Tony Lawson
Tony Lawson Board Chair, Consumers Health Forum of Australia for last 11 years. Board Director since 2010. Been actively involved in consumer health for over 2 decades. Also been involved in major health projects, including Indigenous Health. Former Director on Board of Australian Healthcare Standards and in 2024 was awarded the Presidents Award for outstanding contribution to safety and quality in health care.
Robin Jeffrey
Robin Jeffrey is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University and La Trobe University. He is also an honorary fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore.
Heather Smith
Heather Smith PSM FAIIA
Heather Smith PSM FAIIA is the National President and a fellow of the AIIA.
Ilan
Ilan Pappé (Hebrew: אילן פפה [iˈlanpaˈpe ]; born 7 November 1954) is an Israeli historian, political scientist, and former politician. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. Pappé was also a board member of the Israeli political party Hadash, and was a candidate on the party list in the 1996 and 1999 Israeli legislative elections.
Peter Job
Peter Job has a PhD from the University of New South Wales in International and Political Studies. He is author of A Narrative of Denial: Australia and the Indonesian violation of East Timor, published by Melbourne University Press in 2021. Job was short listed for the 2006 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Community award for his advocacy for asylum seekers in immigration detention.
Peter is on Twitter @JobPeterjob1.
Rachel Williamson
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
Tom Fowdy
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
As`ad AbuKhalil
As`ad AbuKhalil is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. He is the author of the Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (1998), Bin Laden, Islam and America’s New War on Terrorism (2002), The Battle for Saudi Arabia (2004) and ran the popular The Angry Arab blog. He tweets as @asadabukhalil
Bob Beadman
Bob Beadman has worked in Canberra, Brisbane, Townsville, Thursday Island, Darwin, Alice Springs, Geneva and the Federal Minister’s Office. He has worked for both sides of politics in both the Australian and Northern Territory Governments.
Since retirement in 2001 after 43 years’ service, he has taken on the roles of Chairman of the Northern Territory Grants Commission, Chairman of the Swimming Pool Safety Review Committee, Coordinator General of Remote Services, Director for Cyclone Reconstruction and Community Development, Member of the Red Cross Committee for Children, and Public Officer and Treasurer of the Tiwi Bombers Football Club.
He has been closely involved in Indigenous Affairs for the last 50 years.
Guillaume Lafortune
Guillaume Lafortune is vice president and head of the Paris office at the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)—the largest global network of scientists and practitioners mobilized for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Previously, he served as an economist at the OECD in Paris and at the Ministry of Economic Development in the Government of Quebec. Guillaume is the author of 50+ scientific publications, book chapters, policy briefs, and international reports on sustainable development, economic policy, and good governance.
Hans Hendrischke
Hans Hendrischke is Professor of Chinese business and management, University of Sydney.
Adrian Ford
Dr Adrian Ford is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The University of Melbourne and is affiliated with Melbourne Climate Futures. Adrian’s research interests include community renewable energy groups and projects, and the political economy of sustainable energy transitions. He completed his PhD in sustainable energy transitions at the University of Melbourne in 2020.
Manik Mahajan
Manik Mahajan is a Principal and co-head of Australia at Arthur D. Little. He is a trusted advisor to executives and boards across APAC on investment and capital issues around the energy-transition and infrastructure.
400 scholars from over 30 countries - including 31 Nobel Laureates
The 2025 letter has been signed by over 400 academics, including 31 Nobel Prize winners. We call upon all democratic citizens to join them in defending democracy by signing the letter.
Supriya Mathew
Dr Supriya Mathew is a multi-disciplinary researcher whose research interests’ focus on assessing the impacts of extreme environmental conditions on various communities and devising potential adaptive responses. She is currently a research fellow at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University and based in Alice Springs.
Peter Gearin
Peter Gearin is editor of The Mandarin. He was previously The Mandarin’s Special Reports Editor and a former assistant editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.
Wayne McMillan
Wayne McMillan is a retired NSW public servant who enjoys training sheepdogs, researching historical sheepdog trials and standing up for peace and justice issues.
John Minns
John Minns is Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University and a member of the Refugee Action Campaign in Canberra.
Tom Hussain
Tom Hussain is an Islamabad-based journalist who has spent his 35-year career covering South Asia and the Middle East.
Ajay Darshan Behera
Ajay Darshan Behera is Professor, Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Sam Hardwick
Samuel Hardwick is a PhD scholar at the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics in the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
Andrew Taylor
Andrew researches the causes and consequences of population changes for the Northern Territory of Australia and northern regions more broadly. He undertakes both quantitative and qualitative research to understand impacts from policy, economic and structural changes for communities. In his PhD he investigated policy and theoretical implications from changing migration practices for Indigenous Territorians. Prior to academia, Andrew worked for a decade with the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Ross Fox
Ross Fox has been the Director of Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn since 2016. Previously, Ross was the Executive Director of the National Catholic Education Commission. Before that, he held senior roles in the Catholic Education Office for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. Ross is married to Joanne and they are raising their three children.
Kristy Walters
Kristy Walters became heavily involved in the Australian Student Environment Network from 2005 to 2011 organising around climate change and food co-ops. From 2008 she was involved in creating Six Degrees, the coal and climate collective of Friends of the Earth Brisbane. In 2017 she started with Solar Citizens as the NSW Community Organiser where she worked on engaging and training our supporters to become more active in campaigns. Walters is also an executive director of the Community Power Agency, and the chairperson of the Haystacks Solar Garden Cooperative.
Michael Stanton
Michael Stanton is Senior Counsel for the State of Victoria and the Immediate Past President of Liberty Victoria (the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties). Barrister at Brian Bourke Chambers. He has written widely on human rights and civil liberties, and given evidence to both State and Federal Parliamentary Inquiries on a range of law reform issues including the re-emergence of far-right extremism.
Moksha Watts
Moksha Watts was recently Prime Minister Albanese’s Climate Change and Energy Advisor. She is now Adjunct Fellow at the University of New South Wales working on matters of green energy statecraft, and Principal of Yallaroi Group, which provides strategic counsel to organisations on government and policy.
Kyle Wilson
Kyle Wilson studied at the ANU, Moscow State and Leningrad State universities. He worked in DFAT from 1981 to 2004. His postings for DFAT included four years in Moscow 1988-92; and five in Beijing, 1995-99, including a year at the Beijing Institute for Economic Management. From 2000-2004 he worked on China and Mongolia in DFAT’s North Asia Division. From 2004 to 2013 he was the Senior Analyst for Russia and Central Asia at ONA and is now a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Studies at the ANU.
Shamikh Badra
Shamikh Badra holds a Masters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney and is a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong where he researches Palestinian resistance, diplomacy and settler colonialism. His publications in professional journals cover appraisals of academic theory and activism to advance global solidarity for Palestine. His non-violent work includes a theoretical framework for the Great March of Return and leadership (2015) to foster Palestinian unity.'
Pearls and Irritations guest John P Ruehl
John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.
Etan Nechin
I am a writer, journalist, and editor, originally from Israel. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, Haaretz, Vice, Jacobin, Huffington Post, The Independent, Jewish Currents, Medium, Columbia Journal, and more.