Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and, Minister for Social Inclusion

Member for Lalor

Julia was born in Wales, migrating to Australia with her family in 1966. She studied arts and law at university in Adelaide before being elected as national education vice president of the Australian Union of Students in 1983. In 1983, Julia was national president of the AUS.

She began work as a solicitor with the law firm Slater and Gordon and became a partner in 1990. In May 1996, Julia was appointed chief of staff of the then Victorian Opposition leader, John Brumby. Julia worked with Mr Brumby until her election to Federal Parliament in 1998.

Following her election, she was a member of a number of parliamentary committees including the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations prior to entering Labor's Shadow Ministry in 2001.

She subsequently served in a number of Shadow Ministerial portfolios including Population and Immigration, Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs, Health, Employment and Industrial Relations, and Social Inclusion.

Julia was Labor's Manager of Opposition Business for three years prior to being elected as Labor's Deputy Leader in December 2006.

Following the Federal Election on the 24th of November 2007, Julia was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Minister for Social Inclusion.

New South Wales Minister for Fair Trading, Minister for Youth, and Minister for Volunteering.

Member for Canterbury

A successful Aboriginal bureaucrat and activist, Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal person elected to the NSW Parliament in 2003, and only the fourth Aboriginal woman elected anywhere in Australia.

Linda obtained her Diploma of Teaching from the then Mitchell College of Advanced Education. In 1979 she began teaching at Lethbridge Park public school in western Sydney. In the mid-1980s she became involved in the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) and was instrumental in the development and implementation of the first Aboriginal education policy in Australia for the state's education department.

In the early 1990s Burney was, concurrently, president of the national body of AECGs, and chair of the New South Wales National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy Coordinating Committee.

She has been a Member of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission National Social Justice Taskforce and an Executive Member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Since her election for Canterbury 2003 she has been a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Children and Young People 2003-04 and the Legislation Review Committee 2004. She was also the Director-General of the New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs. In 2006 she was elected National Vice President of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

Linda was appointed the New South Wales Minister for Fair Trading, Minister for Youth, and Minister for Volunteering in 2007.

Peter Mares presents the weekly public policy discussion program The National Interest on ABC Radio National. He has been a journalist and broadcaster with the ABC for more than 20 years.

Peter is also an adjunct research fellow with the Institute of Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology and has written extensively on migration issues, including an award-winning book on Australia's policies towards asylum seekers and refugees (Borderline, UNSW Press).

Peter is a member of the advisory board of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas and is frequently called on to act as a moderator at public forums.

Deb Daly is Institute Director of the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE, an institution with a state-wide reputation for outstanding performance, Deb has worked in the field of public education for over 14 years and brings a strong business focus to the operations of GCIT.

With a background and degree in business management Deb has shown a strong commitment to vocational education and training at the institute and corporate level. Deb commenced her Queensland Public Service career in 1990 with Education Queensland where she held a wide range of middle and senior management positions before moving to TAFE Queensland as Director, Corporate Services at the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE at the start of 1997. Deb was appointed to her current role of Institute Director in 2001.

Under her leadership, Gold Coast Institute of TAFE has consolidated its reputation as a business that continues to strive and achieve excellence.

Mr Philip Bullock brings an impressive combination of high level leadership skills, a strong industry background and a commitment to education and training to the position of Chair of Skills Australia.

Mr Bullock has more than 25 years experience working with IBM, culminating in his appointment as Vice President, Systems and Technology Group IBM Asia Pacific Region and including Chief Executive Officer of IBM Australia and New Zealand. He was previously on the Board of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), The Business Council of Australia (BCA), where he also chaired their Skills and Innovation Taskforce, IBM Australia Limited, the Victorian Schools Innovation Commission and the Advisory Committee to the Australian Graduate School of Management.

He was also very active in support of diversity in the workplace, being awarded the Leading CEO for the Advancement of Women, in 2004 by the Federal Government's Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Healthscope, a major provider of health services in Australia.

Malcolm Farr is national political editor for the Sydney Daily Telegraph and has covered federal politics for the newspaper since December, 1991. He has also reported on politics and general news in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for The Australian, the Brisbane Sun and for the Sydney Daily Mirror. For four years he was editor of a small English-language newspaper in Rome, Italy.

He was president of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery for five years, and chairman of the Walkley Award Advisory Board for five years.

Jim Barron has been CEO of Group Training Australia for more than seven years now. Before taking on the role in November 2001, Jim spent 14 years in federal politics, including positions as Chief-of-Staff to three different federal Cabinet Ministers and senior adviser for four years to Dr John Hewson, Leader of the Opposition.

