Bob Brown was elected to the Senate in 1996, after 10 years as an MHA in Tasmania's state parliament.

In his first speech in the Senate, Bob raised the threat posed by climate change. Government and opposition members laughed at his warning of sea level rises and it has taken 10 years for them to finally begin to acknowledge the causes and effects of climate change.

Since 1996, Bob has continued to take a courageous, and often politically lonely, stand on issues across the national and international spectrum.

Some of the many issues that Bob has raised in the Senate include petrol sniffing in Central Australia, self-determination for West Papua and Tibet, saving Tasmania’s ancient forests, opposing the war in Iraq, justice for David Hicks, stopping the sale of the Snowy Hydro scheme and opposing the dumping of nuclear waste in Australia.

Bob was re-elected to the Senate in 2001.  Following the election of 4 Greens senators in 2004, Bob became parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens in 2005.

The 2007 election saw Bob re-elected to the Senate for a third term along with two new Greens Senators in WA and SA.  Bob received the highest personal Senate vote in Tasmania and was elected with more than a quota in his own right.

WAITING LIST ONLY PLEASE EMAIL YOUR REQUEST TO npc@npc.org.au

Penny was born in Sabah, Malaysia. She moved to Australia when she was eight and settled in the Adelaide Hills. She won a scholarship to Scotch College and obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Law Degree (Hons) from the University of Adelaide. Penny began working for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union when she was still studying and stayed with the union after she was admitted to the Bar. She became an elected organiser and industrial officer. She was then employed as a ministerial advisor to the Carr government in New South Wales, concentrating on forest policy. She later returned to Adelaide to practise law.
Party Positions

Delegate, ALP State Convention (SA) 1989-94 and from 1996.
Deputy Chair, ALP Platform Committee (SA) 1990-94.
Member, ALP State Executive (SA) 1996-99.
Member, ALP National Policy Committee on Industry, Infrastructure and Regional Development 1998-2000.
Delegate, ALP National Conference 2000.
Qualifications and Occupation before entering Federal Parliament

BA, LLB (Adel), GradDip in Legal Practice (SA).
Industrial officer 1990-96.
Barrister and solicitor 1996-2000.
Legal officer 2000-02.

Kos Sclavos will be speaking live in a televised debate at the National Press Club on the 23 July 2008.
 
 
Kos Sclavos is in his third year as National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. Kos is driving pharmacy’s exciting new IT agenda and already has many successes with projects such as Project Stop to track sales of pseudoephedrine and prevent suspicious sales, as well as teaming up with software providers to develop a unique electronic prescribing system which maintains patient privacy and choice, as well as a medication compliance tool to improve patient health outcomes.
 
The Bulletin Magazine last year voted Kos one of the top 100 most influential people in Australia…and particularly in the health sector. Mr Sclavos has led the Guild in developing a strong and effective relationship with Government, to ensure that pharmacy remains at the forefront of effective and efficient delivery of health outcomes to the community.
 
Before he became the Guild’s President, Kos spent nine years as the Queensland Guild Branch President, and 6 years as National President of the Australian Institute of Pharmacy Management (now ACPPM).
 
Kos continues to serve on a wide variety of industry bodies and committees and is a regular feature writer in the Australian Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacy News. In 1999 Kos was awarded the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) Young Pharmacist of the Year Award, as well as the PSA Bowl of Hygeia Award.
 
In 2005 Kos was awarded the Allied Health/ Education Worker of the Year by Epilepsy Australia. Kos has been a driving force behind a number of industry initiatives including the Advanced Diploma of Community Pharmacy Management and the Quality Care Pharmacy Program.
 
Recently a pharmacy that he is a partner in was voted Australia’s “Pharmacy of the Year” because of its innovative programs such as trialling MedsIndex – a medicine compliance tool, as well as its front of shop approach to pharmacy where pharmacists regularly mix with customers to provide professional health advice.
 
Kos has helped to put Pharmacy in the front line of health provision and is driving moves to have more professional health services provided by community pharmacists as the most accessible health providers in the community.

Joel Fitzgibbon was first elected to the Federal Parliament as Member for Hunter in March 1996 and, in October 1998, was appointed Shadow Minister for Small Business and Tourism.

