Academy Fellow

Joo-Cheong Tham is a leading scholar in labour law and the law of democracy. He led in the establishment of money in politics as a field of research in Australia based on interdisciplinary research and cross-national perspectives; and foregrounded the theme of democracy in key areas of law (political finance laws; labour law; counter-terrorism laws; and climate change law). Joo-Cheong also pioneered legal research into the precariousness of migrant work and led in its establishment as an interdisciplinary field.

Joo-Cheong’s scholarly publications include his books on Money and Politics: The Democracy We Can’t Afford (2010, UNSW Press); Electoral Democracy: Australian Prospects (2011, MUP); The Funding of Political Parties: Where Now? (2012, Routledge); Democracy, Social Justice and the Role of Trade Unions (2021, Anthem Press) and Global Labor Migrations: New Directions (2022, University of Illinois Press). He has also led two major reports for International IDEA, Climate Change and Democracy: Insights from Asia and the Pacific (2023) and Digital Campaigning and Political Finance in the Asia and the Pacific Region: A New Age for an Old Problem (2022).

Joo-Cheong established the Electoral Regulation Research Network, an initiative sponsored by the New South Wales Electoral Commission, Victorian Electoral Commission and the Melbourne Law School, as the premier forum for bringing together electoral commission officials and electoral law academics. He led the Network as its inaugural Director from 2012 to 2023.

Joo-Cheong has significantly contributed to policy debates and reform in the areas of public integrity (particularly money in politics) and labour regulation (particularly the protection of rights of migrant workers) through contemporary legal and social science research and leadership of civil society efforts (including through his roles as Director, the Centre for Public Integrity; Victorian Assistant Secretary (Academic Staff), National Tertiary Education Union; and former Deputy Chair, Migrant Workers Centre).

Joo-Cheong’s research has been published in the media including The Age, Australian Financial Review, Canberra Times, The Conversation, The Guardian, Herald Sun and Sydney Morning Herald. Joo-Cheong regularly speaks at public forums and has presented lectures at the Commonwealth, South Australian and Victorian Parliaments. He has given evidence to parliamentary inquiries into labour migration, terrorism laws and political finance laws; and written key reports for the New South Wales Electoral Commission and the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption on the regulation of political finance and lobbying.

His current research focus unites his expertise in labour law and the law of democracy through a book project on Labour Law, Climate Change and Democratic Solidarity. This project brings together three crises, often seen as disparate. The first is the climate crisis which United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has characterised as an ‘existential threat’ to humanity. The second is the crisis of democracy with democratic back-sliding and a supposed turn to post-democracy. The third is the crisis in the world of work with the persistence of insecure work, and widening inequalities within countries and between high-income and low-income countries.

Victorian Assistant Secretary (Academic Staff), National Tertiary Education Union

Director, Centre for Public Integrity

Expert Network Member, Climate Integrity

1. THAM, JC et al, Climate Change and Democracy: Insights from Asia and the Pacific (Stockholm, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2023)

2. THAM, JC and COUNTOURIS, N, ‘Introduction: The Ecology of Labour Law: From Othering to Embedding’ in C Javega (ed), Labour Law and Ecology (Spain: Thomson Reuters, 2023) 

3. KELLY, C and THAM, JC (eds), Democracy, Social Justice and the Role of Trade Unions: We the Working People (London: Anthem Press, 2021)

4. THAM, JC et al, Digital Campaigning and Political Finance in the Asia and the Pacific Region (Stockholm, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2022)

5. THAM, JC, Money and Politics: The Democracy We Can’t Afford (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2010)