Speaker fees: We're not able to provide this information on the website. Please call us on 0450 077 997 for more information.
Peter Baines OAM, is one of Australia’s leadership experts having road tested leadership the hard way. Peter spent 22 years with the NSW Police leading teams in response to acts of terrorism and natural disasters on a scale not previously seen.
Peter was part of the leadership team that responded to Bali after the bombings in 2002 and was called in 2005, to lead international teams in response to the Tsunami of December 26, 2004 in South East Asia.
Creating sustainable leadership became a passion of his after witnessing the devastating effects of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. He was deeply touched by the number of children left without parents by the disaster and was inspired to set up an organisation that could make a significant difference in the lives of these children. In late 2005, Hands Across the Water was formed to raise funds for, and awareness of, the children of Thailand who were left alone. Today Hands, has raised over $40 million Australian dollars. .
His final years with the NSW Police were spent on secondment to the National Institute of Forensic Science where he worked on national and international capacity building projects around counter terrorism and leadership. He spent time advising Interpol in France and the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime in South East Asia. Peter was engaged by the Government of Saudi Arabia following the deadly floods in Jeddah, to review their response and provide advice concerning crisis mitigation and leadership. In 2011 he deployed to Japan in response to the tsunami that would claim thousands of lives there.
Peter has received various awards including an Order of Australia Medal in 2014, for his International Humanitarian work and in 2016 he was awarded The Fifth Class of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn awarded by the King of Thailand.
In 2010 he was a NSW finalist for the Australian of the Year awards and he was the first Australian to be awarded the international honour of a Rotary Professional Excellence Award in 2008. He received the NSW Police Service Medal and the Australian Federal Police Operations Medal, for his work in Asia. He was the first NSW Police Officer to be awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal and Australian National Medal. He has completed university studies in Law, Forensic Science and post graduate studies in Management.
Peter has written three books the latest released in 2023, Leadership Matters published by Wiley. Hands Across the Water was his first book and was published by Pan MacMillan in 2011 followed by and Doing Good by Doing Good, published by Wiley in 2014. He is contracted to release his fourth book in October of 2025.
In 2025, Peter was identified as one of the top five most influential Australians working in Thailand.
Doing Good by Doing Good shows companies how to improve the bottom line by implementing an engaging, authentic, and business-enhancing program that helps staff and business thrive.
International CSR consultant Peter Baines draws upon lessons learnt from the challenges faced in his career as a police officer, forensic investigator, and founder of Hands Across the Water to describe the Australian CSR landscape, and the factors that make up a program that benefits everyone involved.
Great leaders have something in common, a vision and purpose that inspires people with direction and hope. But how do leaders find their purpose and conceptualise their vision? In Leadership Matters, Peter Baines unfolds the lessons that have stayed with him through his decades in international counterterrorism and disaster response. In particular, the book reveals how the devastating aftermath of Thailand’s Boxing Day Tsunami has shaped Peter’s understanding of what it means to be a true leader – and how it led him to start a charity that has helped thousands.
Peter Baines started out as a police officer in the mean streets of Cabramatta in the early nineties. Becoming a specialist in crime scene forensic investigations, he was called upon to bring his skills to the Bali bombings in 2002.
But it was the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that forever changed the direction of his life. Helping the people of Thailand identify their dead, he met the countless children who had been left behind, orphaned, with nowhere to go. With a colleague he decided to make a difference, and set about creating the charity Hands Across the Water, building an orphanage and raising funds to raise and educate the children.
