Mark Duckworth

Mark Duckworth PSM is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University working in the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS).
Before taking up this appointment in 2019 he had more than 30 years’ experience in the Victorian and New South Wales public sector leading significant policy and legislative reform initiatives in intergovernmental relations, multicultural affairs, public administration and security and emergencies.

He held many senior executive roles including as Executive Director of Governance, Security and Intergovernmental Relations and as Chief Resilience Officer in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet and as Executive Director of the Emergency Management Division in the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 Mark played a key role in establishing Australia’s national counter-terrorism arrangements for which he was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2007.

He was member of the Australia and New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee for thirteen years, and the inaugural co-chair of the ANZCTC Countering Violent Extremism sub-committee. In 2020 the Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency Services appointed Mark to the Expert Advisory Committee on Countering Violent Extremism.

As a member of the National Emergency Management Committee (now ANZEMC), Mark co-chaired the group that drafted the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience, endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in February 2011. From 2013 to 2019 he was the Chair of the State Crisis and Resilience Council’s Risk and Resilience subcommittee.

Mark has been frequently asked to present and speak and write on his areas of expertise:
• writing and presenting on resilience policy in Australia and internationally including leading Australia’s delegation from 2009 to 2014 to the Multinational Resilience Policy Group meetings organised by US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat;
• writing, at the request of FEMA, the “Australian” chapter of the book Strategies for Supporting Community Resilience published by the Swedish Defence University in 2015;
• being invited by the Scottish Government to provide the keynote address to their Government–Industry forum on critical infrastructure resilience;
• delivering lectures for the Monash University Masters in Counter Terrorism course;
• presenting frequently in Australia and overseas on community, infrastructure and disaster resilience, counterterrorism policy and violent extremism including for: The Institute for Strategic Dialogue Strong Cities Network; the Monash University Disaster Resilience Initiative; the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies; Australian Defence College; Rockefeller Foundation Resilient Cities Initiative; King’s College London; Scottish Government critical infrastructure resilience program; Executive Consequence Management course; the National Security College.

Tertiary education and qualifications
• University of Melbourne: MA in history, LLB (1981: Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award; 1984: Harbinson-Higinbotham Research Scholarship).
• Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia (admitted 1989); Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (admitted 1993).
• Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2003.