Since his election as Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in August 2007, Jeff Lawrence has steered the union movement in a new direction under a Labor Government.

Under his stewardship, the ACTU was a key negotiator in the drafting of the Fair Work Act, which features a guaranteed safety net of rights and conditions, improved protection from unfair dismissal, the abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements, an independent umpire, and rights to collective bargaining.
Jeff has devoted his entire career to advancing the interests of working Australians, particularly the low-paid.

Prior to joining the ACTU, he headed one of Australia’s largest unions – the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), a union with more than 130,000 members in the service, contract, childcare, aged care and health industries.

Under his leadership, the union reversed the decline in membership, achieving modest growth against the wider trend.

After coming to the ACTU, Jeff joined with ACTU President Sharan Burrow to co-ordinate the Your Rights at Work campaign against the Howard Government’s WorkChoices laws.

Among his achievements at the ACTU, in 2009 he helped broker a new set of government procurement guidelines that place greater emphasis on Australian jobs and workplace rights.

Unions under his watch have successfully advocated for economic stimulus measures to protect Australian jobs during the downturn.

Jeff was born in Newcastle in 1952, and has a degree in Arts/Law (Hons) from Sydney University.

His father Barry was a panel beater and auto mechanic and his mother Elaine a typist and stenographer.

He is married to Judith and lives in Melbourne.

 

His Excellency David Daly reflects on his first year as Head of Delegation and Ambassador of the European Delegation in his first address to the National Press Club. 

"This past year has been tumultuous for the whole world with the Global Financial Crisis, the role of the G20, Climate Change, Afghanistan etc. These challenges have been critical for the EU just as for Australia.

This past year has seen a great advance in terms of European integration with the new Lisbon Treaty which streamlines things and brings Europe closer to its citizens. Also, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of the 2004 EU enlargement, the 10th anniversary of the EU's security and defence arm and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This past year has demonstrated very positive concrete results from the first year's implementation of the new EU-Australia Partnership Framework, including anti-terrorism cooperation, practical and political cooperation in the Pacific region, a tough but constructive cooperation on trade issues, including on agriculture.

These are the issues which have kept me busy during my first year as the European Union Head of Delegation in Canberra - I'm happy to explain why."

Labor supporting a future referendum on constitutional recognition of local government and many arguing that local government is the backbone of federalism in an Australia with an increasingly centralised system of government. Local government has emerged as a growing force under the Rudd Government. Never before has there been such direct engagement between the Commonwealth and councils with Australia’s 565 mayors now meeting annually with the Prime Minister and ministers at the Australian Council of Local Government. With federal funding to councils expanding through new programs such as the $1 billion Community Infrastructure Program component of the stimulus package, the $25 million Local Government Reform Fund and the continuation of the Roads to Recovery program, the future for local government looks bright. However, there are significant challenges ahead. The High Court's Pape decision creates uncertainty over the power of the Commonwealth to continue to directly fund local government.  There are also long-term resourcing and financial sustainability issues stemming from an inadequate and antiquated revenue base that was set up in a time when local government had a very different set of responsibilities. Cr Lake will argue that local government has a key role to play in realising 'co-operative federalism' and he will offer a perspective from his position as a full member of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on how intergovernmental relations have changed under the Rudd Government. He will outline his vision for reform of the $25 billion per annum local government industry and he will highlight the need for the sector to pursue bottom up reform with greater vigour.  He will also share some of the findings from recent polling commissioned by ALGA into the public's attitude towards the Constitution and constitutional change.

At the age of 29 Cr Lake represents the new face of local government in Australia. Elected as President of ALGA in November 2008, over the past year he and ALGA have notched up a number of significant achievements including:
• successfully advocating for over $1 billion in stimulus package funding for local government;
• participating in four COAG meetings and various ministerial council meetings;
• presiding over a Local Government Constitutional Summit where more than 500 councillors from across the country achieved a consensus view on the preferred option for constitutional change; and
• being invited to attend the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference as a member of the official Australian Delegation.

Senator Bob Brown is the Leader of the Greens and Senator for Tasmania.

He became the Director of the Wilderness Society which organised the blockade of the dam-works on Tasmania’s wild Franklin River in1982/3. Some 1500 people were arrested and 600 jailed, including Bob Brown whospent 19 days in Risdon Prison. On the day of his release, he was elected as the firstGreen into Tasmania's Parliament. After federal government intervention, theFranklin River was protected in 1983.