Jim brings to GTA a wealth of knowledge and experience in the political and social policy areas and says he feels privileged to have been on both sides of the fence. Jim's major focus is to continue to advocate, to government and stakeholders alike, the need to lock in future skills development, solve skills shortages and build a genuine training culture in Australia.

Gary Banks has been Chairman of the Productivity Commission since its inception in April 1998. In addition to his role as CEO he has personally headed national inquiries on a variety of public policy and regulatory topics - including reviews for COAG of National Competition Policy, the National Reform Agenda and the Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia.

In 2006 Gary Banks chaired the Australian Government's Regulation Taskforce, and in 1998 was a member of the West Review of Higher Education. Before joining the Commission, Gary worked at the Centre for International Economics, Canberra, and has been a consultant to the OECD and World Bank.

In earlier years, he was a Senior Economist with the GATT Secretariat in Geneva, and Visiting Fellow at the Trade Policy Research Centre, London. In 2007 he was made an officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the development of public policy in microeconomic reform and regulation.

Craig Robertson is currently acting Group Manager of the Tertiary Skills and Productivity Group at the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Reform in Canberra.

Craig has worked in schools policy and corporate development roles with DEEWR.

For the past four years he has been closely involved in transitioning ANTA to the Department and driving reform to the national training system.

Prior to taking up his current role, he was part of the Department's Strategic Policy Group.

His qualifications include a Bachelor of Education and a Masters in Public Administration from the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).

Ms Persson is Deputy Director-General, TAFE and Community Education, New South Wales Department of Education and Training. Ms Persson has over 20 years' experience in vocational education and training, as a teacher, manager, consultant, and in the national and state policy areas.

She was one of the original senior executives with the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), as Director of Training Reform. Ms Persson is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a member of Women Chiefs of Enterprises International. In 2003 Ms Persson won the NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award and the Australian Government and Community Business Woman Award.

In April 2008, Ms Persson was appointed as a member of the Skills Australia Board, and attended the 2020 Summit in Canberra.

Professor David Battersby is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ballarat. He has a first class Honours degree and a PhD from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and a Masters degree in Higher Education from the University of New South Wales. His PhD focussed on a sociological application of grounded theory methodology.

Professor Battersby also worked in New Zealand at Massey University for a period of eight years. He has reeived awards from the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme, the Commonwealth Relations Trust, the Australian-Japan Foundation and the British Council. He has undertaken consultancies for UNESCO and the OECD and a number of government agencies.

In his early academic career he taught and researched in teacher education and the sociology of education. He subsequently developed interests in gerontology and gerontological education, human resource management and development in the health professions, international education and higher education policy and has published in these areas.

He has been involved in a range of community initiatives including establishing a Commonwealth-funded GP training consortium, serving on a TAFE Council and being on the Boards of a regional music conservatorium and a regional art gallery.

Christine Maddern founded Market Solutions 15 years ago and is the company's principal. With more than 22 years experience in the Market Research industry, Christine has conducted a wide range of market and social research studies covering a variety of research topics. Market Solutions specialises in providing research services to government departments and agencies across sectors such as education, employment, energy and water, public transport, local government services etc. and covering topics like community attitudes, behaviour, market profiling, customer satisfaction and communications research.

Christine has vast experience in project design and development across all methodologies. She is a key focus group moderator and executive interviewer for qualitative research. For quantitative research Christine is instrumental in sampling decisions, questionnaire development, interpretation and presentation of results. Particular skills include questionnaire development, data interpretation and modelling, strategy development and provision of actionable recommendations. Christine has involvement in all projects conducted by Market Solutions as consultant and mentor for project managers.

Geoff Hall hails from Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham and graduated in politics from Liverpool University. Geoff began his career as a lecturer at South Trafford College of Further Education. He entered education administration with Northants County Council, was further education officer in Birmingham and then Director of Education for Bexley London Borough.

He joined the Further Education Funding Council in February 1993 as Director of Education Programmes. After a short period as Director of Finance he was appointed Director of Funding and Strategy from 1 September 1997. His responsibilities included: guiding the Council's strategic vision and external policy development; advising the Council on allocating the grants for transmission to institutions (£3+ billion) and other miscellaneous funds and oversight of the Council's data collection and analysis.

Following a period as Interim Director of Operations at the Learning and Skills Council, Geoff took up post as Director of Learning Programmes at LSC from 1 February 2001. In this role, he was responsible for policy and programmes for young people and adults, skills strategies and workforce development, and funding.

