Upcoming Speakers
Matt Noffs
Matt Noffs is the co-founder of the Street Universities and CEO of the Noffs Foundation, Australia’s largest drug and alcohol treatment service provider for young people under 25.The Noffs Foundation works with young people for up to 5 years after leaving treatment. Young people’s drug use dropped by over 50% – that’s for all drugs – after finishing residential treatment, while criminal activity also dropped by a half. Where 1 in 2 young people were experiencing suicidal ideation on entering the program, only 1 in 10 still felt suicidal on leaving. The Street Universities focus on issues related to drugs, mental health, employment, education and crime, and over 10,000 young people frequent one of their 7 locations across Australia each year. In 2011, the Federal Government wrote to the Noffs Foundation stating that the Liverpool Street University had significantly contributed to crime reduction in the Liverpool/Fairfield areas.
Matt is the author of the bestselling ‘Breaking The Ice’. His latest book ‘Addicted?’, which he co-authored with Kieran Palmer is published by HarperCollins and is in store now.
Matt, both in his role at Noffs Foundation and HRA was recently one of the driving forces behind Australia’s first pill-testing trial.
Matt can be found at:
https://twitter.com/mattnoffs
https://noffs.org.au/blog/You can buy Matt’s books here:
https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/breaking-the-ice-matt-noffs/p/9781460752166
https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/addicted-matt-noffs-kieran-palmer/p/9781460752173
Mick Palmer AO APM
Mick is a 33 year career police officer with extensive experience in police leadership and reform in community, national and international policing. He served as Commissioner of the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Service agency from 1988-1994 and as Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) from 1994 until March 2001. Since retiring from policing in 2001 Mick has conducted a range of government inquiries and reviews, including the inquiry into the immigration detention of Cornelia Rau. From 2004 until 2012, he was the Australian Federal Government’s Inspector of Transport Security with responsibility to inquire into serious transport security and offshore security matters. He is a former member of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia, a former adjunct professor with the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University, and an Emeritus Director at Australia 21.The Greens Leader Dr. Di Natale will deliver the first of several speeches detailing the party’s economic plans for Australia at the Press Club on September 26.
“It is clear we have market and regulatory failure in essential services such as energy and banking. It is equally clear that large vested interests are able to shape policy in their own economic interests or ignore policies made for the public good that don’t deliver them an advantage.
Law-breaking is occurring in the banking, insurance and wealth management industries; water purchased by taxpayers as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to save Australia’s inland rivers is being harvested illegally; wages theft by major Australian companies and industrial scale tax avoidance are commonplace.
We need to enhance government participation in essential service markets and curtail the power of corporate oligarchs. We also need to deliver an economy that focuses on shared prosperity and sustainable outcomes, fearlessly guard the public interest and reject government by vested interests.
The Greens were the first to talk about the problems in banking and energy, and the other parties have followed. Now we are the first to propose solutions to these problems. It’s time to move on from the pettiness and destructiveness that is currently characterising political debate and focus on the important questions for our future”
– Richard Di Natale
Dr Richard Di Natale is the leader of the Australian Greens. He was elected to the federal parliament in 2010 and re-elected in 2016. He was the first Greens’ first Victorian Senator. His portfolios include health, multiculturalism and sport.
Prior to entering parliament, Richard was a general practitioner and public health specialist. He worked in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory, on HIV prevention in India and in the drug and alcohol sector. His key health priorities include preventative health, public dental care and responding to the health impacts of climate change.
Richard’s achievements in parliament so far include securing almost $5 billion towards Medicare-funded dentistry, winning a campaign to divest $250 million worth of tobacco stocks from the Future Fund, and spearheading campaigns into many issues of public significance such as dying with dignity, medicinal cannabis, and drug law reform. He is the co-convenor of the Parliamentary Friends for Drug Policy and Law Reform, the Parliamentary Friends of West Papua, the Parliamentary Friends of Medicine and the Parliamentary Friends of Multiculturalism.
Women in Media Canberra presents eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on October 3.
Holding a unique position as the head of the first government agency in the world dedicated to online safety, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant will deliver a National Press Club address on “Australia’s approach to keeping its citizens safer online – the risks, challenges & opportunities”.
Julie Inman Grant is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner. In this role, she is responsible for ensuring that all Australians have safer and more positive experiences online. As the only nation in the world to have a government agency dedicated to online safety, Julie has created a pioneering, innovative and citizen-focused Office making an impact, both at home and globally.
Julie has been a passionate advocate of promoting technology for good and has been working at the intersection of technology and social policy for more than 25 years. She has been dedicated to combatting all forms of child sexual exploitation, online cyber abuse and has worked tirelessly to promote and protect the voices of women, children and vulnerable communities online.
As Commissioner, Julie has leveraged her extensive experience in the non-profit and government sectors, where she spent more than two decades working in senior public policy and safety roles in the tech industry at Microsoft, Twitter, and Adobe.
Julie’s career began in Washington DC, working in the US Congress and the non-profit sector before taking on a role at Microsoft. Julie’s experience at Microsoft spanned 17 years, serving as one of the company’s first and longest-standing government relations professionals, ultimately in the role of Global Safety Director for Online Safety Policy and Outreach.