After the November 2001 election, Joel served as the Shadow Minister for Resources and in July 2003 had Tourism added to his responsibilities again. Under Leader Mark Latham, Joel was appointed to the Mining, Energy and Forestry portfolios.

After the 2004 election, Joel was appointed Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Revenue, Shadow Minister for Banking & Financial Services. In July 2005, Small Business and Competition were added to his Assistant Treasurer and Revenue portfolios.

After Kevin Rudd was elected Labor Leader in December 2006, Joel was appointed Shadow Minister for Defence. He became Mininster for Defence after Labor's November 2007 federal election victory.

Prior to entering Parliament Joel spent 10 years in the motor industry as a small business operator. He also served eight years as a Councillor on Cessnock City Council including a term as Deputy Mayor. Joel is a former director of the Hunter-Manning Tourist Authority.

In 2004, Joel completed a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration at Newcastle University and has previously studied economics, politics and law at the University of New England, completed trade qualifications and studied small business at NSWTAFE.

Joel lives in Cessnock with his wife Dianne and their three children - Caitlin, Jack and Grace. Dianne has been a small business operator for twenty years in the personal services sector. Joel has a keen interest in sport and in his younger days played first-grade rugby league for Cessnock.

Peter Taylor is the Chief Executive of Engineers Australia, which is the peak body for engineering practitioners in Australia with more than 85,000 members.

Since taking up the position as Chief Executive in early 2004, Peter has been a staunch advocate of infrastructure reform, sustainability, global mobility of engineering professionals, and solving engineering skills shortages. Peter was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to Australian society through engineering.  

Peter’s address is aimed at bringing further debate and actions for what is needed to have the engineering capabilities and resources for Australia’s future.

Almost every aspect of modern life has been influenced by an engineer – the water we drink, the buildings we live, learn and work in, products created in factories, computers we surf the net on, the appliances and vehicles that make our life more efficient and comfortable – all owe their existence to engineers. Without question, engineering has been a constant companion in our development as a civilisation and engineering continues to plays a powerful role in bringing us closer to an environmentally sustainable and economically viable future.

There is a strong social and humanitarian dimension to engineering and virtually all engineering solutions are a response to a human need.  Engineers solve problems.  For example the most significant advances in medicine were not based on improved surgical or medical techniques, but almost entirely on engineering breakthroughs: from replacement joints to whole-body scanners; heart pacemakers; dialysis machines to artificial limbs - they are all designed, developed and built by engineers working closely with medical professionals and their patients.
 
Engineers have a central role to play in understanding nature.  Weather, tides, earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic eruptions are already better understood as a result of complex engineering systems for data gathering, analysis, interpretation, and forecasting, and the future may result in engineered interventions to influence and even, to a degree, control these forces. 

The concept of sustainability will influence almost all engineering developments and the potential effects on the environment, long term and short term, proximate and remote, will be integrated routinely into engineering design and planning.

Creative and innovative engineers can and do make a substantial positive contribution to raise the living standard of other Australians and take the country to a much higher level in terms of prosperity and quality of life. 

Peter’s address will coincide with Australian Engineering Week and the luncheon will also include the announcement of the winner of the inaugural National Press Club’s “Engineers Australia Journalism Award”.   For information about the Engineers Australia Journalism Award please click here

Join us for the awarding of the Excellence in Health Journalism Awards with special guest speaker the Minister for Health & Ageing The Hon Nicola Roxon MP.

Nicola Roxon is the Minister for Health.

She has been a member of Federal Parliament since 1998 representing the western suburbs seat of Gellibrand in Melbourne. She previously held the positions of Shadow Minister Children and Youth, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on the Status of Women, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Health.

Nicola is an honours law graduate, who worked as an industrial lawyer, union organiser and judge's associate to Justice Mary Gaudron in the High Court of Australia prior to her election to parliament.

Anthony Murray Gleeson was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia in May 1998. At the time of his appointment he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, having been appointed to that office in November 1988.

He graduated in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney and was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1963. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1974. He was President of the New South Wales Bar Association during the period 1984-1985. He was Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales from 1989 to 1998, and was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 1992.

