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.
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.
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.
Glenn Withers
Glenn Withers is Emeritus Professor at ANU and Adjunct Professor at UNSW Canberra. He has been Head of the Economic Planning Advisory Commission (EPAC), founding CEO of Universities Australia(UA), Past President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia(ASSA), and Chair of the Global Development Learning Network(GDLN). He is a Director of Applied Economics Pty Ltd, Chair of Blended Learning International, Board Member of Phenomics Australia, and Director of the Social Cyber Institute. Glenn was awarded an AO for development of the Australian immigration points system.
Meredith Edwards
Meredith Edwards AM, FASSA, FIPAA is Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra (UC), Australia. She was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UC and Director of its National Institute for Governance, 1997-2004 and a senior policy adviser in the Australian Public Service involved in a range of major social policy reforms across several departments, rising to Deputy Secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Meredith was a member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration, 2010-17 and she authored Social Policy, Public Policy: from problem to practice (Routledge, 2001), and co-authored Public Sector Governance in Australia (ANU Press, 2012).
Pamela Burton
Pamela Burton, BA; LLM, is a Canberra lawyer and writer. She is the author of From Moree to Mabo: the Mary Gaudron Story (UWAP, 2010), The Waterlow Killings: A portrait of a family tragedy (MUP, 2012), A Foreign Affair (Ginninderra Press, 2016) and, with the assistance of Meredith Edwards, Persons of Interest: an intimate account of Cecily and John Burton (ANU Press, 2022).
Robin Brown
Robin Brown is Deputy Chair of Fairer Future. He has advised Australian and overseas governments, businesses and NGOs on consumer protection, competition policy and regulatory accountability. Formerly head of the Consumers’ Federation of Australia, he helped secure the landmark court ruling that enabled bans on second‑hand tobacco smoke and spearheaded creation of both the Consumers’ Health Forum and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.
Ross Fitzgerald
Ross Fitzgerald AM is Emeritus Professor of History and Politics at Griffith University. His most recent books, all published by Hybrid, are a memoir, Fifty Years Sober: An Alcoholic’s Journey; a four pack of Grafton Everest political satires, The Ascent of Everest; and Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication co-authored with Ian McFadyen.
Jenny Goldie
Jenny Goldie is immediate past national president of Sustainable Population Australia and formerly on the Board, then staff, of Australian Reproductive Health Alliance.
John Fitz
Emeritus Professor John Fitz is an Australian living in the UK since 1970. He was formerly a Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University.
Ray Champ
Ray Champ has worked in the Public Service for five years and is studying a bachelor of economics at Macquarie University.
Roger Gurr
Roger Gurr Associate Professor Gurr, MB BS DPM MRC Psych, FRANZCP is the Clinical Director of headspace Early Psychosis in Western Sydney. He also holds a Conjoint Appointment in Psychiatry, Western Sydney University Faculty of Medicine and is the Board Chair for the NSW Service for the Treatment & Rehabilitation of Torture & Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). He was awarded the NSW Government Human Rights Medal in 2021. He is presenting at the NDIS and Mental Health Conference on Tuesday 21 January at the ICC in Sydney.
Wendy Hunt
Wendy Hunt is the Academic Chair of Food Science and Nutrition at Murdoch University. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of Food Science, having roles in management, research, teaching, and services to the food industry. Her research is in food and human health with particular interest in seafood, starch, grains, fibre and satiety.
John H Howard
John is a researcher, policy analyst, management adviser, and author with three decades of experience advising governments, universities, and industry on science, research, and innovation policy and strategy.
John Howard
John is a researcher, policy analyst, management adviser, and author with three decades of experience advising governments, universities, and industry on science, research, and innovation policy and strategy.
Graham Pickering
Graham Pickering is a long-term resident of Taiwan. He is an educator and author. He is fluent in Chinese and getting there in Taiwanese. His interests include Education, Taiwan, China and Cross-Strait Relations.
Neil Hauxwell
Neil Hauxwell had TAFE jobs in student support and adult literacy and numeracy over forty years. He worked in prisons, in industry and in projects for specific groups using TAFE toward better futures. He worked in China at a vocational college for a period. He is currently owner-building a modest house.
Flavia Bellieni Zimmermann
Dr Flavia Bellieni Zimmermann is a Lecturer at the University of Western Australia, School of Social Sciences. She is a Brazilian political analyst and has written extensively in this field. Her research interests include Brazilian politics, society, and policy, Latin American politics, populism and nationalism, women in the global south, gender, and politics and religion.
