The Changing Paradigm: Freedom, Jobs, Prosperity

Contributors

John Stone was formerly Secretary to the Commonwealth Treasury, founding President of the HR Nicholls Society, Senator for Queensland, newspaper columnist and is currently, amongst other activities, convenor of the Samuel Griffith Society.

The Hon. Peter Reith won the Flinders by-election in December 1982, and lost the seat in the federal election of March 1983. He eventually took his seat in Parliament after the 1984 election. He led the campaign against the four referendum proposals of 1988 and against the republican model on offer (on behalf of the direct electionists) in the 1997 referendum. He was appointed Minister for Workplace Relations in 1996 and steered the Workplace Relations Act (1996) through the Senate. Appointed Minister for Defence in 2000 he retired from politics at the 2001 election.

Ray Evans is a consultant and President of the H R Nicholls Society.

Brian Welch is the Executive Director of the Master Builders Association of Victoria, a position he has held since 1994. He was previously Exec. Dir. of BOMA (now the Property Council of Australia), and General Manager of the Housing Industry Association.

Stuart Wood is Vice President of the H R Nicholls Society and a Melbourne barrister who specialises in employment law and industrial relations issues.

Des Moore was formerly Deputy Secretary to the Commonwealth Treasury, Senior Fellow of the IPA, and is now Director of the Institute of Private Enterprise (IPE).

Geoff Hogbin became interested in economic regulation as a student at the University of Chicago. He has undertaken research and consulting assignments relating to a range of regulations and regulatory processes at Monash University (1974-90) and, subsequently, as an independent consultant. More recently, as part of an assignment for the New Zealand Business Roundtable he has been attempting to digest and disseminate conclusions from the extensive, recent international research into the functioning and regulation of labour markets that are pertinent to labour market problems in New Zealand and Australia.

Dr Alan Moran is the Director of the Deregulation Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs. His background includes having been a First Assistant Commissioner in the Commonwealth's Industry Commission and the Deputy Secretary, Energy in the Victorian Government. He has also had several private-sector appointments, including Research Director of the Tasman Institute. Dr Moran has authored four books, among which is Australian Competition Policy. He has also published dozens of articles and submissions on economic policy matters.

The Hon. Tony Abbott is the Member for Warringah, Minister for Workplace Relations, and Leader of the Government in the House of Representatives.

Ken Phillips is a workplace relations consultant, a member of the board of the H R Nicholls society, and secretary of the newly formed association, Independent Contractors Australia. He appears frequently as a columnist in the Australian Financial Review.

The Hon. Gary Johns was the Member for Petrie from 1987 to 1996 and a Minister in the Keating government from 1993 to 1996. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the IPA.

Bill Forwood has been the Member for Templestowe Province since 1992 and is now Leader of the Opposition in the Victorian Legislative Council. Before entering politics he spent nearly ten years working in Darwin in investment banking. He is Victorian Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations.

Andrew Bolt grew up in a variety of tiny outback settlements in South Australia where his father was a schoolteacher. His first job in journalism was with the Melbourne Age. He subsequently went to Darwin where he got a job working for John Reeves QC, then the ALP federal member for the NT. He was sent by News Ltd to cover the handover of Hong Kong to the PRC and spent two years in Hong Kong and Bangkok. He began his career as a twice-a-week columnist with the Herald Sun in 1998, and is now one of Australia's most influential and effective journalists.