From mid-February 2002, Geoff joined New College Nottingham as Deputy Chief Executive. As well as deputising for the Chief Executive, Dame Patricia Morgan-Webb, Geoff had strategic responsibility for standards, students and human resources. He succeeded Dame Pat Morgan-Webb as Principal and Chief Executive in January 2004.

A foundation member of the 157 Group of large successful colleges, Geoff is also Chair of the Nomination Committee of RC2000, a global group of large, urban community colleges.

A regular presenter at conferences and occasional contributor of articles, Geoff is a World Skills UK 'Champion'. He has recently joined the Board of the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) and is a member of the Ministerial Global Skills Group and the LSC's External Advisory Group.

Geoff is married to Fionnuala, a part-time lecturer; and they have a daughter and a son who both work in the public sector.

Alison is the Group Manager of Social Inclusion and Participation Group in the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The Group is responsible for policy work on social inclusion and participation as it relates to the Department's contribution to creating a productive and inclusive Australia.

Alison began working in the public service in 1988 in the (then) Department of Industrial Relations in Canberra. Her career has included a stint working in Geneva for the International Labour Office and more recently she was Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne. She returned to DEEWR in 2005 as Assistant Secretary, Parent Policy Branch. In 2007 she was appointed Group Manager, Job Search Support Group within DEEWR and held this position until August 2008.

Alison received her PhD from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney in 2003.

Cary Pedicini is Chief Executive Officer of Volunteering Australia. As a national peak body, Volunteering Australia represents the diverse views and serves the needs of volunteers and volunteer involving organisations and promotes volunteering as an activity of enduring social, cultural and economic value.

Cary's career has been predominantly in the not-for-profit and government sectors in fields as diverse as sport and recreation, outdoor education, student accommodation, vocational education and training, employment and community services. He has held senior management positions with organisations including the YMCA, the Department for Victorian Communities and more recently as State Director for Mission Australia in Victoria.

Originally qualifying as an Industrial Designer, Cary holds a Masters of Business, and post graduate qualifications in Education and Outdoor Studies.

His early experience in the management of volunteers in sport and recreation is complemented by his most recent experience engaging with major national companies in corporate volunteering programs in the community services sector.

Philip is the Chair of the Australian Government's Higher Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) Advisory Board and, as such, is advising the government in relation to the transition to the Education Investment Fund (EIF). He is a member of the JP Morgan Advisory Council and was Managing Partner and CEO of international law firm Minter Ellison.

Prior to joining Minter Ellison, Phil was Director and Head of Corporate with ABN Amro Australia and before that was Managing Partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques.

Phil serves on a number of boards and advisory boards. His current directorships include ING Management Limited (the Responsible Entity for five listed and two unlisted ING Real

Estate Trusts) CRI Asset Management Limited, The Garvan Foundation, St James Ethics Centre and he is Chairman of M & K Lawyers Holdings Limited. He serves on the Advisory council of Europe Australia Business Council and was previously a member of the AGSM Advisory Council, a director of Wenona School Limited and Chairman of Wenona Foundation Limited.

Phil has bachelor degrees in Arts and Law from Sydney University and an MBA from Columbia University. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2007 for service to the legal profession and business, particularly through the development of national law firms and encouraging corporate involvement in community programs.

Since arriving in Australia in 2004, Jane-Frances Kelly has worked as a senior adviser to the Vice-Chancellor at Melbourne University, the public sector practice at the Boston Consulting Group, the Chief Commissioner at Victoria Police, the Victorian and Queensland Departments of Premier and Cabinet and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. She has also spent two mid-winters working with Noel Pearson at the Cape York Institute, and has returned for periods to work in the UK when she can't take the sunshine any more.

Prior to coming to Australia, Jane-Frances spent three years at the UK Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, where she led the team which produced the first UK Government's Strategic Audit. Prior to this, she worked at the Boston Consulting Group's London Office and at the World Bank, and spent three years living in Prague in the Czech Republic, where she worked in the nascent NGO sector in the areas of education, public health and civil society development.

Jane-Frances holds a BA in literature from Oxford University, an MBA from the Wharton School and a Masters of Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Dr Leesa Wheelahan is a senior lecturer in adult and vocational education in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University.

She writes regularly for Campus Review on the relationship between the VET and higher education sectors and on issues to do with credit transfer and student articulation. She is currently leading an NCVER funded project that is researching the growth of higher education in TAFE.

John Maddock is Box Hill Institute's Chief Executive Officer. He has more than 30 years of experience in the education sector. He became CEO of Box Hill Institute in 1999 after serving for six years as Deputy Director. Prior to that, he worked for four years as director of Gordon Institute of TAFE.

