Dominic O'Sullivan

Dominic is a Professor of political science at Charles Sturt University and Adjunct Professor at the Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology.

He is interested in comparative indigenous politics and public policy, Australian and New Zealand politics. He has an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He has authored eight books and co-edited one. Dominic has published more than 50 journal articles and book chapters and more than 120 articles for public audiences, including in the Conversation, Open Forum and the New Zealand Herald.

In 2018, his book Beyond Biculturalism: the politics of an indigenous minority (Huia Publishers, 2007) was recognised by the Royal Society of New Zealand as one of the 150 most important books by a Māori author since the first Māori authored book in 1815. His latest book, Indigeneity, Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), continues his interest in relationships between the possibilities and constraints of liberal democracy and indigenous self-determination.

His work on Critical Tiriti Analysis (CTA), developed with colleagues at Massey and Victoria Universities has been widely adopted by government agencies and organisations in New Zealand for policy evaluation and development in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi. It has been used by, among others, Health New Zealand, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry for the Environment, Pharmac and the New Zealand Health and Disability Commission. In 2022, Dominic was appointed to a Pharmacy Council Expert Advisory Committee using CTA to help develop the Council’s competence requirements for registration as a pharmacist or pharmacy prescriber. CTA has also been adapted for use in indigenous policy in Australia.

Dominic’s research has influenced public policy more broadly, including work commissioned by the New Zealand Ministerial Review into the Future for Local Government and the International Labor Organisation. He has also provided expert advice to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and has, on more than 70 occasions been invited to address professional and public audiences in the fields of education, health and local government, among others. He has been commissioned to provide evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal as an expert witness.

Dominic contributed to Professor Russell Bishop’s transformative Te Kotahitanga teacher professional development programme and with Bishop, and Professor Mere Berryman, co-authored Scaling-up Education Reform: addressing the politics of disparity (NZCER Press, 2010). The book has been widely cited by, and in reports to government in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It informs New Zealand teacher registration standards and is cited by the Education Review Office in its guidelines for the public evaluation of schools.

Dominic’s expertise is regularly sought by news media, with over 1000 expert interviews across television, radio, and print. He is a regular political commentator for ABC radio and has recorded television interviews for Al Jazeera, Indus News Pakistan, ABC News, Sky News Australia, Television New Zealand and Maori Television. He has been interviewed by the New York Times, the Economist, New Zealand Herald, CBC Canada and others. Examples of Dominic’s media work may be found on his LinkedIN page.

Dominic’s work brings academic research and practical policy application together, making significant contributions to the advancement of indigenous rights and self-determination in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally.

Dominic is a former acting Head of School and Associate Dean (Research) and member of the University’s Academic Senate and Human Research Ethics Committee. He was a member of the Bathurst Health Council (NSW Health), director of Caritas Aotearoa-New Zealand and lay member, appointed by the Minister of Health, as a lay member of the Osteopathic Council of New Zealand where he chaired the Council’s Education Committee.