COVID-19 Restrictions & Mandatory Vaccination: A Rule of Law Perspective (Connor Court Publishing, 2022); Fundamental Rights in the Age of Covid-19 (Connor Court Publishing, 2021); No Offence Intended: Why 18C is Wrong (Connor Court Publishing, 2016); Christian Foundations of the Common Law (3 Volumes, Connor Court Publishing, 2018); Global Perspectives on Subsidiarity (Springer, 2014); and Western Legal Theory: History, Concepts and Perspectives (LexisNexis, 2013).

Finally, Professor Zimmermann has been included, together with only twelve other Australian academics and policy experts, in ‘Policy Experts’ – the Heritage Foundation’s directory for locating knowledgeable authorities and leading policy institutes actively involved in a broad range of public policy issues, both in the United States and worldwide.

Dr Jennifer Hibberd

Dr Hibberd is a dental surgeon, clinical scientist, academic educator, lecturer, & scientific editor. Her area of specialty is paediatric care. 

She  is a founder of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance, a  Director on the Board of Canada Heath Alliance and is on leadership teams in many other organization. 

Dr Hibberd is actively engaged nationally & internationally, serving as a consultant and promoter of health and personal sovereignty around the world. 

Over the years she has founded charities and served as a director on several boards, being actively engaged in patient-centred care throughout her career. 

She stands for health and humanity with the acute awareness that our children are our future. 

‘Humanity depends on us to guide & protect our children’. 

Ben Falconer

WA Police Officer for 14 years, plaintiff for judicial review action challenging WA mandates.

Dr Brian Walker (WA Senator)

Hon. Dr Brian Walker MLC MB, ChB, FRACGP

Member for East Metropolitan Region

Brian Follett Walker is an Australian politician and medical practitioner.

At the 2021 Western Australian state election, Walker was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council as a Legalise Cannabis WA member for the East Metropolitan Region.

Born in Malaysia to Scottish parents, Brian was educated at Scotch College, Perth, prior to studying medicine at the University of Dundee.

Since graduating, he has practiced medicine in Germany, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong, returning to Perth in 2008, to set up a specialist GP practice in the Perth Hills.

Brian has a longstanding commitment to holistic wellness, which continues to strongly influence his approach to both medicine and politics.