As a State MP, Bob Brown introduced a wide range of private member's initiatives,including for freedom of information, death with dignity, lowering parliamentarysalaries, gay law reform, banning the battery-hen industry and nuclear free Tasmania.Some succeeded, others not. Regrettably, his 1987 bill to ban semi-automatic gunswas voted down by both Liberal and Labor members of the House of Assembly,seven years before the Port Arthur massacre.

In 1989, he led the parliamentary team of five Greens which held the balance ofpower with the Field Labor Government. The Greens saved 25 schools from closure,instigated the Local Employment Initiatives which created more than 1000 jobs indepressed areas, doubled the size of Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area to1.4 million hectares, created the Douglas-Apsley National Park and supported toughfiscal measures to recover from the debts of the previous Liberal regime. Bobresigned from the State Parliament in 1993 and Christine Milne took over as leader ofthe Tasmanian Greens.In 1996 Bob was elected to the Australian Senate, where some of the bills he hasintroduced include constitutional reform, forest protection, blocking radioactive wastedumping, banning mandatory sentencing of Aboriginal children and reducinggreenhouse gas emissions.

In 2006, Dr Ziggy Switkowski chaired the Prime Minister’s Review of Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy which returned nuclear power to the country’s strategic debate.

He is a former chief executive of Telstra, Optus and Kodak (Australia).

He is also a non-executive director of Suncorp, Tabcorp and Healthscope, and Chair of Opera Australia and the Chair of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.

He has a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Robert McClelland is the Commonwealth Attorney-General and the Member for Barton, an electorate based in the St George area of Sydney.

Robert was born and raised in the St George area and still lives here with his wife, three daughters and a son. He attended Connells Point Primary School and Blakehurst High, where he was school captain in 1975.

A former junior representative footballer, he still likes to play touch football and is a proud supporter of the St George Illawarra Dragons rugby league team. His other sporting passion is surfing.

Robert has a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of NSW and a Master of Law from the University of Sydney. Before entering Federal Parliament he was a partner in the Sydney law firm Turner Freeman where he specialised in labour and sporting law.

He was first elected as the Federal Member for Barton in March 1996. He has served on several parliamentary committees, including as Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and the Joint Select Committee on the Republic Referendum. In October 1998 Robert was appointed Shadow Attorney-General and later served in a range of shadow portfolios including Workplace Relations, Justice, Homeland Security, Defence and Foreign Affairs. Following the election of the Kevin Rudd Labor Government in November 2007, Robert was appointed Australia's 33rd Attorney-General.

Federal Treasurer the Hon Wayne Swan MP presents the annual post-budget address at the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra.

Shadow Treasurer the HOn Joe Hockey MP presents the annual post-budget reply.

Baroness Greenfield is Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (the first woman to hold that position) and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she leads a multi-disciplinary team investigating neurodegenerative disorders.  In addition she is Director of the Oxford Centre for the Science of the Mind, exploring the physical basis of consciousness.

The Baroness is a fervent  believer in making science accessible to the general public, she has a reputation as one of the most influential women in the world and is a leading expert on the human brain.  She has presented numerous television and radio programs including the BBC six part series "Brain Story" and is the best selling author of The Human Brain: A Guided Tour’, ‘Brain Story’ and ‘Tomorrow's People: How 21st Century Technology Is Changing the Way We Think and Feel’, among others. 

Baroness Greenfield is the ASMR medallist 2010.

Dr Andrew Pesce was elected Federal President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) in May 2009. The AMA represents the interests of more than 27,000 medical practitioners from all specialties and locations across Australia. 

Dr Pesce is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who works both in private and public practice. He has been Clinical Director of Women’s Health for Sydney West Area Health Service since 2006. 

Dr Pesce’s priorities as AMA President include engaging with government to influence national health policy debate for the benefit of patients, the medical profession and the broader community. He is also committed to increasing the AMA’s membership base. 

In 2006, he was awarded the AMA President’s Award for his work representing the profession during the medical indemnity crisis. Dr Pesce was chair of the AMA Medical Indemnity Taskforce from 2003 to 2007 and was appointed to the Federal Government’s Medical Indemnity Advisory Panel in 2003 and to the Medical Indemnity Review Panel in 2006.  

Dr Pesce was the Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Craft Group representative on AMA Federal Council from 2001 to 2007 and an AMA Executive Councillor from 2005 to 2007. He was Chair of the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on Pregnancy Counselling from 2007-2009 and Chair of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from 2006 to July 2009.

