Mick Palmer AO APM

Mick Palmer has over three-decades of experience in policing, including serving in the Northern Territory Police, the Australian Federal Police, the Criminal Investigation Branch and as Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police before retiring from that position in 2001. 

Mick was admitted to the Queensland Bar as a Barrister in 1982 and appeared for many young people facing drug and possession charges during that time before returning to policing in 1983. In 2004, Mick was appointed as the Federal Government’s Inspector of Transport Security to conduct a series of reviews across the following decade for the Federal Government into Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea and security concerns at Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms. He later conducted several inquiries for the Federal and for State Governments including the Inquiry into the Immigration Detention of Cornelia RAU, an Inquiry into the operations of Risdon Prison in Tasmania conducted for the State Government and a Victorian Prisons review conducted for the Victorian State Government. 

Mick is a member of the Board of Australia 21, a not for profit, human rights focused organisation and since 2012 he has contributed to the NOFFs Foundation regarding issues concerning youth displacement, and disadvantage, youth crime and drug use.