Natasha Stott Despoja AC

Member of the People Committee

Natasha Stott Despoja is an Expert Member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. She is a former Senator for South Australia (1995 to 2008) and is a former Leader of the Australian Democrats. She served as South Australia’s Royal Commissioner on the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence in 2014/2025.

She was the inaugural Chair of Our Watch (Australia’s national organisation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children) 2013 to 2021 and was Australia’s Global Ambassador for Women and Girls (2013 to 2016). Currently, Natasha is a professor in the practice of politics at ANU, a Non Executive Director of Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer, Torrens University and is a member of the Agenda 50-50 by 2030 advisory council, the George Washington Global Women’s Leadership Council.

Natasha has served on the World Bank Gender Advisory Council, was a Non Executive Director of Global Citizen, The Burnet Institute and beyondblue.

As a child, she would accompany her mother, Shirley, then an Arts Editor , to The Australian Ballet and has loved them ever since.