John has wide experience in vocational education and training (VET) across areas of responsibility such as a strategic and business planning; business development; marketing and public relations; information services; international education; VET program delivery; development of flexible delivery modes; entrepreneurial and commercial activities; VET research; quality and customer service initiatives; and financial management.

He is Deputy Chair of the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre, a Board Member of the following; Monash Faculty of Education, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and Innovation and Business Skills Australia. He is the Chair of Global Education Network and past president of Post Secondary International Network of President Community Colleges.

John's interests include community involvement in Rotary, and sports administration. He is Basketball Australia's President and a Delegate on the Australian Olympic Committee.

Pam Christie is Director of TAFE NSW - Sydney Institute, one of the largest and most respected vocational training providers in Australia. Sydney Institute enrolls more than 73,000 students annually, providing industry-relevant skills through more than 900 government and commercial funded training programs.

Pam has extensive experience in the vocational education and training sector in a range of leadership roles. She has played a major role in shaping national and state policy directions including leading reforms in the apprenticeship and traineeship system, establishing quality and regulatory frameworks and implementing competitive funding arrangements.

Pam is a member of the NSW Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board, TAFE Directors Australia and GROW Sydney.

Pam began her career as a social science teacher and taught overseas in Zambia, Nigeria and Malaysia. Pam also worked in adult migrant education for more than 10 years in teaching, curriculum and education management roles.

Pam has a keen interest in leadership and strategic relationship building. She has a strong commitment to strengthening the flexibility and responsiveness of public education and training.

Don Aitkin AO is a former Vice-Chancellor (University of Canberra, 1991-2002), and currently the Chairman of the Boards of the Cultural Facilities Corporation, the NRMA/ACT Road Safety Trust, and Pro Musica Inc.

He has a continuing role with the Canada Foundation for Innovation as well as with a number of Australian organisations interested in education, research, urban development, and governance, matters about which he has strong and in some respects unorthodox views. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian College of Education and the Australian Planning Institute.

He was the first Chairman of the Australian Research Council (1988-1990), where he trebled the budget and established the ARC as an organisation of world class; he served for six years as a member of the Australian Science and Technology Council. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Canberra and the University of New England.

A historian and political scientist, he was a professor at Macquarie University and ANU, and is the author of a number of books on Australian history and politics as well as a novel. His most recent book is What Was It All For? The Reshaping of Australia (2005), and he writes a weekly column on education for the Australian Financial Review. In past times he was a widely read newspaper columnist in the National Times and The Canberra Times, a contributing editor of Newsweek, and a television and radio commentator.

Andrew Crapuchettes is Chief Executive Officer of Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI). He has been in the hi-tech industry for over 14 years working with 3D modeling and software design.

He has done business process automation for companies such as Fleetwood, Applied Materials, Triad Speakers, ITD (Idaho Transportation Department), and others. Mr. Crapuchettes has taught classes on 3D modeling and software architecture in universities as a consultant at the graduate level. More recently he has co-authored papers and given speeches on economic development, Input/Output analysis, community college curricula demand and career pathways.

Since joining EMSI as the third employee in late 2001, Mr. Crapuchettes tuned the small consulting firm into a multi-million dollar economic firm that is currently working in several countries and employs over 50 people. EMSI has been in the Inc. 5000 two years in a row with a 2008 ranking of #1938. He is married to the lovely Elise and has three children, Jackson, Annabelle and John Henry.

Dr Keating is currently Chairman of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal in NSW, a member of the Board of Skills Australia, the Economic Development Board of SA and the South Australian Training and Skills Commission, and a Visiting Fellow in the Economics Program in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University.

Previously, Dr Keating was Head of the Australian Public Service and Secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (1991 to 1996). Prior to that he was Head of the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (1983 to 1986), and Head of the Department of Finance (1986 to 1991).

In his career, Dr Keating has advised Australian governments extensively on employment and training issues. He chaired the group that established the Australian National Training Authority and the group of experts that advised the Keating Government on "Working Nation". Most recently Dr Keating has been responsible for the IPART report on Up-skilling NSW: How vocational education and training can help overcome skill shortages, improve labour market outcomes and raise economic growth, and for the report to the South Australian Government on Skills and Workforce Development for the Next Decade.

Adrian Marron became Executive Director of TAFE SA Adelaide North Institute in September 2004. The Institute consists of 9 campuses in the northern Metropolitan area of Adelaide and enrols approximately 30,000 students each year and has a substantial international student enrolment.

