The trucking industry carries almost three-quarters of Australia’s domestic freight, including every item on the shelves of every supermarket.

Stuart St Clair is the Chief Executive of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), the peak body that represents the trucking industry. The ATA’s members include state and sector trucking associations, the Transport Workers Union, and some of Australia’s largest logistics companies.

Stuart will talk about:

- why the trucking industry will remain indispensable into the future, despite the critics who claim the days of its importance are numbered;
- how the trucking industry is accepting its responsibility to help deal with climate change;
- how governments and trucking companies can improve safety for truck drivers and other motorists, with fresh insights into what really causes truck crashes; and
- what can be done to fix the road transport laws to make trucking more efficient.

Stuart has a deep practical appreciation of road transport issues, which he gained during his early working life in the timber industry. He owned and managed a sawmill in northern New South Wales, before he was elected to the Guyra Shire Council in 1987, where he became Mayor.

Stuart was elected to Federal Parliament as the Member for New England in 1998. He later became a Senior Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson.

Stuart joined the ATA as its Chief Executive in 2006.

The Government’s announcement that Professor Allan Fels would head a Productivity Commission inquiry into executive pay came after months of fierce debate on this issue. The global recession and some high profile cases have made it more challenging for those who believe companies are best placed to make decisions about their own affairs, while sharpening the attacks of those who say company executives are paid too much.

However Australia is not the US – our corporate governance arrangements are very different, and by and large Australian companies are weathering the global recession very well. There have been no failures across entire sectors, as there has been in the US and the UK, and importantly there is no evidence that greater regulation of executive remuneration would lead to better outcomes for shareholders, employees, consumers, or the community generally. In fact, many of the factors influencing executive pay which have recently caused concern were brought about by earlier attempts to put a ceiling on how much executives should be paid.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors has been at the forefront of the debate over executive pay. While some boards could improve their performance in this area – and the AICD has encouraged and supported them to do so – only boards have the capacity and the information required to set the remuneration of their executives. AICD CEO John Colvin will discuss why his organisation believes the selection, oversight and remuneration of the chief executive officer should remain a core function for company directors.

John Colvin  is the  Chief Executive Australian Institute of Company Directors.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) is a national, 24,000-strong membership organisation that promotes professional directorship and good governance.

The AICD shares the Australian Government’s objective of a legislative and regulatory framework that is world’s best practice; a system that supports entrepreneurial commercial activity – the backbone of the Australian economy – by reducing red tape while ensuring shareholders, employees and the community are adequately protected.

Australia is in the grip of a Diabetes epidemic.

Each year 100,000 Australians, the equivalent of a full house of the MCG, contract Type 2 Diabetes.

Diabetes is Australia’s fastest growing chronic disease and a leading cause of heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and amputation. It costs Australia $6 billion annually.

Many of these type 2 cases are preventable and the result of poor lifestyle and diet choice.

The Diabetes epidemic is a key focus of the Federal Government’s preventative health taskforce which is due to report in the next 2 months.

The most recent estimates are that between 1.3 and 1.8 million Australians have Diabetes.

900,000 Australian’s are registered on the Federal Government’s $750 million National Diabetes Support Scheme (NDSS) scheme. This means that potentially several hundred thousand Australian’s have Diabetes but are unaware.

Dr Gary Deed was appointed National President of Diabetes Australia in November 2006. But his involvement with Diabetes Australia pre-dates this by over 10 years. Dr Deed became a Board member of Diabetes Australia - Queensland in 1995, becoming President in 2001. During this time he was asked to join the Diabetes Australia’s National Board, and, until his appointment, was Vice-President of Diabetes Australia.
Dr Deed has a particular interest and passion in advocating and lobbying for better health outcomes for and on behalf of people with diabetes in Australia.

Dr Deed is a general practitioner is living with type 1 diabetes and is committed to his role as President of the national peak body for diabetes in Australia.

Dr Deed has been involved in advocacy for people with diabetes since 1995 when he joined the diabetes Australia Queensland Board. He has been further involved in National Advocacy with close liaison and support for the Parliamentary Diabetes Support group, and on Commonwealth committees addressing public Health initiatives in chronic disease and diabetes.

 Dr Deed is also the Chair of the Health Research Ethics Committee and Academic Board member of the Australian College of Natural Medicine and President of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. He is a member of the Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. He is a Patron of MINDD which is a not for profit in support of children with Autism and Behavioural disorders.

We are pleased to welcome to the Press Club the President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Andrew Pesce.

