In Search of the Magic Pudding

Contributors

Padraic P McGuinness was educated at St Ignatius College, Sydney Boys High School, University of Sydney, and the London School of Economics. He claims to have acquired his mastery of economics through reading in the Public Library. After graduating he worked at various times for the OECD, the Narodny Bank, and as editor of the International Currency Review. Apart from a brief stint with the Minister for Social Security in 1973-74 he has had a distinguished career in Australian journalism since 1971. He now has a widely read column on page 2 of The Australian.

David Bedford, Corporate Industrial Relations Manager for Electricity Corporation of New Zealand since 1987. Prior to this he worked in industrial relations in New Zealand and Australia in the construction and meat processing industries for 12 years, which included five years with Bechtel Australia Pty Ltd on the gas to gasoline Taranaki NZ project and Portland Aluminium Smelter site in Victoria.

The Electricity Corporation of New Zealand is one of a number of State Owned Enterprises created out of former Government Departments by the Labour Government in 1987. The Corporation has under its control the generation of approximately 97% of all New Zealand electricity requirements and the distribution and wholesaling of electricity to local authorities who act as retailers. The Corporation has a workforce of 4500 employees and has an asset valuation of approximately 63 billion NZ dollars. As a State Owned Enterprise its shareholders are the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State Owned Enterprises.

The industrial relations task has been to create an industrial environment that augments and supports the decentralised management style.

Sheldon R L Young has been 24 years in industrial relations and marketing in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. He started his career at the Employees' Federation of New South Wales as a trainee in industrial relations in 1963. In 1969 he joined the Australian Council of Employer's Federation (now CAI) as the construction industry's national advocate and negotiator. In 1973 he joined Bechtel doing field assignments and was appointed Manager of Industrial Labour Relations in the San Francisco office. He returned to Bechtel Pacific in Australia in 1977 as first Australian National Vice President in 1983. In 1984 he became Manager and Director of Bechtel Australia and left in 1986 to start his own business.

Paul Houlihan was brought up on a dairy farm at Nar Nar Goon, West Gippsland, Victoria. He was educated at St Patrick's College in Ballarat. He has been a key player in Australian industrial and labour relations for almost 20 years, but particularly in the last decade as Industrial Director for the National Farmers' Federation. He has initiated and managed a number of actions which have become important milestones in Australia's industrial history. His understanding of the trade union movement is the result of more than a decade in senior union positions, ranging from Organiser to State Secretary. This experience, coupled with his legal studies, gave him a unique profile within employer organisations.

Paul Houlihan is now a consultant to a number of important agribusiness companies in Australia and has clients in several important service industries.

Ray Evans was educated at the Melbourne High School and the University of Melbourne where he graduated in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. Sometime President of the Melbourne University ALP Club and delegate from the Federated Fodder and Fuel Trades Union to Victorian ALP State Conferences, he resigned from the ALP to act as campaign manager for Captain SJ Benson who retained the federal seat of Batman as an Independent in 1966. Prior to his appointment as Executive Officer at Western Mining Corporation, Mr Evans was Deputy of Engineering at Deakin University. He brought together the group which founded the H R Nicholls Society in 1985, and is currently Vice President of the Society.

David Slee is a consultant to the Insurance Industry. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He has been a director of both Life and Non-Life Insurance Companies, recently having retired as Chairman and Managing Director of Royal Life Australia following a take-over. Prior to then he spent many years as Chief Actuary to the largest underwriter of private sector Workers' Compensation in Victoria. He is an authority on WorkCare, and predicted quite accurately in 1985 that the present WorkCare difficulties and deficit would arise.

Michael Porter was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide, the University of Adelaide and Stanford University. He has held teaching and research appointments at Stanford, Simon Fraser, Essex, and Australian National Universities, as well as advisory posts in government and the IMF. He has been Professor of Economics since 1976 and Director of the Centre of Policy Studies since 1979 at Monash University.

Ian McEwin graduated in Commerce from the University of Newcastle and has specialised in the economics of insurance, accidents, torts and compensation. He has taught economics at Duntroon and is currently Research Fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University.

Ken Crompton graduated in law from the University of Melbourne and worked in private legal practice until 1979. He was appointed Director of the Australian Chamber of Manufactures in 1987. He has presented papers at the International Bar Association and has had wide experience in management.

Brian Baillie has had a distinguished career in the Australian shipping and stevedoring industries. He went to sea in 1942 and in 1951 commenced his career in stevedoring with the Brisbane Stevedoring and Wool Dumping Co Pty Ltd. In 1970 he was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Brisbane Wharves and Wool Dumping Co Pty Ltd, and in 1983 Managing Director of P&O Australia Ltd. From 1971 to 1976 he was a member of the Federal Government's Transport Advisory Council.

David Trebeck graduated in Agricultural Science at the University of Sydney and in Economics from the University of New England and has had a distinguished career in the rural industries. He has worked for, or been associated with, the NSW Dept of Agriculture, the Australian Woolgrower's and Grazier's council, the National Farmers' Federation, the Australian Shippers' Council, the National Bulk Commodities Group, and the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation. Since 1983 he has been Principal Consultant with ACIL Australia Pty Ltd, a leading consultancy group based in Melbourne and Canberra.

Peter Costello was educated at Carey Grammar and Monash University where he graduated in Arts and Law with Honours. He was called to the Victorian Bar, after practising as a solicitor in Melbourne for some years, in 1984 and has established himself in the fields of commercial law and industrial relations. He is a part-time teacher of Industrial Relations at Monash University and he has appeared in a number of recent cases against the trade unions at Common Law. He won Liberal Party preselection for the federal seat of Higgins in April 1989.

David Russell QC became a solicitor (1974) and barrister (1977) of the Supreme Court of Queensland after completing his Ll.M. at the University of Queensland. He was appointed Queens Counsel in 1986. Since 1984 he has been a central councillor and member of the State Management Committee of the National Party of Australia in Queensland.