Meet the panel
Independent Chair
Anthea Tinney is the Chair of the Marine Estate Expert Knowledge Panel and is a member of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) Advisory Board. She was previously the non-executive director of the CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE); Chair of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust; Chair of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO and Chair of Land and Water Australia. Anthea has previously been chair or independent member of several public sector audit committees.
Formerly, Anthea was a deputy secretary in the federal environment portfolio with an extensive public sector career over more than 30 years. She spent many years in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, including five years as the head of the Cabinet Office, and some years in the federal Treasury.
Anthea has served on several boards and advisory committees and has extensive experience in public policy advising. She is an experienced international and government negotiator and has led several reviews for government. She has a Bachelor of Economics degree and was awarded a Public Service Medal in 1995 for services to the Australian Cabinet system.
Social expert in natural resource management
Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray is a human geographer and Professor within the Department of Geography, Environment and Population, in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics (ABLE). Her research investigates the connection between people and the environment and focusses on how to engage communities to be part of environmental decision making, particularly in the context of climate change and biodiversity protection.
Professor Nursey-Bray has worked with Indigenous, ports, local government and fishing communities on a range of projects. These projects have examined how conflict, social and cultural values, knowledge, social learning and perceptions affect how people become involved in or help drive environmental sustainability within marine and coastal governance regimes. her work in the marine estate includes development of co-management programs in the Great Barrier Reef, sea country planning in NSW, development of communications strategies for marine communities, various roles in development and communication of marine protected areas and a number of fisheries projects including ones on climate change, co-management, risk management and social license to operate. She is currently working on an ARC Future Fellowship that investigates how different knowledges can work together to address biodiversity and climate change impacts.
Ecological expert in natural resource management
Grahame Byron has over 35 years of extensive involvement in marine and coastal research, management, planning and policy throughout Australia (Commonwealth, NSW, SA, Qld. and NT). He has also undertaken short-term contracted projects related to the management and conservation of marine and coastal resources on behalf of the Australian Government, World Bank and the IUCN in Seychelles, Kenya, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Belize.
Since 2015 Mr Byron has been self-employed in his consulting and coaching business.
From 2007-2015 Mr Byron was the Director, Environment and Resources Policy for the Queensland Premier and Cabinet portfolio with responsibility for Queensland marine estate matters, specifically those related to the Great Barrier Reef, Marine Parks, World Heritage Areas, and catchment management issues. Mr Byron has significant experience and expertise in stakeholder and public consultation processes.
Mr Byron has also for the past decade been a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas. In 2013, he was the Lead Expert for the IUCN Mission to Belize in Central America to review the World Heritage Status of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System. His role was to investigate the management of this World Heritage site and report back to the World Heritage Committee.
Between 1997 and 2000 he was a Visiting Lecturer at James Cook University teaching post-graduate courses in Marine Protected Areas and Coastal Zone Management.
Ecological expert in marine biological science
Professor Peter Steinberg is Emeritus Professor of Biology at UNSW and Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. From 2009-2021 he was the inaugural Director of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. He is an internationally eminent Australian marine scientist with 40 years’ experience in a diversity of marine biological and ecological fields including: coastal ecology and management; restoration ecology; microbial ecology and environmental biotechnology. Professor Steinberg has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, and CEO of an ASX listed biotechnology company. He has been involved in many of Australia’s most prominent marine science programs or initiatives, including IMOS, the National Marine Science Committee and the Marine National Facility (RV Investigator). He has won a number of awards and citations for his work, including the Australian Marine Science Association’s Silver Jubilee Award for outstanding contributions to marine sciences, and was a Web of Science highly cited researcher in 2020 and 2021, awarded to the top 1% of researchers globally. In 2021 he was awarded the NSW Premier’s Science and Engineering Prize for Excellence in Biological Sciences (ecological, environmental, agricultural and organismal).
Aboriginal expert in Sea Country management
vacant
 Economic expert in natural resource management Sevaly Sen is an applied economist with over 30 years’ experience in marine resource economics and management in Australia, Europe, Africa and Asia. Ms Sen’s work has included resource access and allocation, fisheries management, rights-based management, sustainability risk assessments, structural adjustment schemes and fisheries reform. Ms Sen is currently a Commissioner for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Co-lead (Economics) of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation's Human Dimensions Research Sub-Program, Independent economist for DPI Fisheries Lobster and Mulloway Harvest Strategy Working Groups and a member of the Torres Strait Protected Zone Joint Authority (PZJA) Rock Lobster Working Group. |