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Newsletter
Stay up to date with the latest news, events and entertainment from the National Press Club of Australia.
Speakers
Joe Hockey
Shadow Treasurer
May 22, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
"Post Budget Reply"
THIS ADDRESS WILL BE HELD AT THE GREAT HALL, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Joe Hockey is the federal Member for North Sydney and the Shadow Treasurer.
He was elected to the Australian Parliament in 1996 and following his re-election in 1998, was made Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, one of the youngest ministers in the history of the Commonwealth.
After the 2001 election, Joe was appointed Minister for Small Business and Tourism where he delivered the first Tourism White Paper to drive the future direction of Australia’s tourism industry.
In October 2004, Joe was appointed the Minister for Human Services in the Fourth Howard Ministry and tasked with delivering a greater customer focus for the Australian Government’s major welfare and health services agencies.
In January 2007, Joe was appointed Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service.
Following the 2007 Federal Election Joe was appointed Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing and Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives. In 2008 he was appointed Shadow Minister for Finance.
In February, 2009 Joe was appointed by Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull as Shadow Treasurer. He was subsequently reappointed by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in December 2009.
He is a member of the Parliamentary Friends of Armenia, China, Argentina, Chile and Cuba. He is also a member of Parliamentary Friends of Asthma, a group of parliamentarians dedicated to helping sufferers of Asthma.
Joe Hockey was born in North Sydney, as the youngest of four children.
His father was born in Bethlehem of Armenian and Palestinian parentage and his Mum in Chatswood.
His family worked hard running a small business on the North Shore, beginning with a deli in Chatswood and later, a real estate agency in Naremburn.
Joe was educated at what is now St Philip Neri Primary School and St Aloysius' College in Milsons Point. He attended the University of Sydney where he completed degrees in Arts and Law.
His enthusiasm for politics began as a young boy when Joe discovered that working with government for a meaningful cause could help bring about real change in a community. His first victory came at the age of fourteen when he successfully lobbied his local Council to obtain cricket nets for local children in Northbridge.
At university, Joe became involved in student politics and was elected President of the Students Representative Council. He also held the position of President of the New South Wales Young Liberal Movement.
After university Joe worked as a finance and banking lawyer. He was seconded to the New South Wales Government to take a lead role in the state privatisation program. He went on to become the Senior Policy Adviser to the Treasurer and then Director of Policy to the Premier of New South Wales.
Joe maintains a close relationship with the community organisations in our area. He is a member of North Sydney Rotary, the North Sydney Leagues Club, North Sydney Rugby Club, North Shore Historical Society, Lane Cove Community Aid and Hunter Hill Ryde Community Services. Joe is patron of the Northern Suburbs Netball Association, and Northbridge and Cammeray Golf Clubs and the North Sydney RSL Sub Branch. He is an ambassador for the White Ribbon Foundation, which aims to eliminate violence against women and also an ambassador for the Royal Life Saving Society's Keep Watch program. He is a passionate and active support of the Humpty Dumpty Foundation which raises money to support children’s medical needs in NSW.
Joe is married and he and Melissa are the proud parents of their three young children, Xavier, Adelaide and Ignatius
Bill Gates
Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
May 28, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
“Smart Aid: Australia’s Leadership and Innovating For the World’s Poorest"
EVENT SOLD OUT
THIS ADDRESS WILL BE HELD AT THE GREAT HALL, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Along with co-chair Melinda Gates, he shapes and approves grantmaking strategies, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and helps set the overall direction of the organization.
Bill and Melinda Gates work together to expand opportunity to the world’s most disadvantaged people by collaborating with grantees and partners. They also participate in national and international events and travel extensively to focus attention on the issues the foundation champions.
Gates began his major philanthropic efforts in 1994, when he created the William H. Gates Foundation, which focused on global health. Three years later, he and Melinda created the Gates Library Foundation, which worked to bring public access computers with Internet connections to libraries in the United States. Its name changed to the Gates Learning Foundation in 1999 to reflect its focus on ensuring that low-income minority students are prepared for college and have the means to attend. In 2000, to increase efficiency and communication, the two groups merged into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 1975, Gates left Harvard University in his junior year to focus on Microsoft, the company he founded with his childhood friend Paul Allen. As chief software architect and chairman, Gates led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software, services, and solutions. In July 2008, Gates transitioned into a new role as chairman of Microsoft and advisor on some key development projects.
Gates also founded Corbis, which is developing a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. His father, William H. Gates Sr., is a co-chair of the foundation and a retired attorney. His late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International. The Gateses have three children.
Professor Ian Lowe AO
President of the Australian Conservation Foundation
May 29, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
"Address to the National Press Club"
Professor Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University in Brisbane, and adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University.
Professor Lowe has authored 20 books and more than 500 other publications.
Professor Lowe's contributions to environmental science have won him a Centenary Medal, the Eureka Prize for promotion of science, the Prime Minister’s Environment Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, the Queensland Premier’s Millennium Award for Excellence in Science, and the University of NSW Alumni Award for achievement in science.
Professor Lowe was named Humanist of the Year in 1988 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001.
Professor Lowe has been ACF president since 2004.
The Hon Greg Combet AM MP
Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation
June 5, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
"The Clean Energy Future plan one year on: How carbon pricing is working"
The Gillard Government’s carbon price started on 1 July 2012. As the one-year anniversary approaches, Minister Combet will provide an update on how the carbon price and the Government’s wider clean energy policies are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive investment in clean and renewable energy.
Greg Combet AM MP is the Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation.
