TED Community » Matthew Baird

About Me

Matthew has been an environmental lawyer since 1990. As an environmental advocate he has been involved with litigation from climate change to brothels. From 1983 until 2002 he was actively involved in politics having first served on a local government committee at 17. In 1987, he was elected as the youngest local councillor in NSW. He was also active in the Australian Democrats from 1993 until 2003. Matthew has chaired the Environment and Planning Law Group of the Law Council of Australia since 2008, is the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Environmental Law of LAWASIA and is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law. Matthew has been presenting at conferences on environmental law issues for over 20 years and has spoken on a variety of topics including environmental criminal law, climate change litigation and nuclear energy law. Currently residing in Chiang Mai, Thailand, he is assisting local NGOs in Cambodia and Myanmar on the development of environmental impact assessment practice and procedure.