MUA---Here to Stay ...Today!

Contributors

Peter Reith is the Federal Liberal MP for Flinders. He was first elected to Parliament in a by-election in December 1982. Before having the chance to be sworn in, he lost the seat three months later in March 1983 when Labor came to power under Bob Hawke. He was re-elected in December 1984 and first sworn in as an MP in February 1985. He has held the shadow portfolios of Housing and Construction; Sport, Recreation and Tourism; Industrial Relations; Mabo; Defence; and Foreign Affairs. In March 1996, he was appointed Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Leader of the House of Representatives.. In July 1997, Mr Reith's portfolio was renamed Workplace Relations and Small Business. In October 1997 Mr Reith assumed the additional responsibility of maritime reform. His responsibilities include the waterfront, coast and blue water shipping and associated issues

Des Moore is Director of The Institute for Private Enterprise which he formed in 1996 to promote the role of genuine private enterprise in Australia and to advocate a reduced role for government. He is also an independent economic consultant and commentator on public policy issues. For the nine years prior to 1996 he was the Senior Fellow of the Economic Policy Unit of the Melbourne based think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs. During this period he published papers on a wide range of economic policy issues. Prior to joining the IPA in February 1987, Des worked for 28 years in the Commonwealth Treasury, including five years as one of three Deputy Secretaries. While in Treasury, he headed most of the main policy issues.

Michael Warby is Editor of the IPA Review. He has previously worked for the Tasman Institute, the Parliamentary Research Service and the Commonwealth Public Service. Michael has written widely on public policy issues, including the environment, privatisation, the labour market, inflation, international trade, opinion polls, constitutional referenda, the Commonwealth budget, growth of government, national accounts, balance of payments, international monetary policy, the economic reform debate, feminism, civil society and the role of government.

Tim Hewat is the author of more than 30 books, largely on financial and rural topics. Before concentrating on books, Tim spent more than 30 years in newspapers and producing television in Australia, Britain and Canada.

Ken Phillips is a workplace reform practitioner with a specialist knowledge of the commercial application of the Odco arrangements. In addition, he runs a work placement programme for unemployed Asians in Melbourne. Ken writes extensively on "employment" issues with a focus on buttressing theory against practice. He provides consultancy services to government and private businesses on workplace engagement methods. Ken has been a primary teacher, TAFE lecturer, company secretary for a chain of butcher shops, run his own chain of retail shops, been a paid union official and acted for business groups in dealing with government.

Geoff Vazey is the Chief Executive of Ports of Auckland Limited. He has been in the port business for ten years. Prior to that he was the General Manager of the largest heavy engineering company in New Zealand.

Andrew McIntyre is a Melbourne based free-lance journalist and social commentator. He has lectured and worked in France, Jamaica and Australia. Andrew was in charge of a UNESCO funded cultural development project in Jamaica for two years, and was Research Officer for the Victorian Ministry for the Arts for three. He has taught in Victorian schools and as a sessional lecturer at RMIT. He writes free-lance for the national press, with occasional appearances on radio and television. Andrew also does research for the IPA.

Paul Houlihan started working for the Federated Clerks Union in Victoria as an organiser in January 1970 but by August 1972 had taken over as State Secretary of the FCU in Tasmania; a position he held until December 1979. He studied law at the University of Tasmania in 1980 and in December of that year he commenced work with the National Farmers Federation during which time he was involved in the Portland live sheep dispute; the wide comb dispute; the prosecution of the first successful incapacity to pay case and the Mudginberri Dispute. In December 1988 Paul established FIRST I.R. Pty Ltd as an innovative industrial relations consultancy and has been in private practice since then. In March 1996 he was appointed by the federal Minister for Industrial Relations to assist in the Taskforce on Policy Implementation at the Department of Industrial Relations. In January 1998 Paul was appointed a director of P&C Stevedores.

Donald McGauchie was President of the Grains Council of Australia from 1992--1994 and President of the National Farmers' Federation from 1994--1998. Since 1994 he has been a member of the Trade Policy Advisory Council to Minister for Trade and on the Prime Minister's Supermarket to Asia Council since 1996. In 1996 he was a member of the Australian Delegation to the Rome World Food Summit. Donald was a member of the Foreign Affairs White Paper Advisory Committee to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1996 and 1997 and has been a member of the Foreign Affairs Council since 1998. He has been an invited speaker at numerous overseas conferences and was appointed to the International Policy Council on Agriculture, Food & Trade (IPC) in 1998. Donald has also been member of the member of the Victorian Premier's Food Industry Advisory Committee since 1993.

Stuart Wood was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1993. Prior to admission, he was an associate of Justice Gray of the Federal Court of Australia. Stuart practiced as a solicitor in the employee relations section of Freehill Hollingdale & Page before being called to the bar in 1995. He has a specialist practice in employment and industrial law and has principally acted for large corporations, including the Patrick's group of companies in the waterfront dispute.

Alan Mitchell is Economics Editor of The Australian Financial Review. From 1992 to 1994, he was Associate Editor and Editorial Page Editor of the Financial Review. Before that, Alan was Associate Editor and Editorial Page Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. He is co-authoring a book with the Deputy Editor of the Financial Review, Steve Burrell.