‘Talking Justice’, will feature conversations about the role of justice in a free society touching on issues including asylum seeker policy, gender equity, native title, freedom of speech, criminal justice, environmental sustainability, and justice and morality.

Advocacy and Rights Centre executive officer and lawyer Peter Noble said the event will showcase some of the nation’s best minds.

“This is a unique opportunity for people in regional Victoria to listen to diverse perspectives about some of the big justice issues that we are wrestling with as a society,” he said.

“Whether we realise it or not values and morals underpin our justice system. If the community want a shared perspective they need the opportunity to engage and the opportunity to think about these issues.”

The event will be facilitated by Professor Martin Krygier of the University of New South Wales with speakers Father Frank Brennan, Raimond Gaita, Anne Manne, Graham Atkinson, Kate Auty, Arie Freiberg, Simon Breheny, Debbie Kilroy and Nicholas Cowdery QC.

Community Legal Centre co-principal lawyer Anna Howard said the event reflects one of the important tasks of the centre, to engage the community on justice issues.

“It reflects our desire to have real impact beyond service delivery and animate a genuine justice dialogue,” she said.

“It seeks to demonstrate and promote skillful discussion (balancing advocacy and inquiry) about issues of justice.

“It is important because the community doesn’t get the opportunity to engage in discussion about these issues that really impact their everyday lives.

“These speakers offer a broad range of interests and positions and we hope there is going to be discussions on issues of interest and relevance to this community. The broader the audience is, the better the discussion will be.”

Talking Justice will take place between May 9 and 11 at the La Trobe Visual Arts Centre.