Prior to his appointment as ABC Managing Director, Mark Scott spent almost twelve years in a variety of editorial, editorial management and organisation development positions with John Fairfax Publications. From 2003 to 2005 he was Editor-in-Chief, Metropolitan newspapers, and during 2005 became Editor-in-Chief of Metropolitan, Regional and Community newspapers. From November 2005 he was Editorial Director, with responsibility for the management and editorial direction of the newspaper divisions and websites along with the editorial and commercial performance of the Fairfax newspaper magazine division.

From 1993-94 he worked in education policy research at the Centre for Learning and Competitiveness at the University of Maryland.

He was employed in the New South Wales Government from 1988-92 in the roles of Chief of Staff to the Education Minister, Director of Communications in the Education Ministry, and Policy Advisor to the Education Minister.

Mark Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts, Diploma in Education and a Master of Arts degree in Government from the University of Sydney. During 1992-93 he completed a Masters degree in Public Administration at Harvard University.

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

Robert D. McCallum, Jr. presented his credentials as the Ambassador of the United States of America to Australia on August 23, 2006. Ambassador McCallum previously was the Associate Attorney General, the third ranking official at the United States Department of Justice, from July 1, 2003. He had earlier served from September, 2001, as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, the Department’s largest litigating component.

Before entering government, Ambassador McCallum was a partner with the Atlanta, Georgia, law firm of Alston & Bird, specializing in trial and appellate practice. During his twenty-eight years with that firm, he was appointed by the Attorney General of the State of Georgia as a Special Assistant Attorney General, and he was the recipient of the Atlanta Bar Association Leadership Award in 2001. Ambassador McCallum has authored numerous legal articles and publications and also served as a lecturer on a variety of legal topics.

Over his career, Ambassador McCallum has been active in numerous civic organizations, including service as a Director of the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina; President of the Yale Club of Georgia; State and District Secretary for the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committees; Georgia Representative of the Yale Law School Alumni/ae Association; and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Choate Rosemary Hall School in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Ambassador McCallum was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1946. He attended Yale University as an undergraduate on a National Merit Scholarship, receiving his B.A., cum laude, in History in 1968. After graduation, he attended Christ Church at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning a B.A. in Jurisprudence with First Class Honors in 1971. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School on an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship in 1973 and entered the practice of law that same year.

An avid sportsman in his youth, Ambassador McCallum was captain of the Yale tennis team, the point guard on the Yale basketball team, and a member of the University sides in both at Oxford. He continues a keen interest in sports of all sorts but now only as a spectator.

Ambassador McCallum married Mary (“Mimi”) Rankin Weems McCallum in 1969. In addition to spectator sports, their interests include hiking, fishing, the visual arts, architecture, and the theater. They have two adult sons.

A retired daily newspaper editor and CEO, Peter has been associated with clubs since he was old enough to join a bush golf club as a child. Peter is chairman of the Illawarra Steelers in Wollongong where he has been a director for 15 years and he is also a director of the St George Illawarra Dragons.

Peter is devoted to issues reflecting the need for unity and stability in the Club Movement; ensuring clubs receive a fair go on all fronts, including taxation; honesty and transparency at both individual club level and at the hands of those whose policies regulate the industry; identifying a clear path forward for the industry so we can plan with confidence; and, continually educate and recognise the massive contribution clubs make in their immediate communities and NSW generally.

Peter is the Chair of Clubs Australia.

Charlie Hargroves will address the National Press Club on how Australia can profitably create conditions to achieve a form of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable. In light of the impending Garnout Review, and recent changes in federal government and the international scene, the presentation will provide an overview of key opportunities for Australia’s future progress, developed as part of a formal response to the Brundtland Commission publication ‘Our Common Future’.