At Twitter, Julie headed up Public Policy for Australia and South East Asia, managing a range of public policy issues, including online safety and countering violent extremism. Julie also built Twitter’s ‘Rules and Tools’ for safety, and conceptualised and piloted #PositionofStrength, which continues to serve as Twitter’s global female safety and empowerment program.
Immediately prior to joining the eSafety Office, Julie served as Director of Government Relations Asia Pacific at Adobe, working on a range of issues stemming from digital transformation in government, innovation & creativity & STEM promotion is schools. She also brought Adobe’s corporate social responsibility program, Project 1324, to Australia, building partnerships with local creative NGOs including the Sydney Story Factory and High Resolves.
Dr Goldie will launch new ACOSS/UNSW research on Poverty in Australia, which will provide updated analysis of the rate and number of people living in poverty in Australia, the profile of people living below the poverty line and trends over time using latest ABS data.
Cassandra Goldie has been CEO of ACOSS since July 2010. With public policy expertise in economic and social issues, civil society, social justice and human rights, Cassandra has represented the interests of people who are disadvantaged, and civil society generally, in major national and international processes as well as in grassroots communities. Prior to joining ACOSS, Cassandra held senior roles in both the NFP and public sectors, including as Director of Sex and Age Discrimination with the Australian Human Rights Commission, Director and Principal Solicitor with the Darwin Community Legal Service and Senior Executive with Legal Aid in Western Australia.
Cassandra has a PhD from the University of New South Wales, a Masters of Law from University College London and is an Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Law, UNSW. A graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Cassandra serves on the Advisory Committee for the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, as a member of the UNSW Grand Challenge on Inequality and Law Advisory Committees and the Management Committee of the International Council of Social Welfare.
Cassandra was recognised as one of the Inaugural Westpac/Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence in 2012 and selected as an AFR/BOSS True Leader in 2013. In 2014, she was voted one of the Impact 25 Most Influential People in the Social Economy and recognised by the AFR in 2015 on their Annual Overt Power List. In 2018, Cassandra was recognised as one of Australia’s top 50 Outstanding LGBTI Executives by Deloitte.
Peter Maurer is the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (appointed in 2012).
Under his leadership, the ICRC carries out humanitarian work in over 80 countries. As President, Mr Maurer has a unique exposure to today’s main armed conflicts and the challenges of assisting and protecting people in need. He travels regularly to the major conflict theatres of the world including Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar. As the ICRC’s chief diplomat, and through the ICRC’s principled, neutral approach, Mr Maurer regularly meets with heads of states and other high-level officials as well as parties to conflict, to find solutions to pressing humanitarian concerns.
Mr Maurer has served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Switzerland as well as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York. As a diplomat he worked on issues relating to human security, including mine action, small arms and light weapons as well as on the responsibility of states in the implementation of international humanitarian law.
As the drought bites and another long, dry summer approaches, Australian Conservation Foundation CEO, Kelly O’Shanassy, will outline how the environment movement will make climate change a major issue in the upcoming Federal Election.
To achieve this – and disrupt the assumption people only care about cost of living issues – ACF, the Stop Adani alliance and others are mobilising their large communities of supporters to hold one million conversations with everyday Australians to encourage them to use their voices and votes to demand candidates step up and push their parties to stop climate damage and shift to clean energy.
While mining and industry bodies spend more than conservationists – a lot more – ACF has the advantage of being a genuine grassroots movement, with a supporter base of more than half a million Australians and a network of community action groups armed with modern campaign tools to contact voters directly, knock on doors and shift an electorally-significant group of Australians to demand stronger climate action.
ACF is Australia’s oldest national environment organisation and has been central to Australia’s most pivotal conservation campaigns, including saving the Franklin River, protecting the Great Barrier Reef from oil drilling, and the Stop Adani movement.
Ms O’Shanassy will launch the Australian Conservation Foundation’s 2018 National Agenda, the primary document that will guide its campaigning and election policy scorecard. The National Agenda sets out the key actions ACF believes are required from a national government to cut climate pollution, protect nature and create a healthy and sustainable country for future generations.
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A leader with a long record of driving transformative environmental and economic outcomes on climate, water and business sustainability, Kelly O’Shanassy has been ACF’s Chief Executive Officer since 2014.
She has established world-first environment protection policies to save water, boost recycling, safeguard fragile rivers and kick-start renewable energy. She has advised business CEOs and chaired environment and community committees for government. She represented ACF at the historic Paris climate talks.
But it’s the community work she feels most passionate about. Believing strongly in the power of people to advocate for a better future, Kelly’s focus is on growing the number and diversity of people who speak up and act.
The Business Council of Australia is the nation’s premier business organisation, advocating for a stronger and fairer society through a more prosperous Australia.
Jennifer Westacott AO has served as Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia since 2011, bringing a unique combination of extensive policy experience in both the public and private sectors.
Under her leadership, the Business Council tirelessly champions meaningful policies that strengthen the ability of businesses to grow the economy for the benefit of all Australians.