Kos Sclavos is the National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. When appointed at just 41,Kos is the youngest ever National President of the Guild and his election has signalled a period of generational change in the profession. For the past nine years he had served as the Queensland Guild Branch President and achieved a number of key milestones for Queensland Members during this period. In addition to his role as National President, Kos serves 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 and the PSA Bowl of Hygeia Award. 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.

Tony Abbott explains his personal political faith and offers it as a way forward for the Liberal and National parties. Starting with an account of human nature and Australian society, Abbott develops a series of political positions that the conservative parties could adopt to rehabilitate themselves with the Australian people.

He doesn’t shirk the big questions: What went wrong for the Howard government and did the electorate reject its values or just its leader? What does it mean to be a political conservative in the post-Howard era and how can conservatives and liberals live together inside the same political party? How can a small government party support a big foreign policy agenda and a nationalist party staunchly support traditional allies?
 

Without pollie-waffle, Abbott outlines the Australia he would like to see in twenty years’ time.

Tony Abbott is the current Federal Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. From 2004-2007 he was Minister for Health and Ageing in the Howard government and Leader of the House of Representatives in the Federal Parliament. Since 1994 he has been the Member for Warringah, New South Wales, in the House of Representatives for the Liberal Party. He has written two books in defense of Australia's existing constitutional system, The Minimal Monarchy and How to Win the Constitutional War.

 A global perspective on the challenges facing copyright in the digital age.

Copyright provides a market-based mechanism for distributing value for cultural works to creators and their business associates.  The migration of the expression of cultural content to digital technology and the means of distributing content to the Internet is provoking market failure.  Some 40 billion files of music were illegally shared on the Internet in 2008.  Films are increasingly available on file-sharing networks as bandwidth expands.  E-books are becoming more attractive to consumers.  The news industry is experimenting with different business models.  How is copyright coping with the changed environment?  

Francis Gurry, a national of Australia, is Director General the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.  He currently serves as the most senior Australian within the UN structure, and is only the third Australian to head a UN agency.

The Australian Government provided strong support to Dr Gurry’s election campaign to the position of Director General of WIPO.
 
Francis Gurry began his WIPO career in 1985.   He was instrumental in establishing the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center in 1994 and subsequently in developing the highly successful Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.  He served on the WIPO top management team from 1997, initially as Assistant Director General, then from 2003 as Deputy Director General with responsibility for patents and the international Patent Cooperation Treaty system, the Arbitration and Mediation Center, traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources.

Before joining WIPO, Francis Gurry practiced as an attorney in Australia, and taught law at the University of Melbourne, Australia.  He holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of numerous publications and articles on intellectual property issues in international journals.

Parliamentary Service
Elected to the House of Representatives for Batman, Victoria, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007.

Ministerial Appointments
Minister for Resources and Energy from 3.12.07;
Minister for Tourism from 3.12.07.
Parliamentary Appointments
Parliamentary Representative on the Council of the National Library of Australia from 9.8.99 to 13.5.08.

Committee Service
House of Representatives Standing:
Employment, Education and Training from 30.5.96 to 31.8.98;
Procedure from 8.12.98 to 31.8.04;
Privileges from 20.3.02 to 31.8.04;
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry from 2.12.04 to 17.10.07;
Industry and Resources from 2.12.04 to 17.10.07.

Joint Standing:
Migration from 17.11.97 to 31.8.98.

Parliamentary Party Positions
Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry from 19.3.96 to 3.12.07.

Shadow Minister for Employment and Training from 20.3.96 to 26.8.97;
Shadow Minister for Employment, Training, Population and Immigration and Assistant to the Leader on Multicultural Affairs from 26.8.97 to 20.10.98;
Shadow Minister for Employment, Training and Population from 20.10.98 to 3.10.99;
Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Services and Population from 3.10.99 to 25.11.01;
Shadow Minister for Regional and Urban Development; Shadow Minister for Transport and Infrastructure from 25.11.01. to 26.10.04
Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources and Tourism from 26.10.04 to 10.12.06;
>Shadow Minister for Transport, Roads and Tourism from 10.12.06.

Party Positions
Member, ALP from 1968.
Vice-President, ALP Guildford Branch 1972-74.
President, ALP Guildford Branch 1974-78.
Secretary, ALP Guildford Branch 1978-90.
Vice-President, ALP (NSW) 1983-90.
Delegate, Federal and State Electorate Councils.
Delegate, ALP State Conference (NSW).
Personal
Born 12.12.1953, Sydney, NSW.

Married.

Qualifications and Occupation before entering Federal Parliament
BEc(Hons)(Syd).

