Dr Rebecca Huntley

Dr Rebecca Huntley's Biography

Dr Rebecca Huntley is one of Australians foremost researchers on social trends.

She current runs an independent research and consultancy firm focusing on social justice issues, in particularly climate change and the environment.

She holds degrees in law and film studies and a PhD in Gender Studies. 

For nearly 9 years Rebecca was the Director of The Mind & Mood Report, Australia's longest running social trends report. She has lead research at Essential Media and Vox Populi, part of the CIRCA research group, before starting her own research and consultancy business. She works closely with The Sunrise Movement on the Climate Compass Project as well as with many other climate and environment NGOs.

She is the author of numerous books including How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way that Makes a Difference (Murdoch books, 2020), Still Lucky: why you should feel optimistic about Australia and its people (Penguin 2017) and Australia Fair: Listen to the Nation, the first Quarterly Essay for 2019. 

In 2021 she will co-present The Mick Dark Talk for The Future with Professor Tim Flannery on how we can address climate change in Australia. She has delivered The John Button Oration (2012) at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival and the MSSI Oration at the University of Melbourne (2019).

Rebecca writes occasionally for The Guardian and co-presented the Guardian’s podcast Common Ground with Lenore Taylor in 2017.

Rebecca was a broadcaster with the ABC’s RN and presented The History Listen and Drive on a Friday.

In addition to books, Rebecca has written extensively for essay collections, magazines, newspapers and online publications. She was a feature writer for Australian Vogue and a columnist for BRW and ABC Life.

Rebecca co-hosts with Sarah Macdonald a comedy storytelling night and podcast called The Full Catastrophe. The Full Catastrophe is also a book (Hardie Grant, May 2019).

Rebecca has researched the social and political dimensions of food and cooking throughout her career and has published on these topics in books and articles. She has written and presented two episodes of RN’s Future Tense, on climate change and food and ageing and food. She presented at MAD Syd in 2017 with Rene Redzepi and David Chang. She is on the Advisory Group of MAD Sydney. She wrote a children’s book, Nonna’s Gnocchi celebrating the job of grandparents cooking with their children.

She is on the board of The Bell Shakespeare Company and on the Executive Board of the NSW branch of the ALP. She is the Chair of the Advisory Board of Australian Parents for Climate Action. She has held board positions on The Whitlam Institute and The Dusseldorp Forum.

She was an adjunct senior lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at The University of New South Wales.

She is a registered Commonwealth marriage celebrant.

She is the mother of three girls and lives in Sydney.

Speaking Topics Include