Robert Freeman
Robert Freeman is founder and executive director of The Global Uplift Project which builds small-scale infrastructure projects in the developing world to improve humanity’s capacity for self-development. Robert taught economics and history at Los Altos High School where he also coached the Speech and Debate team, including producing a national champion in 2006. He has traveled extensively in both the developed and developing world. He is the author of The Best One Hour History series which includes World War I (2013), The InterWar Years (2014), The Vietnam War (2013), and other titles.
Suzanne Varrall
Suzanne Varrall is a Research Fellow at Melbourne University. She is a lawyer, academic and former policy adviser with expertise in international law and global security. Her PhD explored regulation and accountability for transnational arms transfers.
M.K. Bhadrakumar
Michael Edesess is an adjunct associate professor of environment and sustainability at HKUST and author of the book The Big Investment Lie.
David Dodwell
David Dodwell is CEO of the trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access, focused on developments and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific over the past four decades**.**
David Dodwell is the executive director of the Hong Kong-APEC Trade Policy Study Group, a trade policy think tank.
Ju Hyung Kim
Dr Ju Hyung Kim is President of the Security Management Institute, a defence think tank affiliated with the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. He has participated in defence projects and consulted for the Republic of Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defence Acquisition Program Administration and the Ministry of National Defence. He specialises in South Korean defence policy and Japan–South Korea security cooperation. He is developing a book based on his Doctoral Dissertation J_apan’s Security Contribution to South Korea, 1950 to 2023_ with a focus on Northeast Asia.
Shin Kawashima
Shin Kawashima is Professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo.
Robert Delaney
Robert Delaney is the Post’s North America bureau chief. He spent 11 years in China as a language student and correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg, and continued covering the country as a correspondent and an academic after leaving. His debut novel, The Wounded Muse, draws on actual events that played out in Beijing while he lived there.
Manish Vaid
Manish Vaid is a Junior Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation.
He analyses energy trends and geopolitical factors, focusing on the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy systems. His expertise spans oil, gas and renewable energies, including biofuels and green hydrogen.
William J Jones
William J Jones is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Mahidol University International College in Thailand.
Simon Chapman
Simon Chapman emeritus professor of public health at the University of Sydney. He was honoured to be named in 2014 by the Institute of Public Affairs as one of Australia’s all time Dirty Dozen Opponents of Freedom. His most recent book for Sydney University Press is Quit smoking weapons of mass distraction (2022)
Morgan Rees
Dr Morgan Rees is a Lecturer of Policy and Politics at the Queensland University of Technology’s School of Justice. His research is primarily in US and Australian foreign policy with current projects looking to examine the future of Australia-US relations in the context of the rise of Trump and an increasingly inward looking US.
Les MacDonald
Les MacDonald was a CEO for more than 40 years. Prior to this, he was Deputy Secretary NSW Health, CEO of the Maritime Services Board and Assistant Secretary of the Federal Departments of the Media and Posts and Telecommunications. Subsequently he was previously Executive Director Uniting Care Ageing NSW. Les has an extensive leadership history including board positions in public hospitals, health insurance, the maritime industry, public transport, cancer medicine and the Council for the Arts amongst others.
Sara Cheikh Husain
Dr Sara Cheikh Husain is a researcher and writer specialising in Islamophobia, social justice, and human rights, with a focus on Palestinians, Muslim communities in the West, and refugees. She completed her PhD in Social Sciences at Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute, supported by the UNESCO Chair for Cultural Diversity and Social Justice. Sara has published widely in leading academic journals and policy reports, co-authored A War of Words on media coverage of the Israel–Gaza war, and has a forthcoming book with Palgrave (2025): The politics of anti-Islamophobia in Australia: The case of the Muslim community organisations. She serves on the Executive of AAIMS and advises the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Anti-Racism Campaign.
Sophie Singh
Sophie Singh is a long term campaigner for refugee rights and member of the Canberra Refugee Action Campaign, Sophie Singh was also an organiser with the 2025 Big Walk 4 Refugees, a virtual walk of 44,000kms of solidarity held throughout June with those who came to Australia seeking safety.
Kosmos Samaras
Kos Samaras specialises in compiling and interpreting research, statistical data and polling to provide a unique insight into the cause and effects of social and political issues impacting communities across Australia.
Often sought for expert commentary on polling data and its impact on all levels of politics, Kos’s keen understanding of the nature of political parties and government decision-making (drawn from more than 25 years of political experience with Victorian Labor) allows him to deliver effective solutions for a broad range of clients.
Ryan Manuel
Dr Ryan Manuel Bilby is Managing Director of Bilby, a HK-based company that uses AI to analyse policy.