Queensland Government
Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services
Headshot Les Malezer

Photo: Joe Mayers, courtesy of National Congress

Queensland boasts a second director on the board of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples – Les Malezer, the board’s co-chair.

Les is from the Butchulla/Gubbi Gubbi peoples in south-east Queensland.

He has extensive experience in campaigning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights and has represented community interests at local, state, national and international levels.

Les once headed Queensland’s former Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs and now chairs the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action. In that role, he is a delegate to United Nations forums on Indigenous issues.

In 2008 he won the Australian Human Rights Award, and his contribution to coordinating Indigenous peoples’ advocacy for the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN General Assembly is well known and respected.