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Julian Disney is a part-time Professor and Director of the Social Justice Project at the University of New South Wales. He has previously been Professor of Public Law at the Australian National University and Director of its Centre for International and Public Law.

He is Chair of the Board of the Energy and Water Ombudsman in New South Wales (EWON) and a member of the Board of Governors of the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia and of the Asialink Advisory Council.

Prof Disney has previously been Coordinator of the Sydney Welfare Rights Centre where he worked for six years assisting people who were unemployed or experiencing other forms of hardship. He has also been President of the NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS) and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). He has been World President of the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) which represents a wide range of national social welfare organisations around the world. He founded Anti-Poverty Week and was its National Chair from 2002 -2018.

Julian Disney was Chair of the Australian Press Council from 2009 to 2015. .He has also been Chair of the National Affordable Housing Summit group and the Community Tax Forum, and Convenor of TaxWatch and of the Neighbours Program to strengthen engagement between community leaders in Australia and neighbouring Asian countries.

Prof Disney has been a full-time NSW Law Reform Commissioner, Chair of the NSW Ministerial Task Force on Affordable Housing and Chair of the independent review for the Australian Parliament of the Job Seeker Compliance System.  He was a member for seven years of the Australian Government's Economic Planning Advisory Council (EPAC) and has been chair or member of national advisory committees in fields such as education, employment and training, social security, public administration, literacy, housing, superannuation and immigration.

During the last three decades he has been a policy consultant to a number of social welfare and business groups, a regular speaker at national and international conferences, and a frequent media commentator. He has also been the principal author or editor of books and articles relating to aspects of the legal profession, taxation, housing, social welfare, governance, national development and international organisations.

In 1994, Julian Disney was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to the development of economic and social welfare policy, and to the law. In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (LL.D) by the University of New South Wales.