Federal Research Officer, Miscellaneous Workers' Union 1975-81.
Assistant General Secretary, Miscellaneous Workers' Union 1981-84.
General Secretary, Miscellaneous Workers' Union 1984-90.
Member, Australian Council of Trade Unions Executive 1984-90.
Vice-President, Australian Council of Trade Unions 1985-90.
President, Australian Council of Trade Unions 1990-96.
Member, ILO Governing Body 1990-96.
Life Member, Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union 1995.

Honours
Appointed Member of the Order of Australia, June 1996.

The Minister for Youth, the Hon Kate Ellis MP will address the Press Club on International Youth Day 2009 on the important topic of the Rudd Government’s new agenda for youth affairs.

The government came to office in 2007 determined to revitalise national youth affairs and to give young people a voice.  This determination has grown since the deepening economic downturn and its inevitable impact on the current generation of young people.

The Minister for Youth will use International Youth Day to outline the government’s commitment to young Australians and to announce outcomes from the first year of the Office for Youth.  Her speech will announce new findings from national research about how young people are faring, what young people rate as the major issues in their lives and the impact of the economic downturn.  For the first time the Minister for Youth will also describe how much the Australian Government commits to youth affairs and what programs and policies it offers.

Kate Ellis grew up in the in the Murray River town of Mannum in South Australia.

Kate's political interest was sparked when higher education funding was slashed and massive increases to HECS fees were introduced.

She became involved with student campaigns to highlight these and other issues, was editor of the student newspaper and later President of the Students' Association.

Kate remains passionate about the need for quality education to be accessible to all Australians regardless of their economic status.

Determined to pursue a career in public policy, Kate worked for two South Australian state ministers before making her mark at a federal level.

On October 9 2004, Kate made history as the youngest woman ever elected to the Australian House of Representatives, after winning the seat of Adelaide.
Following the Australian Labor Party election victory in November 2007 Kate was elevated to the Rudd Government ministry as the Minister for Sport and Youth.
Kate understands the power of sport to define our national identity, help build stronger communities and address our growing obesity problem.

She's also determined to give young people a stronger voice in government by listening and responding to their needs through the new Australian Youth Forum.

Join us for the farewell address by the British High Commissioner to Australia, the Rt Hon Helen Lidell who shortly will finish her term in Australia. 

Helen Liddell arrived in Australia to take up her position as British High Commissioner, on July 8 2005 to news of the London bombings.  A former Cabinet Minister, she replaced Sir Alastair Goodlad.

Elected to the House of Commons in 1994 for the Scottish constituency previously held by the late Labour Leader John Smith, she began her ministerial career with Labour's election to Government in 1997.

She served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1997 to 1998, Deputy Secretary of State for Scotland and Minister for Education from 1998-1999 and was briefly a Transport Minister and Minister of State to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott  in 1999, before becoming Minister of State for Energy and Competitiveness in Europe, a post she held until joining the Cabinet in 2001 when she became the first  woman Secretary of State for Scotland.  She left the Cabinet in 2003 and it was announced shortly afterwards that she would become British High Commissioner to Australia. She left Parliament in May 2005.

An economist by profession, on leaving Strathclyde University in 1971, she began work as Head of the Economic Department of the Scottish Trades Union Congress where she remained until 1976, leaving as Assistant Secretary to become the Economic Correspondent of BBC Scotland.

In 1977 she became General Secretary of the Labour Party in Scotland, a post she held until she left to complete her first novel in 1988, however shortly afterwards she accepted the post of Director, Personnel and Public Affairs of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd.

In 1993 she became Chief Executive of Business Ventures,  a post she retained until her unexpected election to Parliament in  1994.

Her novel "Elite" was published in 1990.

Appointed Privy Councillor in 1998, she is also an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Strathclyde.

She is joined in Australia by her husband Dr Alistair Liddell.  Her son and daughter remain in the UK.

Respected neuroscientist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr Alan Finkel is the Founder and CEO of Axon Instruments and the Chancellor of Monash University.

Dr Finkel is the seventh Chancellor in the University's 50 year history, but the first Monash graduate to be appointed to the prestigious role.

Dr Finkel has a truly global perspective on the links between science, innovation and education.

Dr Finkel received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Monash University in 1981. After two years of postdoctoral research at the Australian National University he went on to establish and lead Axon Instruments, a world-class supplier of electronic and robotic instruments and software for use in cellular neuroscience, genomics and drug discovery both in the university and pharmaceutical company research sectors.

Dr Finkel recently invented a device that was successfully commercialised to speed drug research, and has also co-founded the award-winning science magazine Cosmos.

He has also managed the merger of several prominent research institutes, represented the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in a program to foster appreciation of science in secondary school students, and co-founded a company distributing educational toys and books for children. (From the Monash University website).