He entered Parliament in 2007 as the Member for Charlton in New South Wales.
Mr Combet is a mining engineer by professional background and also has degrees in economics and labour relations.
He became a union official in 1987 and rose to be secretary of the ACTU from 1999 to 2007 where he led campaigns on issues like the collapse of Ansett, compensation for asbestos victims and the Howard Government’s WorkChoices laws.
In his current Ministerial role he has been responsible for developing the Gillard Government’s policies on clean energy, including carbon pricing, and its $1 billion Plan for Australian Jobs announced earlier this year.
Doctor Anna Wirz-Justice
2013 ASMR Medallist
June 5, 2013
2.15pm - 3.45pm
This Address is an afternoon tea and will start at 2:15pm Wednesday 5 June.
Anna Wirz-Justice is emeritus Professor and Research Fellow at the Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel.
Born in Christchurch, NZ she received a PhD in Organic Chemistry from University College London. Anna initially worked on circadian rhythms in animals and the effects of psychiatric medications on neurotransmitter receptor and rest-activity rhythms. During a fellowship at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, she and Thomas Wehr, MD carried out the first sleep phase advance experiment in a bipolar patient. Anna introduced light therapy to Europe, followed up with more than 20 years of research on seasonal affective disorder and light therapy.
Anna is a former president of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms. A prestigious Anna-Monika-Prize with Thomas Wehr recognised their seminal work in the chronobiology of depressive illness. In 2002, she received the Scholar's Prize of the City of Basel, awarded for outstanding scientific career achievement.
She has also worked with artists, architects and designers who are inspired by the complexities of neuroscience. Collaborations include Phillippe Rahm’s “Light Room” at the Swiss Pavillion in the 2002 Venice Biennale, and light installations by Andreas Horlitz using chronobiological images. Her work has inspired the incorporation of novel lighting regimens in architecture to improve sleep, mood and cognition in Alzheimer’s patients.
Anna is director of CET's Chronotherapeutics Consultants, formed in 2004 to advise hospital psychiatrists on the implementation of light and wake therapies as adjuncts to drug treatment of major depression. Most recently, she lead a team including Francesco Benedetti and Michael Terman to the field's first treatment manual for clinicians, Chronotherapeutics for Affective Disorders.
Bill McKibben
Co-founder of 350.org
June 6, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
"Global warming: do the maths"
Bill McKibben is one of the world’s most respected and admired writers, speakers and activists on global warming.
Described by Time Magazine as 'the planet's best green journalist', Bill is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989 (regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change). His most recentl book, Eaarth¸ is described by NASA’s James Hansen as “blaz[ing] a path to help preserve nature’s greatest treasures.”
Bill holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges and, in 2011, was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In March this year, he was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ award for “exceptional accomplishment in any genre”.
A truly inspiring speaker and activist, in 2009 Bill co-founded the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries.
"Bill McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him." Tim Flannery
Peter Anderson
Chief Executive, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
June 12, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
"Address to the National Press Club"
As Chief Executive of Australia’s peak business organisation Peter Anderson speaks at a national and international level on behalf of all State and Territory chambers of commerce, thirty national industry associations and more than 300,000 small, medium and large businesses across all business sectors.
Peter’s appointment in January 2008 built on his more than twenty-five years at the forefront of policy and advocacy in both private and public sectors. His expertise was honed in senior roles, including, as Executive Director of the Retail Traders’ Association of South Australia; Partner of leading South Australian law firm Fisher Jeffries; Chief of Staff to former South Australian Premier Dean Brown and as Senior Adviser to the Commonwealth Government on workplace relations, employment, small business, trade practices and workplace health and safety policy between 1997-2001.
Peter’s expertise includes the areas of public policy, employment, workplace relations, small business, and federalism in addition to constitutional, administrative and international law. He is a member of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council, the Government’s Business Roundtable on Climate Change, a Board member of the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency and was appointed to the Government’s COAG Business Advisory Forum and the Prime Minister’s National Panel for Economic Reform.
Peter is the Australian business representative regionally and globally at international forums such as the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Organisation of Employers. He is an elected representative of Asian employers on the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation. He is also a director of the Australian Made, Australian Grown Campaign.
Dr Steve Hambleton
President, Australian Medical Association
July 17, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
"Voters want better access to health services"
Dr Steve Hambleton, a General Practitioner, was elected Federal President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) in May 2011. He was President of AMA Queensland and an AMA Federal Councillor. He served on the AMA Council of General Practice for more than 10 years. Dr Hambleton was the AMA representative on the National Immunisation Committee from 2006-2010; on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee for two years; a member of the AMA Taskforce on Indigenous Health since 2006 (currently Chair) and serves on the Practice Incentive Program Advisory Group. He was admitted as a Fellow of the AMA in 2007.
Dr Jane Aronson
CEO, Worldwide Orphans
November 13, 2013
11.30am - 1.30pm
Doctor Jane Aronson is a pediatrician, adoption medicine specialist and the founder and CEO of Worldwide Orphans, a non-profit organization that provides direct services to orphaned children globally. She is on faculty at Cornell University, Columbia University and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Her many recognitions include the Angel in Adoption Award, Glamour Woman of the Year, Honored Alumna of Valley Stream North High School, Hunter College Hall of Fame, and Distinguished Alumna from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She is regularly featured in the media, including frequent guest appearances on CNN and NPR. She is the author of Carried in Our Hearts: The Gift of Adoption: Inspiring Stories of Families Created Across Continents.