 Dr Pesce graduated from The University of NSW in 1983 and became a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1990.  He was awarded the Chris Hudson Fellowship for 1991-92, which enabled him to train at Whips Cross and St Bartholomew Hospitals in London. 

Dr Pesce is married with two teenage daughters.

Ash Tewari, M.D., M.Ch. is the Director of Robotic Prostatectomy and Prostate Cancer-Urologic Oncology Outcomes at Brady Urology Institute at the Department of Urology and an Associate Professor of Urology; he is also an Associate Professor of Public Health and Outcomes in the Department of Public Health and Outcomes at The Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is an Associate Attending at The New York Presbyterian Hospital. He directs a fellowship program in Robotic Prostatectomy and Prostate Cancer- Urologic Oncology outcomes in Cornell.

Dr. Tewari is an internationally acclaimed expert on Robotic Prostatectomy and other minimally invasive robotic surgeries. His clinical interest involves urologic oncology and care of patients with prostate, bladder and other urological cancers. He performs open, laparoscopic and robotic surgeries. He is also involved in diagnosing prostate cancer by using PSA and modern ultra sound guided biopsy techniques. Using a dataset of 7000 patients with abnormal PSA, he has developed simple predictive models to calculate the risk of prostate cancer.

Dr. Tewari received his Urologic Oncology training at University of California San Francisco, University of Florida and Vattikuti Institute of Urology. He has done his urology residency at Vattikuti Institute of Urology, Detroit Michigan. He was trained by Mani Menon, MD who pioneered the field of robotic urology and developed the VIP technique of Robotic Prostatectomy. Dr. Tewari has been intimately involved with over 800 robotic cases including Robotic Prostatectomy, Cystectomies, and other Urologic-Oncological procedures. Dr. Tewari has co-authored multiple publications including several key papers on Robotic prostatectomy and prostate cancer outcomes. He has traveled widely to various US and an international center as a visiting professor, gives talks on prostate cancer, and demonstrates robotic surgery. His expertise in Robotic prostatectomy has been recognized internationally and he has been invited to give instructional courses on robotics during the American Urological Association meetings.

Dr. Tewari is listed in Who?s Who in the World and his collaborative work with other investigators on prostate cancer has won two major AUA ACMI first place awards in 2003 from the American Urological Association. He has participated in preparation of videos on robotic prostatectomy and robotic cystectomy (for bladder cancer), which have been selected as the ?Best Videos? by the American Urological Association (see CV). He has won several other awards by the AUA and other national and international foundations including ?Joseph F. McCarthy/ACMI Physician Essay Contest?, ?Recognition in Laparoscopic surgery?, ?Gerald Murphy Scholar? in Prostate Cancer, ?Montague Boyd? essay award, ?Ambrose Reeds? cost effective award and ?John Harrington Tanous? award for distinguished research in cancer in University of Florida. Dr. Tewari did his pre USA medical training from GSVM Medical College during which he won eighteen gold medals and honors. He is also board certified in General Surgery from GSVM Medical College and board certified in Urology from Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute in India.

Dr. Tewari is the member of several professional societies including American Urological Association, Society of Laparoscopic Surgeons, Michigan Prostate Cancer Consortium, Society of Minimally Invasive Therapy and International Society of Quality of Life Research. He is a reviewer of Journal of Urology, British Journal of Urology and Urology.

Dr. Tewari?s main research interests are in the field of prostate cancer, outcomes, robotics, molecular markers for aggression, racial disparity in cancer biology, quality of life studies, strategies to improve nerve sparing and sexual function recovery, anatomic studies to facilitate continence preservation and development of next generation robotic techniques. He has published several articles, book chapters and invited articles on various aspects of urologic cancer, urology and robotics. He has received federal and non federal grants for his research on prostate cancer.

Dr. Tewari is married to Mamta Tewari, and is a father of two children, Apoorva and Akash. He is a cricketer, hiker and enjoys nature and photography.

He is currently licensed to practice medicine in the state of New York. To contact Dr. Tewari, an appointment can be made by calling his office at (212) 746-5638. He can be contacted by mail at Starr 900, Department of Urology, The New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center, 525 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10021 or by email at Robotic-Coordinator@Theehealth.com or by fax at (212) 212 746 8396 or through the web site- http://www.cornellurology.com/roboticprostatectomy/.