World Vision CEO Tim Costello will launch World Vision’s flagship publication  Island Nation or Global Citizen? at the National Press Club on 26 August.

The report will review Australia’s contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and new approaches to development in the region since the election of the Rudd Government. Mr Costello will rate Australia's performance against international benchmarks and make recommendations for further action.

This review will have a particular focus on the impact of the global financial crisis on developing countries and on conditions for children in our region.

Island Nation or Global Citizen? will also look at Australians’ attitudes to supporting aid in these tougher economic times through an analysis of giving and specially commissioned opinion research across Australia.

Tim Costello is recognised as one of Australia’s leading voices on social justice issues, having spearheaded public debates on gambling, urban poverty, homelessness, reconciliation and substance abuse.

And since February 2004, as Chief Executive of World Vision Australia, Tim has also been instrumental in ensuring that the issues surrounding global poverty are placed on the national agenda.

Tim has also played a prominent role in the Make Poverty History campaign. And in April 2008, he chaired the Strengthening Communities, Supporting Families and Social Inclusion Committee of the Australian Government’s 2020 Summit in Canberra.

Prior to joining World Vision Australia, Tim served as Minister at the Collins Street Baptist Church in Melbourne, and as Executive Director of Urban Seed, a Christian not-for-profit outreach service for the urban poor. Between 1999 and 2002, he was also National President of the Baptist Union of Australia.

Tim studied law and education at Monash University, followed by theology at the International Baptist Seminary in Rueschlikon, Switzerland. He also received a Masters Degree in Theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity.

In 2004, Tim was named Victorian of the Year; in June 2005 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO); and in 2006 was named Victorian Australian of the Year.

He has written several books, including Streets of Hope: Finding God in St Kilda; Tips from a Travelling Soul Searcher and Wanna Bet? Winners and Losers in Gambling’s Luck Myth (co-written with Royce Millar).

Tim and his wife Merridie have three adult children, Claire, Elliot and Martin.

David Kilcullen is the author of The Accidental Guerrilla: fighting small wars in the midst of a big one, which was published in Australia in April. 

David Kilcullen is one of the world’s leading experts on guerrilla warfare and, rarely among his kind, has a PhD in political anthropology. He has served in every theatre of the ‘War on Terror’ since 9/11 as special advisor for counterinsurgency to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, and chief counterterrorism strategist for the US State Department. He is a former Australian army officer with combat experience in South-East Asia and the Middle East.

Living Large explores Harold Mitchell’s remarkable personal journey from son of a sawmiller to owner of a $100 million business, rubbing shoulders with Australia's most powerful people. It traces Mitchell’s philosophies about business and life, and presents guidance for young business executives trying to make it in the jungle.

Harold Mitchell was born in 1942 in the small remote West Gippsland town of Trafalgar, 125 kilometres east of Melbourne. He grew up around Gippsland sawmills, with his three siblings following his father to wherever the work was. His mother left the family when Harold, the eldest, was 16, leaving his father to bring up the children. Wanting to work in radio, he successfully applied for a job at an advertising agency in Melbourne. Rapidly working his way up the ranks, Harold soon became successful in the media buying operation of several agencies before starting out on his own in 1976 with just $2000 capital. His move revolutionized the industry: he pioneered the idea of taking the buying and placing of advertisements for clients out of the advertising agencies into a separate operation. Despite bitter opposition from the agencies, he became successful quickly, and today is an icon and market leader of the 'media buying' industry.

He set up the Harold Mitchell Foundation which disperses money to an array of causes. His son Stuart Mitchell now runs the business Mitchell and Partners, while Harold plays an over-seeing, advisory role. His daughter Amanda is chair of the Harold Mitchell Foundation. Married to Bevelly for nearly 50 years, he lives in St Andrews, 40 kilometres from Melbourne, where his house was lucky to be spared from the fires of Black Saturday on 7 February 2009.

Wolf Blass AM was born in East Germany in September 1934. After studying and working in the European wine industry for 13 years he migrated to the Barossa Valley, South Australia in 1961.

Wolf's first job after arriving in Australia was as Sparkling Wines Manager for Kaiser Stuhl in the Barossa Valley. He also worked as a freelance technical adviser for independent producers.

In 1966 Wolf registered the business name Bilyara, the aboriginal word meaning 'Eaglehawk', and adopted this as his symbol for the national emblem of this home land which was a constant source of pride and inspiration to him. Wolf produced his first vintage of 250 dozen in the same year.

