Dr Emma Graham is a lawyer and public servant in the Australian Public Service and an academic. She currently works in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Work and Regulation at the Queensland University of Technology.

Prior to joining DEWR, Emma worked for over a decade at the Attorney-General’s Department, providing advice across diverse policy areas, including native title, constitutional law and human rights. Emma prepared and was a member of the Australian delegation that appeared before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2017. She also prepared the delegation for its appearance before the Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019.

As an academic, Emma’s research interests include labour law, anti-discrimination law, human rights and feminist legal theory, with a focus on how law (re)produces inequalities, particularly for carers and children. Emma’s research is socio-legal, integrating empirical, doctrinal and theoretical methods.

Emma undertook her doctoral research at The Australian National University between 2020 and 2025 as a Sir Roland Wilson scholar. Her thesis examined the nature, prevalence, causes and consequences of discriminatory job loss experienced by pregnant women and mothers. 

Supervisor: Emerita Professor Margaret Thornton FASSA FAAL

Publications

• Graham E (2025) Encumbered Workers: A Socio-Legal Study of Motherhood, Discrimination and Job Loss [PhD thesis], The Australian National University, Canberra.
• Graham E (2025) 'Vulnerable to Redundancy: Examining Access to Justice for Pregnant Women and New Mothers', Australian Journal of Labour Law, 38)2): 144-168.
• Graham E (2025) 'Time to Care: Does Law offer an Avenue to Quality Part-Time Work?', Australian Journal of Human Rights, 31(3): 249-267.