Although Scottish by birth he arrived in Australia after spending 7 years in Papua New Guinea much of it working for a multinational beverage company.

Adrian was formerly the CEO of the Wodonga Institute of TAFE in Victoria, and has been involved in senior management in vocational education and training for more that 13 years.

His teaching and learning career has involved high school, further education, and university and distance education. Adrian is committed to the VET sector and public provision that is relevant, flexible, competitive, customer focussed and of high quality.

Adrian has a background in Economics and Business education and has been involved in the study and practice of Strategic Business planning. Adrian has been engaged in landmark developments in vocational education and has participated in many key policy and planning initiatives and is an active participant in the continuing reform of structure and practice in the Australian sector. Recently he has had responsibility for constructing the South Australian Skills Strategy, a blueprint for ongoing reform of that State's VET system.

Adrian has contributed to many overseas conferences, workshops and presented papers on various aspects of vocational education.

Rod Arthur, Deputy Director-General, Training in Queensland's Department of Education, Training and the Arts, has over 30 years experience across the secondary and vocational education and training sectors in a range of leadership roles at both a state and national level.

Across Queensland, Rod's accountabilities have included General Manager for Queensland's vocational education and training regulation system and Chief Information Officer for the former Department of Employment and Training as a whole.

In addition, Rod has many years experience as Director for a number of TAFE institutes, including Director of the Open Learning Institute of TAFE, Queensland's public provider for training using distance delivery. Over this time he led many key initiatives for the TAFE network such as the development of China as a significant international training market and pioneered the use of customer relationship management technologies to support open and distance learning.

At a national level, Rod has been Queensland's representative of the Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG), a strategic body that provides advice on national priorities for flexible learning in VET as well a member of the Australian Information and Communication Technologies in Education Committee (AICTEC), a national forum for advice to all Australian Ministers of Education and Training on issues relating to the educational use of information and communications technology.

Virginia Simmons was appointed Director and CEO of Chisholm Institute of TAFE in April 2001. Prior to that she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (TAFE) at Swinburne University of Technology for 3½ years and Director Kangan Batman Institute of TAFE for 11 years. She has been a strong advocate for public sector TAFE throughout her long-standing career in the sector and has witnessed enormous change in the role TAFE institutes play with industry and the community. She serves on a number of economic and education boards, including the National Quality Council, TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) and the South East Development (SED).

Virginia has wide experience in international consulting, having worked for a wide range of agencies including AusAID, the Asian Pacific Skills Development Program of the International Labour Organisation (APSDEP/ILO), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, the South East Asian Ministers of Education organisation (SEAMEO) and IDP Education Australia. Widely experienced at leading organisations through periods of major change, she has also participated in many international projects in South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Brunei Darussalam and China.

Virginia has a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education from Monash University, Victoria, as well as a Higher Diploma of the German Language, from the Goethe Institute, Munich, Germany and a Graduate Diploma of Educational Administration, from Hawthorn Institute of Education (now Melbourne University), Victoria.

Her contributions to education, leadership and training have been recognised in 1993 by Women Chiefs of Enterprises Australia; in 1995 with the Prime Minister's Training Award and in 2008 with the James Darling Medal, from the Australian College of Educators.

Malcolm Goff has over 30 years experience in the employment and training sector, including extensive experience at a national level in vocational education and training.

As CEO of TVET Australia, Malcolm has the task of managing the secretariat services for the National Quality Council and the National Industry Skills Committee. In addition, he has been given the responsibility for bringing together the functions of the two Ministerial owned companies of AEShareNet and Australian Training Products and to establish the new national audit and registration agency within TVET Australia.

Before his appointment as CEO of TVET Australia, Malcolm was the Managing Director/CEO of Challenger TAFE in WA. This institute is a public statutory authority, with over 1000 staff delivering training to more than 25,000 students across 17 campuses and specialised industry training centres located in the Western Australian capital city of Perth.

In the period between 2000 and 2005 the institute underwent a remarkable transformation. In 1999 the Institute faced a financial crisis, had low staff morale and was almost entirely dependent on government funding. By 2005 Challenger TAFE had achieved a significant operating surplus with approximately 40% of annual income coming from commercial activities. The Institute has received numerous industry, state and national awards culminating in the 2005 national award of Australian Large Provider of the Year.

In addition to his time at Challenger TAFE, Malcolm has worked as Managing Director for five other metropolitan and regional TAFE institutes. He has amassed considerable experience in organisational development through the establishment of new institutes or via their restructuring and repositioning.

Malcolm's institute experience is complemented by his extensive experience at State and National levels in developing system wide training policy.