Through 1969 to 1973 Wolf worked as Manager and Winemaker for Tolleys where he made his first significant impact on the local wine industry with development of red wine styles. He was considered one of the leaders of the new generation of Australian winemakers, creating individual wines of various styles under his own label.

In 2001, Wolf was appointed as a Member in the Order of Australia for "service to the development of the Australian Wine Industry and to the promotion of excellence in winemaking, viticulture, marketing and research."

In 2006, Wolf was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit (Das Bundesverdienstkreuz) by the Federal Republic of Germany (one of the German government's most prestigious honours) for "nurturing positive relationships and partnerships between the German and Australian peoples, cultures and countries."

Wolf Blass AM is currently the Ambassador for Wolf Blass Wines International, participating in promotions, overseas development and maintaining the quality style of the winemaking production.

Wolf is married to Shirley Nyberg-Blass and they both enjoy their children and grandchildren.  (From the Wolf Blass website).

www.wolfblass.com.au 

 Paul Kelly is Editor-at-Large of The Australian. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of The Australian (1991–1996). He is the author of The Unmaking of Gough (1976), later titled The Dismissal (1982), The Hawke Ascendancy (1984), The End of Certainty (1992), November 1975 (1995) and Paradise Divided (2000).

The March of Patriots looks at the creation of a modern Australia during the 1991–2007 era of Paul Keating and John Howard.
 
Keating and Howard were the first two Australian prime ministers of the globalised age. They were raised together, fashioned by the same forces with careers that paralleled each other. They sought to create a new set of faiths for their parties, Labor and Liberal, in an age where the old beliefs were obsolete. In this sense they were prophets for their tribes offering a fresh interpretation of Labor and Liberal ideology for a new century.
 
Keating and Howard are best understood as change agents, adapting their parties and their nation to a new course. This is the story of two experiments in prime ministerial power and of two leaders divided by temperament, cultural outlook and perceptions of national identity, yet united in much of their economic and social policy. It describes their efforts to devise a fresh policy framework for Australia and to invest their decaying parties with new faiths.
 
 

 Australian science has never been carried out in isolation. However, the growth of the scale of science and spectacular improvements in communication require that our international engagement needs to increase.  This has happened, but not at a rate where Australia can be complacent about its position in the future as a leader in many fields of science.  Nor can we be assured that we will have timely access to the large part of the world’s science and technology base that is not produced here.  The Australian Academy of Science has played an important role in fostering science and technology relations between countries and many of the established links have had their origins in Academy programs.  In this National Pres Club Address, the Academy will present the case for enhancing Australia’s participation in the global science effort; the benefits from doing this; the opportunities lost by not being fully involved; and what needs to be done if the Nation is to benefit fully from the advances that will occur in science and technology in the years ahead. 

Kurt Lambeck is President of the Australian Academy of Science.  The Academy is an independent organization of Australia’s most distinguished research scientists from the universities, government research agencies and industry.  Recent past Presidents have included Dr Jim Peacock, the past Chief Scientist of Australia, and Professor Sir Gustav Nossal.  Amongst its many activities the Academy advises government on a broad range of science policy, international and educational issues.

Professor Lambeck has been distinguished Professor of Geophysics at the Australian National University since 1977, including ten years as Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences.  He has been a member of, and chaired a number of, high-level Government Committees.  Currently these include the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes Committee and the Higher Education Endowment Fund Advisory Panel.

Internationally he is active not only in his own research in areas of geophysics and climate change but also in developing linkages between Australia and other countries in all areas of science and technology.  Before 1977 he worked in the US, UK, Greece and The Netherlands and since then has also held academic and consulting positions in these countries as well as in Belgium, Finland, Norway and Sweden.  He has been a consultant on nuclear waste issues in the UK, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, on geological issues in Norway, space issues for the European Space Agency and NASA, and sea level issues in the Netherlands.  He is a member of the Executive Committee of the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues, and President-elect of the Federation of Asian Scientific Academies and Societies.  Both of these bodies focus particularly on capacity building in developing countries through science, health and education initiatives.

Professor Lambeck has been widely recognised for his contributions to science.  This includes election to the Royal Society of the UK, the French Academy of Science, the US National Academy of Sciences and the national academies of The Netherlands and Norway.  It also includes international prizes such as the Tage Erlander Prize from the Swedish Research Council, the Prix George Lemaître from the Université catholique de Louvain (2001), and the Eminent Scientist Award from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2004).

Website Address: http://www.science.org.au/

Poverty and injustice have many causes. The 162 Caritas national members believe they can do more to combat them by combining their resources.

National members come under the umbrella of Caritas Internationalis, with its headquarters in the Vatican City, and representatives at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, Rome, and Paris. 

