Ruddy Gobel
Ruddy Gobel has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sector, UN agencies, and government. He has extensive experience in working with high-level government officials not only in policy design and advocacy but also in policy implementation. He has been involved in various important issues and policies in Indonesia including the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh-Nias after the 2004 Tsunami, the Jakarta Mass Rapid Trans (MRT) project, poverty reduction, social protection, energy subsidy policy reform, and development of renewable energy.
Ko Ko Aung
Ko Ko Aung is Special Counsel at Albert Arthur Lawyers, practising in Sydney and Melbourne in refugee and humanitarian law, complex protection matters and high-stakes migration litigation. He advises on protection visas (subclass 866), merits review, visa cancellation revocation and character issues, ministerial intervention submissions, employer-sponsored visas, labour agreements including Skilled Refugee pathways, offshore Humanitarian (Class XB) cases, partner and family visas, and judicial review. He serves as Company Secretary at Afghan Women on the Move and previously served as General Counsel at Heart Beams Rising. Earlier, at Ajuria Lawyers, he led the Pro Bono and Private Clients practice and collaborated with Talent Beyond Boundaries to expand access for skilled refugees. His earlier experience includes senior and associate roles at Agape Henry Crux, and internships with the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre.Ko Ko is currently undertaking a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law at UNSW, and holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from UNSW. His recognition includes the John Gibson AM Young Australian Migration Lawyer of the Year Award and NSW Humanitarian Award in the Government and Legal sector. He works bilingually in English and Burmese.
John Lawrence
John B. Lawrence SC has been practicing in the law in Darwin since 1987. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2010. He was a Crown prosecutor in Darwin and later solicitor in charge of the Northern Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service. He is a past president of the Northern Territory Bar Association and of the Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory. He represented one of the Don Dale youth detainees during the Royal Commission.
Angus Deaton
Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Emeritus, at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. He is the 2015 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Linda Briskman
Linda Briskman holds the Margaret Whitlam Chair of Social Work at Western Sydney University. She is a member of the advisory committee of the Jewish Council of Australia. Linda is a panel member on the People’s Inquiry.
Shi Jiangtao
A former diplomat, Shi Jiangtao has worked as a China reporter at the Post for more than a decade. He’s interested in political, social and environmental development in China.
Frank Formby
Frank Formby is a co-owner and member of the Common Council of New Internationalist magazine.
John Doyle
John Doyle is an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University. He previously held strategy and regulatory roles at Optus and was a board director of the telecommunications sector’s primary industry body, Communications Alliance.
Guest writer Gordon Peake
Gordon Peake is a writer, critic and podcaster based in Washington DC. His book on Timor-Leste won the ACT Book of the Year and Peoples’ Choice Awards 2014. His book on Bougainville will be published in December 2022.
Roya Musawi
Roya Musawi is a journalist, public communicator, and writer with extensive experience in advocacy, and public relations. For the past 8 years, she has served in different national and international organizations in support of human rights, women’s rights, youth, gender equality, IDPs, and returnees.
Dr Don Edgar and Dr Patricia Edgar
Dr Don Edgar and Dr Patricia Edgar are both Ambassadors for NARI (the National Aging Research Institute) and have written extensively on ageing policy. Don was founding Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies and Patricia was founding Director of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.
Douglas McCarty
Douglas McCarty, now retired, was formerly a Civil Engineer in Structural Design and Construction, a Secondary School Teacher of Physics, General Science and Mathematics, and a University Tutor in Education at Flinders University. He is a rank-and-file member of the Australian Labor Party.
Kaswar Klasra
Kaswar Klasra is an Islamabad-based journalist, currently freelancing for China Daily and NBC from Pakistan. Klasra has been a journalist for two decades. His work has been published by leading British publications and news agencies, including the International News Service, Daily Mail, News of the World (London), and ACCA ’ A&B Magazine. He also has bylines in News Service, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, The Nation (Pakistan), Los Angeles Times ( USA), India Today and Brunei Times, among other publications.
Lynda Ng
Lynda Ng Lecturer in World Literature (including Australian literature), The University of Melbourne
Ashley Craig
Dr Ashley Craig is a Senior Lecturer in economics, and a John Mitchell Research Fellow at The Australian National University. His research spans public economics and labour economics, with a particular focus on education, taxation and inequality.
Angela Smith
Angela Smith is a former lawyer with broad legal experience including in refugee law and the university sector. Her writing has been published widely and can be found in such places as The Guardian (online), Griffith Review, Meanjin, New Philosopher and Overland.
Paul Cleary
Paul Cleary works in Aboriginal development in the Pilbara region. He has written several books on the resources sector and Aboriginal rights, including Title Fight and Too Much Luck.
Miriam van den Berg
Miriam is a research fellow at Stretton Health Equity at the University of Adelaide. Her research interests focus on how unfair and indecent employment conditions affect health and wellbeing. Miriam also works as a public health consultant in Tasmania and has been a long-term advocate for action on the social determinants of health.
Geoff Dornan
Geoff Dornan is a clergyman of the Uniting Church. His work has been balanced between, academia, congregational life, and policy development with both the NSW/ACT Synod and National Assembly of the Uniting Church. This has included endeavours in the promotion of social justice through both the negotiation of international aid agreements and the advancement of bioethical thought and practice through the NSW Government’s “Human Research Ethics Committees’ (HRECs). Geoff’s interest in Christian identity in the social and political world, was sparked by the rise of liberation theology in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s, and his involvement in that movement during the Pinochet Dictatorship in Chile and the civil war in El Salvador.
This essay about grief arises from his personal experience of the loss of his son Andrew, killed with his friend Akaash, in an agricultural accident on Christmas Eve, 2021.
Mark Pinkstone
Mark Pinkstone is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a PR and media consultant, and a veteran journalist.
Chloe Heiniger
Chloe Heiniger holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and is in the final year of a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree. She works as a research assistant at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at The Australian National University and has a strong interest in taxation and development economics.
BA Hamzah
BA Hamzah writes regularly under geopolitics, Asean and maritime security and law.
Professor, National Defence University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. BA Hamzah was formerly Director General of Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA).
B A Hamzah is a regular contributor to Pearls and Irritations. He can be reached at bahamzah8@hotmail.com
Nicolas J. S. Davies
Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.
Alan Morris
Professor Alan Morris is an urban and housing studies scholar in the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at the University of Technology Sydney.
Guest writer Omar Ahmed
Omar Ahmed is a UK-based analyst and journalist focused on the political and religious affairs of West Asia. He holds an MSc in International Security and Global Governance from Birkbeck, University of London.
Joey Moloney
Joey Moloney is a Senior Associate in Grattan Institute’s Economic Policy program. He is an economist with experience in public policy research and implementation.
He has worked at the Productivity Commission and the Commonwealth Treasury, with a focus on the superannuation system and retirement income policy.
Joey holds a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Politics and Media from La Trobe University, and a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours in Economics from the University of Melbourne.
Terry Su
Terry Su is president of Lulu Derivation Data Ltd, a Hong Kong-based online publishing house and think tank specialising in geopolitics.
Jeremy Rose
Jeremy Rose is a Wellington-based journalist. He spent a decade as a producer on RNZ’s Mediawatch, Ideas, and Sunday programs. He is a member of Alternative Jewish Voices.
He has a Substack: Towards democracy