Mr Hargroves is a Co-founder and Executive Director of The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), an internationally recognised Sustainability Think-Tank, founded in 2002 and hosted in-kind by Griffith University and ANU. In 2004 he was seconded as a Chief Executive Officer to Hunter Lovins’ company Natural Capitalism Inc (Colorado). Mr Hargroves co-authored and co-edited the TNEP flagship publication, ‘The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century’, published by Earthscan in 2005 with colleague Michael Smith. Launched in Australia by Sir Ninian Stephens and awarded the 2005 Banksia Award for Environmental Leadership, Education and Training, the book has been actively promoted at the National Press Club by speakers including Ian Lowe, Hunter Lovins, Janine Benyus, Norman Myers and Peter Taylor (Engineers Australia).  Recently Mr Hargroves was accepted as an Associate Member of the Club of Rome for his work in the area of sustainable development.

Mr Hargroves has most recently led the development of ‘Cents and Sustainability’, a next-generation response to ‘Our Common Future’, which laid the foundation for global sustainable development some 20 years ago. Carrying a foreword from both Dr Gro Brundtland (Former Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development) and Dr Rajendra Pachauri (Chief, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and having accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the IPCC, along with co-recipient Al Gore) the new book has been supported by the Purves Environmental Fund.
TNEP have developed a range of projects focused on education, training and strategy for sustainable development, including working with international partners such as UNESCO, World Federation of Engineering Organisations, Natural Capitalism Inc, Chicago Climate Exchange, World Technopolis Association, Chicago Manufacturing Centre, and Rocky Mountain Institute. The team is currently working on an update of international best seller ‘Factor 4’ with Ernst von Weizsäcker to be released in early 2009. TNEP’s current Australian project partners include CSIRO, Engineers Australia, Purves Environmental Fund, Townsville City Council (Solar Cities), the National Framework for Energy Efficiency, VicUrban, the QLD EPA Sustainable Industries Division Hewlett Packard, KBR, Hatch, University of South Australia, QUT and RMIT.

Short Biography: www.naturaledgeproject.net/CharlieHargroves.aspx

Background – The Natural Edge Project
The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) is a not-for profit partnership for research and education on sustainable development. Formerly hosted by Engineers Australia (2002-2006), the project is now hosted by Griffith University and the Australian National University. TNEP’s mission is to contribute to and succinctly communicate leading research, case studies, tools and strategies for achieving sustainable prosperity across government, business and civil society. We receive mentoring and support from a wide range of experts and leading organisations in Australia and internationally, through a generational exchange model. TNEP believes that our generation has an obligation - and an exciting opportunity - to be part of the solution in restoring the balance. We rely on mentoring and collaboration, using knowledge and experience from our collective network to ensure that efforts to make a positive difference make our children proud.

Dr Henry was born in Taree NSW on 27 November 1957. He completed a first class honours degree in economics at the University of NSW in 1979. From February 1980 to September 1984 he was a lecturer in the economics department of the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand), where he completed his PhD in 1982. In September 1984 he returned to Australia, accepting a position in Treasury’s Taxation Policy Division.  He was a member of the Treasury team that put together the Government's draft White Paper on Tax Reform (published in June 1985) and contributed to the development of the Government’s tax reform package (Reform of the Australian Taxation System, September 1985).

From September 1986 to June 1991, Dr Henry worked as a senior adviser to the Treasurer, providing advice on taxation policy and administration, retirement incomes policy, industry policy and microeconomic reform (including telecommunications reform). In June 1991 he returned to the Treasury, becoming head of the Microeconomic Modelling Unit. In July 1992 he took up the position of Minister (Economic and Financial Affairs) in the Australian Delegation to the OECD in Paris.

Dr Henry returned to the Treasury in January 1994 as head of the Taxation Policy Division. In August 1997 he was appointed Chairman of the Government’s Taxation Task Force, responsible for providing advice to the Government on tax reform options. In October 1998 he was promoted to the position of Executive Director (Deputy Secretary) of Treasury’s Economic Group, and a member of the Treasury Executive Board. In that role he had executive responsibility for domestic macroeconomic policy advice, domestic economic forecasting, and advice on international economic issues (including Australia’s relationship with the multilateral international financial institutions).

On 27 April 2001, Dr Henry was appointed Secretary to the Treasury. Dr Henry was reappointed for a further 5 years from 27 April 2006. He is an ex-officio member of the Board of Taxation, member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Alternate Governor (for Australia) of the International Monetary Fund and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Australian Office of Financial Management.

Dr Henry was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia General Division (AC) in the Australia Day Honours 2007.