Caritas Internationalis channels the resources of its members:

Whether it’s providing food, shelter, water or medicine, we ensure rapid response, professionalism and coordination in emergency programming and disaster preparedness,

Whether it’s tackling the HIV pandemic or the consequences of climate change, we share knowledge to help the most marginalised become protagonists of their own development,

Whether it’s training communities in peace building or bringing divided peoples together, we seek to end conflict non-violently, promoting one humanity through inter-faith dialogue

Whether it’s speaking out on economic injustice or migration, we empower poor people and communities to challenge unjust international policies, practises and attitudes.

Lesley-Anne Knight is the Chief Executive Officer with responsibility for the management of Caritas Internationalis and delivery of the strategic plan.

Lesley-Anne Knight was appointed Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis during the 2007 General Assembly.  A British citizen, born in Zimbabwe, Ms Knight, 51, has more than 25 years of experience in international development.

Before coming to Caritas Internationalis, Ms Knight was International Director of CAFOD (Caritas England and Wales), where she was responsible for a staff of more than 200 people working in over 60 countries. She previously served as CAFOD’s Programme Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean and Head of Programme and Partner Support.

In addition to her experience with CAFOD, Ms Knight worked in Guatemala and Mexico during the 1980s for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and OXFAM, and in 1999 was Emergencies Director of the UK-based charity HelpAge International, where she was responsible for humanitarian and emergency relief programmes in northern Iraq, Kosovo/Macedonia, Mozambique, and India.

She has lived and worked in eight countries in Africa, Latin America, and Europe and speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German. She holds a degree in English, French, Logic and Metaphysics and post-graduate qualifications in Business Management.

Ged Kearney, ANF Federal Secretary has been nursing for nearly 30years, nursing in both public and private health in Melbourne.

She has extensive experience in public health and nursing education, having worked for many years as the Coordinator of Clinical Education at Austin Health in Melbourne.

Ged has always been a very active member of the Australian Nursing Federation.  She was Victorian Branch President for five years, ANF Federal President for four years, and ANF Assistant Federal Secretary before taking up her current position as ANF Federal Secretary in April 2008.

With a strong sense of the value of nursing to Australia’s health and of peoples right to universal, quality and affordable health care, Ged Kearney represents a new era in health where reform is on the agenda and health care is not dominated by an antiquated biomedical model of care, rather a multidisciplinary, health promotion approach.

With the population ageing and increasing pressures on the way we care for older Australians, Ged Kearney will discuss the future of aged care and nursing homes and why the current system needs reform now.

Dr Constantine Lyketsos is The Elizabeth Plank Althouse Professor, Chairman, Department of Psychiatry of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.  He is also
Vice Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Co-Director, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry, Director, Memory and Alzheimer's Treatment Center.

Professional Interests include Psychiatric disorders in old age, and in patients with coarse brain disease (neuropsychiatry), Dementia, Alzheimer's, stroke, traumatic brain injury, HIV/AIDS and associated mood disorders. Dr Lyketsos also works in the fields of Epidemiology, clinical epidemiology, and clinical trials
Assisted Living and nursing home research.

Dr Clark served on the Expert Panel for the Review of the National Innovation System. In addition, she is a member of the St Vincent’s Hospital Foundation Board and a member of the Automotive Industry Innovation Council.

She began her career as a mine geologist and subsequently worked in mineral exploration, mine geology, research and development management, venture capital and technical strategy areas with Western Mining Corporation for fifteen years.

More recently she was Vice President Technology and Vice President, Health, Safety, Environment, Community and Sustainability with BHP Billiton. 

She participated in the 2008 Australia 2020 Summit discussing the future of the Australian economy. (From the CSIRO website).

Dr Rotfeld has published and edited more than 20 monographs and over 300 articles. Initially focused on the legal and political aspects of relations between Germany and Central and East European states after World War II (recognition of borders, the Munich Agreement and the right of self-determination) and the multilateral process of security and cooperation in Europe initiated in Helsinki. After the end of the cold war co-edited with Walther Stützle the volume: Germany and Europe in Transition (OUP 1991). Since then his publications are mainly focused on human rights, cooperative security, CSBMs, multilateral security structures (NATO, EU, OSCE) and political and legal aspects of the security system in Europe. Editor of the SIPRI Yearbook: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security since 1991. He has written more than 20 chapters on global and regional security systems and European and transatlantic security structures for the SIPRI Yearbook. Co-chaired with Professor Daniel Tarschys, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and Chairman of the SIPRI Governing Board, the Independent Working Group on A Future Security Agenda for Europe (1994-1996). With Dr Ian Anthony, SIPRI Project Leader, prepared the The Stockholm Agenda for Arms Control (report based on the Rapporteur's Statement at the SIPRI Nobel Symposium on A Future Arms Control Agenda, 1-2 October 1999) and co-edited the volume: A Future Arms Control Agenda (2001). His most recent report, The New Security Dimensions: Europe after the NATO and EU Enlargements, was published in June 2001.

