XXXIst Conference: Notes on the Speakers

Senator the Hon Eric Abetz

Liberal Senator for Tasmania since 1994.

Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations since 2009 and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate since last year. Member of numerous Senate committees. Previously a minister and parliamentary secretary.

Born in Stuttgart 1958; married.

BA, LLB (Tas). Previously practiced as a lawyer in the Hobart and Kingston firm Abetz, Curtis & Dutton. Former president of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation.

Gerard Boyce

Barrister of Frederick Jordan Chambers, Sydney.

Practices in industrial and employment law, occupational health & safety, common law and taxation matters and customs.

Formerly with NECA and AMMA; a solicitor in 2005 and called to the Bar in 2006.

Grace Collier

Grace Collier is an Industrial Relations Management Consultant and Commentator.

Spent almost a decade in the union movement followed by a decade as an expert consultant.

Formed Industrial Relations Consulting in 2003, as a response to a need in the business community for a strong, focused industrial relations group to support employers in the realization of business objectives.

IRC specializes in helping companies protect themselves from union interference by building direct relationships with their employees.

Mary Jo Fisher

Liberal Senator for South Australia since 2007. Present term expires 2016.

Chair of the Senate's Environment and Communications---References Committee and deputy chair of the legislation committee for the same. Participating member of many Senate committees including on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Born in 1962, Beverley, WA. With her husband farms grain and cattle at Lucindale SA.

Before entering parliament: general manager, Business SA. Senior policy adviser to the then Minister for Workplace Relations Peter Reith. Adviser to farming organisations in WA and NSW.

BJuris, LLB (WA).

Dr Steven Kates

Senior lecturer in economics at RMIT University's School of Economics, Finance and Marketing.

For 24 years the Chief Economist for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Amongst many other things, his work at ACCI included the preparation and delivery of the main employer submission in the National Wage Case. His most recent IR work has been the preparation of detailed reports on the effects of the Fair Work Act on the Australian Minerals and Resources Sector.

Most of his research has been into macroeconomic policy, industrial relations and the history of economic thought. His most extensive area of expertise is in the classical propositions surrounding Say's Law, on which he has written many papers as well as two books: Say's Law and the Keynesian Revolution (1998) and Two Hundred Years of Say's Law (2003) and, with John Cunningham Wood as the general editor, put together a five volume set, Critical Readings on Jean-Baptiste Say.

His Free Market Economics: an Introduction for the General Reader is to be published in June.

Kyle Kutasi

Kyle is the Secretary & General Manager of the National Electrical & Communications Association (NECA), Western Australia Chapter. NECA is the peak industry association for electrical and communications contractors in Australia, representing businesses who employ over 200,000 Australians. Prior to this, Kyle spent his early years deeply involved in his family's food manufacturing business.

He completed studies in Commerce (majoring in Economics & Accounting) and Law at the University of Sydney in 2004, and was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW in 2005. Following this, Kyle chose to specialise in the field of construction and industrial relations law. After some time as a consultant to a wide range of businesses (particularly in the transport, shipping, retail and pastoral industries), Kyle commenced a role as Manager, Commercial & Industrial Relations for NECA NSW (2006-08).

Kyle is also a member of the board of the Society.

Hon John Lloyd PSM

The Australian Building and Construction Commissioner 2005-10.

Other senior workplace appointments in the field of workplace relations

• Senior Deputy President, Australian Industrial Relations Commission---2004-05
• Deputy Secretary, Federal Department Employment and Workplace Relations---2001-04
• CEO, WA Department of Productivity and Labour Relations---1996-2001
• Executive Director, Victorian Department of Business and Employment---1992-96
• Member National Occupational Health and Safety Commission
• Member Comcare Board
• Head of Australian Delegation International Labour Conference, Geneva

John has also served on the boards of a number of organisations attending to the needs of Australians with cerebral palsy.

He was awarded the Australian Public Service Medal for service in the field of workplace relations reform, particularly in building and construction industry.

Paul Ludeke

Workplace relations specialist at Herbert Geer solicitors.

Des Moore

Director of the Institute of Private Enterprise, South Yarra.

Des Moore has had considerable experience and training in analysing economic issues. After graduating in law from Melbourne University, Australia, and in economics from the London School of Economics, he worked for 28 years in the Commonwealth Treasury, including five years as one of three Deputy Secretaries.

During his time in Treasury, Des headed most of the main policy areas. In 1987 he resigned from Treasury and in the following nine years was Senior Fellow of the Economic Policy Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs. He has published and commented on a wide range of economic policy and related issues including on climate change.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is a retired company director with a wide experience in business and the community.

For all of his business life, Michael was very much the entrepreneur. He built one of the largest privately owned poultry breeding business in Victoria before turning his expertise to genetic engineering technology in the cattle breeding industry, breaking new ground in embryo transfer technology. He perfected the DNA technology for animal identification now in use world-wide.

Michael had an active involvement as a director of several listed companies over two decades, first in retail then as a director of building societies. He was a Councillor of Pakenham Shire and Shire President, a Melbourne City Councillor, committee member of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, advisor to government on agricultural issues and active in agricultural educational institutions, including TAFE.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Honorary Bachelor of Business (Agricultural Management). He's been active in the horse racing industry and member of the Melbourne Cricket Club for 50 years.

Michael Moore is Secretary and Treasurer of the Society.

Ken Phillips

Ken Phillips is co-founder and Executive Director of Independent Contractors Australia. Ken is an independent contractor operating as his own business, as a researcher, commentator and lobbyist, and consultant on workplace management issues.

Ken was ICA's representative at the 2003 and 2006 International Labour Organisation debate on the 'Scope of Employment Relationship.' The ILO outcomes formed the conceptual basis for Australia's Independent Contractors Act.

Ken's books include Independence and the Death of Employment and The Politics of a Tragedy the latter reporting on the 1996 NSW Gretley coal mining disaster and how the NSW OHS laws were selectively applied.

Ken is also a member of the board of the Society.

Peter Wilson AM

National President of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Chairman of Yarra Valley Water Ltd, a Director of the World Federation of People Management Associations based in Geneva, and a Director of the Vincent Fairfax Foundation in Sydney.

Background in economics, commerce and strategy development and was Executive General Manager at AMCOR, Chief Executive Officer of the Energy 21 Group and Managing Director, Asia Pacific Division at the ANZ Banking Group. Chairman of the Commonwealth Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission from 1998--2004. Married with four children.

BCom (Hons), MA, FCPA, FAICD, FAHRI.

Leyla Yilmaz

General Manager, Industrial Relations, OHS & Training, Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce.