Richard Johnstone

Richard is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne Law School.

Richard’s research interests lie in labour law (particularly work health and safety), regulation and socio-legal research. The principal theme in his research has been whether and how the health and safety of workers is protected by work health and safety regulation. Richard has been awarded six Australian Research Council grants; has carried out various research consultancies (most recently for the ILO and EU-OSHA); and has completed at least eight major empirical studies on work health and safety regulation, one on protected industrial action ballots under the Fair Work Act, and one on learning, teaching and curriculum in Australian Law Schools. His most recent books are Work Health and Safety Regulation in Australia (2022, with Michael Tooma); and Strike Ballots, Democracy, and Law (2020, with Shae McCrystal, Breen Creighton, Catrina Denvir and Alice Orchiston).

Previously, Richard was a founding member and deputy-director of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law; the original Director of the National Research Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Regulation at the Australian National University; the Director of the Socio-Legal Research Centre at Griffith University; and the Director of Research in the QUT Law School. He has been an editor of three journals: the Australian Journal of Labour Law, the Journal of Work Health and Safety Regulation, and the Legal Education Review. Since 2010 he has been a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and from 2020 to 2023 a member of the Queensland Work Health and Safety Board.