Ph. D., Professor, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of the President's National Security Council

Australian Institute of Polish Affairs Inc. (AIPA) is a voluntary, non-political organisation established in 1991. The idea of AIPA emerged soon after the historic events of 1989. The end of the Cold War and the democratization of Poland have prompted the Polish diaspora in Australia to re-examine its traditional role as the emigré community striving for Poland’s independence, and generated support for the formation of an organised Polish lobby. Many of the 160,000-strong Polish community in Australia felt the need to extend the activities of Polonia beyond the political domain, and to aim at strengthening cultural, intellectual and commercial links between Australia and the new Poland.

The principal aim of the Australian Institute of Polish Affairs is to foster Polish-Australian relations through:

 Promoting knowledge about Poland in Australia

 Organising visits in Australia by leading Polish intellectuals, politicians, artists and business people

 Organising and publicising public lectures, conferences and exhibitions with Polish and Polish-Australian themes

 Monitoring, collecting and promoting of information on Poland and Polish-Australian affairs in the mainstream media

 Taking a public stand on matters concerning Poland and Polish-Australian affairs

 Liaising with academic, political, commercial and cultural organisations in Poland and Australia.

Over AIPA’s 17 years of existence, its Executive Committee has included prominent Polish Australians, such as Prof. Jerzy Zubrzycki (sociologist, the founder of Australian multiculturalism), Prof. Sev Ozdowski (former the Human Rights Commissioner in Australia), Prof. Andrew Ehrenkreutz (Emeritus Professor of history at the University of Michigan and founder of the influential North-American Study Center of Polish Affairs), Prof. Martin Krygier (Professor of Law, University of NSW) and Prof. Jan Pakulski (sociologist, Dean of Arts, University of Tasmania).

Professor Penny D. Sackett took her PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Pittsburgh, and has held positions at Amherst College (USA), the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, USA), and the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute (NL). She has served on Australian, Dutch, European, and US science and advisory panels, including several committees for Next Generation Telescopes. Her career includes science reporting for Science News and program administration for the US National Science Foundation.

Sackett was appointed Director of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories in 2002, serving a five year term. She resigned from the ANU in October 2008 in order to take up her current post as Chief Scientist for Australia, although she retains academic status at the ANU to enable her to continue to mentor students.

Sackett is an Elected International Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and sits on the AURA Board of Directors, which governs, among other astronomical centers, the Gemini Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. Before becoming Chief Scientist, she served on the Board of Directors for the Giant Magellan Telescope, a project to build an optical telescope many times more powerful than any existence in the world today.

Professor Sackett's personal research interests include dark matter, galactic structure, and extrasolar planets.

Will has over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals industry, having held a variety of roles in Europe and Australia across three multinational companies.  He has been on the Board of Medicines Australia since 1997 and was previously Chairman from 2003-2005. 

During this term he co-chaired the taskforce which implemented the pharmaceutical provisions of the AUS FTA.  Following his retirement as Managing Director of Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD) Australia and Merck’s Regional Director for Australia and New Zealand, Will was appointed Independent Chairman of Medicines Australia in 2007.  Will is the Chair of the Pharmaceuticals Industry Council (PIC), a member of the Pharmaceuticals Industry Strategy Group (PISG) and the Pharmaceuticals Industry Working Group (PIWG), and co-Chair of the Access to Medicines Working Group (AMWG). 

In June 2008, Will was appointed as a Director the Board of Pharmaxis, a local specialist pharmaceutical company involved in developing therapeutic products for chronic respiratory and autoimmune diseases.

Professor Robin J Batterham AO FAA FTSE FREng FNAE, former Chief Scientist of Australia, was appointed President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) on January 1 2007.

Professor Batterham leads an Academy of more than 750 eminent Australian scientists, technologists and engineers committed to promoting the application of scientific and engineering knowledge for Australia’s benefit.

Robin Batterham is a former ATSE Councillor, who trained and worked as an engineer, and has a wonderful background in scientific and technological innovation and a vast range of experience at the most senior levels of government and business in Australia and overseas.

Professor Batterham was Chief Scientist to the Australian Federal Government from 1999 to 2005 on a part-time basis. He remains a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) and is a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne.