The Business Council believes robust economic growth with a strong safety net for the most vulnerable Australians is the nation’s best defence against inequality.
For Australia to thrive, private enterprises must be allowed to flourish in a modern, open economy that incentivises, rewards effort, and encourages aspiration.
Throughout her life, Jennifer has been a passionate advocate for greater social and economic inclusion.
Jennifer built her career in the public sector, working in senior leadership positions in the NSW and Victorian governments across housing, education, and infrastructure, planning and natural resources.
Jennifer, who grew up on NSW’s central coast, was the first woman to become director of Housing Victoria and the first public housing tenant to run a housing department.
Her first-hand understanding of disadvantage, coupled with an unwavering commitment to create opportunities to ensure all Australians can reach their full potential, has carried over to her work in the private sector.
As a senior partner at KPMG, Jennifer advised major corporations on climate change and sustainability and advised governments across Australia on significant reform priorities.
Jennifer has an unrivalled understanding of how the public and private sectors intersect and can work together to achieve the best outcomes in the national interest.
Since 2013, Jennifer has served as the Chair of the Mental Health Council of Australia and has been instrumental in focusing attention and resources on mental health issues.
Jennifer is a Non-Executive Director of Wesfarmers Limited, one of the nation’s largest and most respected private sector employers.
Following on from her work helping to develop Australia’s new International Cyber Engagement Strategy, Jennifer serves as a member of the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre. The centre aims to promote and protect Australia’s capabilities in cyber security research, development and commercialisation.
Jennifer is the Australian Co-chair of the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum which was established to discuss opportunities facing the two nations and identify where they can better collaborate on issues such as foreign policy, economic growth and education.
Jennifer is the Co-Patron of Pride in Diversity and is the Co-Chair of the Australia Sino One Hundred Year Agricultural and Food Safety Partnership (ASA100). The partnership seeks to promote, develop and advance international trade in Australian agriculture and manufactured food products.
In 2018, Jennifer was made an Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to private and public sector administration through executive roles, to policy development and reform, to cross sector collaboration, to equity, and to business.
Jennifer has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of New South Wales and in 2017 received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) from her alma mater. She was a Chevening Scholar at the London School of Economics.
Joseph Stiglitz is the recipient of the 2018 Sydney Peace Prize and is in Canberra as a guest of The Australia Institute and Sydney Peace Prize.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute.
A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the (US president’s) Council of Economic Advisers.
In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 and received that university’s highest academic rank (university professor) in 2003.
In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz’s work focuses on income distribution, risk, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization.
He is the author of numerous books, and several bestsellers. His most recent titles are Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited, The Euro, Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy and The Great Divide.
Photo credit: Sasha Maslov
The Turnbull Government has a vision for Australia to become a world leader in digital transformation and one of the top three digital governments by 2025.
To reach that goal, the Government is preparing its first ever Digital Transformation Strategy which will include a detailed roadmap outlining the key steps that must be taken on the journey forward.
Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation Michael Keenan will unveil the Strategy on August 8, along with the roadmap and other key initiatives within his portfolio.
Michael Keenan was sworn in as Australia’s Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation on 20 December 2017. Michael is the Minister responsible for the operations of the Department of Human Services including Centrelink and Medicare.
Michael has previously held significant ministerial positions including Australia’s Minister for Justice (September 2013 – December 2017) and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter Terrorism (May 2015 – December 2017). His roles during this time included leading the Commonwealth’s efforts to counter violent extremism and ensuring effective and integrated implementation of Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
As the Justice Minister Michael lead the Commonwealth’s work to combat serious and organised crime both domestically and abroad, securing cooperation with states and territories as well as international counterparts on criminal matters.
Michael was born and raised in Stirling and at the Federal election on 9 October 2004, Michael was elected as the Member for Stirling with the support of his wife Georgina who together have three young children.
Upon entering Parliament, Michael served on numerous committees including the Joint Select Committee on the Christmas Island Tragedy from March to June 2011 and the Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Immigration Detention Network from June 2011 to March 2012.
He also served on the Joint Statutory Committees for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity from February 2010 to July 2010, the Australian Crime Commission Committee from February 2010 to July 2010 and the Law Enforcement Committee from November 2010.
On 6 December 2007, Michael was appointed Shadow Assistant Treasurer and proceeded to hold various Shadow positions including Shadow Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Governance, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection.
Michael was educated at Trinity College before completing further tertiary education, including a Bachelor of Arts (History and Politics) – Murdoch University and Charles University, Prague, Bachelor of Arts (Honours, Political Science) – Australian National University, and Master of Philosophy (International Relations) – Cambridge University.
During and after his studies, Michael held a range of employment positions from being a milk delivery person, barman and waiter, salesman, property consultant, Ministerial adviser and Deputy Director of the Liberal Party of Western Australia.
To propose a speaker please contact ceo@npc.org.au with a brief bio and photo of the speaker, speech title and brief outline of the speech, along with a proposed date. Your speaker proposal will be presented to the board at the next board meeting for their decision. Please allow up to 8 weeks for notification.