Fiona Allison

Associate Professor Fiona Allison is a researcher with expertise in access to justice for First Nations people in Australia in the areas of tenancy, consumer/credit and debt, social security, child protection and discrimination and in a criminal justice context. She has been a senior researcher on two pioneering Australia Research Council civil and family law projects investigating Indigenous access to justice. The first is the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP), a project exploring the civil and family law needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nationally. A second project, Rethinking Indigenous Access to Civil Law Justice, seeks to redefine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander definitions of access to justice. Fiona is also co-lead on Call it Out, the first register through which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia are able to report racism. Other areas of expertise include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Agreements and health justice partnerships.

Fiona is a leading expert in the area of justice reinvestment (JR), a framework that aims to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration through local, self-determined approaches addressing underlying drivers of contact with the justice system. She was lead investigator on the Northern Territory and Queensland JR pilot programs and is currently the JR data and research lead with Just Reinvest NSW, working directly with Aboriginal communities in Moree and Mt Druitt and across NSW at a broader policy level. She was also founding convenor of Justice Reinvestment Network Australia.

Fiona is Adjunct Research Fellow, Cairns Institute, James Cook University; Honorary Fellow, Menzies School of Health Research, Northern Territory; and a member of the Australian Discrimination Law Experts Group (ADLEG).

Fiona has taught legal studies at Tranby Aboriginal College in Sydney and worked at the Australian Human Rights Commission as a conciliator of race discrimination and human rights complaints. She has also worked as a solicitor at Community Legal Centres in remote NT and NSW.