Professor Batterham is Global Practice Leader – Innovation, Rio Tinto Limited, responsible for Rio Tinto’s external research and development and for delivering step change technologies into the operations.

He has had a distinguished career in research and technology, in the public and private sectors. He worked with CSIRO in areas such as mining, mineral processing, mineral agglomeration processes, and iron making.

From 1988, Professor Batterham has held senior positions in Technology Development with CRA Limited, now Rio Tinto Limited. During this time, he led the development of a processing route for what is now recognised as the world's largest economic zinc mineralisation. He also contributed significantly to the HIsmelt process to develop a novel direct smelting technology for iron making.

He is Past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Chairman of the International Network for Acid Prevention and President of the National Science Summer School.

Professor Batterham has given some hundreds of invited keynote lectures, has been a member of a number of major reviews of higher education and government research organisations, and has produced nearly 200 papers, publications and patents. He was editor for 12 years of the International Journal of Applied Mathematical Modelling and is a recipient of the Kernot medal from Melbourne University, the Chemeca Medal and the AusIMM Institute Medal 2004.

He is also an organist, holding a position at Scots Church in Melbourne

In early 2009, bushfires swept across Victoria, devastating 78 communities and 400, 000 hectares of land. A total of 173 people lost their lives. The devastation resulted in 2029 homes destroyed along with 61 businesses, 5 schools and kindergartens, 3 sporting clubs and numerous other buildings.

On 10 February 2009, the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments established the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority to oversee and coordinate the largest recovery and rebuilding program Victoria has ever faced. The Authority is working with communities, businesses, charities, local councils and other government departments to help rebuild communities affected by the bushfires.

As Chair of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, Christine Nixon, will oversee the largest recovery and rebuilding operation Victoria has ever undertaken.

Under Christine’s leadership, the Authority will work with communities, businesses, charities, local councils and other government departments to help people rebuild.  

Christine’s priority is to help communities recover and rebuild in a way that is safe, timely, efficient, cost effective and respectful of each community’s different needs.

Prior to joining the Authority, Christine was the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police leading 14,000 staff, who operate across more than 500 locations.  She oversaw a budget of $1.7 billion.

She joined Victoria Police in April 2001, after serving with the New South Wales Police from 1972.

Christine is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Police Management, The Australian Institute of Management and The Institute of Public Administration Australia.

She is also an Advisory Board member for the Alannah & Madeline Foundation and a patron of the Blue Ribbon Foundation, Onside Soccer – Victorian Soccer Federation Incorporation, Operation Newstart Victoria and Phoenix Club Inc.

The Right Honourable David Blunkett (born June 6, 1947) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Home Secretary since 2001. He has been blind since birth.

Born in Sheffield, he grew up in poverty after his father was killed in an industrial accident. Educated at schools for the blind in Sheffield and Shrewsbury, his chances in life seemed limited. Nevertheless he won a place at the University of Sheffield, and became the youngest-ever councillor on Sheffield City Council at the age of 22. He became well-known as a left-wing figure while leader of that council in the 1980s, and was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

At the 1987 general election he was elected MP for Sheffield Brightside. He became a party spokesman on local government, joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 as Shadow Health Secretary, and became Shadow Education Secretary in 1994. Combining reforming zeal with social conservatism, he became a favourite of new party leader Tony Blair.

After Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 general election he became the UK's first blind cabinet minister as Secretary of State for Education and Employment. Education Secretary was a vital role in a government whose Prime Minister had described his priorities as "education, education, education", and which had made reductions in school class sizes a key pledge. In the event it was higher education that proved to be the most controversial issue for Blunkett, as he moved towards the imposition of tuition fees at public universities which had traditionally been free.

At the start of the Labour government's second term in 2001, Blunkett was promoted to become Home Secretary.

Immigration and asylum have been central issues for Blunkett at the Home Office. In December 2001 he controversially called for immigrants to develop a greater "sense of belonging" to Britain. In April 2002 he proposed new powers to crack down on illegal immigration and unfounded claims for political asylum.

Another controversial area for Blunkett has been civil liberties (which he famously described as "airy fairy"[1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/1666371.stm)). In 2003 he announced an extension of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act which critics have condemned as a "snoopers' charter". His 2003 Criminal Justice Bill reduced legal safeguards such as the right to trial by jury and double jeopardy rules. He is attempting to introduce compulsory national identity cards (initially called "entitlement cards", though this euphemism has now been dropped).

These measures have earned him the nickname Big Blunkett[2] (http://big-blunkett.blogspot.com/), a reference to the Orwellian concept of Big Brother.