Migration, integrity and ethics across cultures

BA Asian Studies, Grad Cert Migration Law, Diploma in Fraud Control, Diploma in Government Investigations 

Until 2017, Geoff served twenty-six years with the Australian government’s immigration and border protection portfolio (now Department of Home Affairs), engaging with people from diverse cultures and circumstances on an almost daily basis.  

He has represented Australia on diplomatic postings in Manila, Beijing, Guangzhou, Dubai and Singapore, with extensive operational leadership and stakeholder engagement successes. He has also undertaken complex and often sensitive integrity-related projects in Australia and in Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. 

Geoff has been noted for his ability to develop ethical and productive multicultural workplaces and to cultivate productive stakeholder relationships in challenging international environments characterised by competing values and ethics. He has investigated immigration scams and irregular people movement networks, and researched and contributed to strategic action plans and fraud risk mitigation strategies in cross-cultural settings. Geoff's particular passion is de-mystifying cultural attitudes to acceptable behaviour, developing a model to aid in understanding this complex topic that can result in cross-cultural misunderstanding and conflict if not understood. 

From 2017-2025 Geoff was engaged as a senior consultant to Beasley Intercultural designing and facilitating cultural capability programs (workshops and online resources) for clients mainly in the defence, capacity development, stakeholder engagement, law enforcement, immigration and compliance fields. 

Geoff's contribution as lead designer and developer of online modules in the pre-deployment and cultural capability space helped consolidate his many years of experience as a practitioner engaging effectively across cultures.

In 2019, Geoff was engaged to co-develop a code of ethics for Pacific nations' immigration portfolios under the auspices of the Pacific Immigration Development Community, including design of an associated blended learning program.

Geoff is also engaged by the Cairns Chamber of Commerce to manage their very successful Designated Area Migration Agreement (FNQ DAMA), embedding robust integrity measures to guard against worker exploitation and scams. He also provides advice and guidance to other regions in Australia on establishing and operating DAMAs. He delivers CPD sessions to migration agents and immigration lawyers on behalf of CPD providers, including the Migration Institute of Australia. 

Geoff is an engaging trainer, mentor and speaker, with a focus on ethics and integrity in cross-cultural, multicultural, international stakeholder engagement and migration contexts. He speaks conversational Mandarin Chinese and Bahasa Indonesia. 

BA Mass Media, Masters in Comparative Literature

Adjani is a China expert, having grown up and studied in different provinces. Aside from creative writing for the tourism industry, since migrating to Australia she has collaborated with Geoff in delving into the cultural drivers of Chinese behaviour and attitudes in circumstances where they vary from Australian culture and expectations. They have shattered and re-thought many stereotypes in the process, serving to help bridge the gap between the two cultures.

Adjani assists with research and administration for Heath & Zhang.

She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.