Speakers
Prof. Rob Adams AM
Director of City Design, City of Melbourne
As Director of City Design for the City of Melbourne with nearly 40 years experience as a practising architect and urban designer, Rob has produced a large number of strategic urban design solutions and projects in addition to design-research based urban projects and strategies. Rob has attracted over 110 state and national awards for excellence including on four occasions the Australian Award for Urban Design.
In 2007, Rob was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to Architecture and Urban Design and in 2008 became the Prime Minister’s Environmentalist of the Year at the Banksia awards. A champion of both the arts and environmental sustainability he has worked to ensure that good urban design is established as a platform for city development into the 21st Century.
Senator Simon Birmingham
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin; and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Action
Simon Birmingham, at 35, is one of the federal parliament’s youngest senators and has served as a Liberal Party Senator for South Australia since May 2007.
Simon has focussed on issues around water security, environmental management and communications since entering the Senate and served as the Deputy Chair and Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on the Environment, Communications and the Arts until his appointment to the Coalition’s frontbench. He continues to serve on Joint Standing Committees covering Treaties and Electoral Matters as well as the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network.
Simon’s focus on water and environmental issues was highlighted by his appointment as Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Action in December 2009.
Dr. Edward J. Blakely
United States Study Centre, University of Sydney
Dr. Edward J. Blakely has a more than 40 year of international experience in all aspects of urban and regional planning, disaster management and sustainable development. Until 2009 he headed the recovery of the City of New Orleans. In this role he coordinated all aspects of municipal government from planning and financing to construction of major infrastructure related to the recovery of the City from the worst modern urban disaster in the United States. He is currently the Professor of Urban Policy at the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney where he coordinates the Centres programs on global urban issues with an honorary professor appointment. Since he is not full time with the US Studies Centre he has formed BlakelyGlobal as a strategic policy consulting group to provide advice and direct assistance in his areas of expertise.
Chris Bosse
L-A-V-A
Chris Bosse is the founder of LAVA: Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, with Offices in Sydney, Stuttgart, and Abu Dhabi. He is Adjunct Professor and Innovation fellow at the University of Technology Sydney and lectures worldwide. Chris was one of the key thinkers behind the Olympic swimming pool, the Watercube in Beijing during his time as Associate Architect at PTW.
LAVA`s research focuses on the merging of nature and technology with the aim of achieving MORE WITH LESS: more (architecture) with less (material/energy/time).
LAVA recently won an international competition for MASDAR's City's Centre, the world’s first carbon neutral city being built in the UAE, which is widely regarded as a role model for “the city of the future”.
The Hon Tony Burke MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; and Minister for Population
Tony has travelled more than 150,000 km across Australia, meeting people working on farms and in the fishing and forestry sectors. His achievements so far include the eradication of equine influenza and reforming the nation’s biosecurity system. He has delivered major economic reforms to the bulk wheat export marketing system and overseen nearly 50 trade market access wins.
Tony is working to finalise the details of reforms to the nation’s drought support system, to help farmers better prepare for the future. He believes Australian farmers, fishers and forestry workers are world leaders in driving productivity and sustainability. On-farm investment is critical to boost productivity, and has delivered more than 8,500 FarmReady training grants to farmers and 64 industry grants.
In April 2010 Tony Burke was appointed Australia’s first Minister for Population. He has begun an extensive consultation process, looking at the challenges and opportunities of population growth, including infrastructure, water, environmental, housing and health needs.
Dr Chris Caton
Chief Economist, BT Financial Group
Chris Caton is the Chief Economist for BT Financial Group. He was Chief Economist at Bankers Trust from 1991 until July 1999. From 1994 to 1997, he was also Chairman of the Indicative Planning Council, which advised the Government on matters relating to the housing industry.
Previously he worked in the Treasury, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and for an economic consulting firm in the United States.
Chris was educated at the University of Adelaide and the University of Pennsylvania.
Tony Chan
Associate, Arup
Tony Chan is an Associate and one of the founding members of Arup’s Planning team in East Asia, currently managing it from Shanghai. His work focuses primarily on holistic urban development, urban design and project management processes. His expertise lies in integrating master planning and urban design with associated strategies (Energy, Water, Transportation, Waste etc.) to address natural resource consumption. Utilising Arup’s various other engineering and sustainability expertise and tools, he is currently project managing various multi-disciplinary eco-city type projects around China.
Tony speaks at various conferences in China and around the region. His current areas of interest include industrial ecology, new technologies in renewable energy and the integrating sustainable indicators into statutory plans.
Michael Deegan
Infrastructure Australia
Michael Deegan was appointed Australia’s first national Infrastructure Coordinator in July 2008. Prior to that appointment he was Chairman of Australia’s National Transport Commission. He has extensive public and private sector background in road, rail, ports and construction.
Mark Dreyfus QC, MP
Federal Member for Isaacs, Australian Labor Party
Mark Dreyfus was elected as Federal Member for Isaacs in November 2007. Mark Dreyfus is a prominent Melbourne barrister and Queen’s Counsel. Mark has frequently appeared for and advised Victorian and the Commonwealth governments. Including several landmark cases in the High Court, such as the Stolen Generation litigation.
Mark is a former Director of the Law Council of Australia, and has served on the Victorian Bar Ethics Committee and Victorian Bar Council. He also served as a Ministerial Advisor to the Victorian Attorney General (1986 - 1987). Mark previously worked as Research Fellow at the National Research Institute of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Brian Howe AO
University of Melbourne
Prof. Brian Howe is a Professorial Associate in the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (1991-95), a member of the Federal Cabinet (1984-96) and held a range of Ministerial portfolios in the fields of Defence, Social Security, Health, Housing and Community Services. His administration of these portfolios was distinguished by a number of major policy initiatives in Social Security reform of family payments and the introduction of Child Support, in Health the National Mental Health Strategy and the Commonwealth Dental Scheme. He was also responsible for important Commonwealth State initiatives such as the Commonwealth State Disability Agreement and the Building Better Cities program.
He teaches in the Centre's postgraduate program, has worked on several ARC funded research projects, is writing a series of monographs on Australian religious leaders and published a book on life course transitions and risks in contemporary Australia (2007) Weighing Up Australian Values. He chairs the Board of Housing Choices Australia.
Ken Maher
Chairman, HASSELL
Ken Maher is a leading Sydney based architect and is executive Chairman of HASSELL, Australia’s largest international multidisciplinary design practice involved in major urban projects throughout Australia and Asia. Ken is a Professor in the Faculty of the Built Environment of the UNSW and was a founding board member of the Green Building Council.
In 2009 Ken was awarded the Australian Institute of Architecture’s highest accolade, the AIA Gold Medal. He has been an advisor to government in design and the built environment, recommending the introduction of innovative measures to improve high density housing design, including the involvement of architects. He is currently chair of the City of Sydney’s Design Advisory Panel, and is a member of the Federal Government’s Built Environment Industry Innovation Council.
Ken’s projects have received many awards, and he has a strong interest in multidisciplinary thinking in the design of our cities and the role of design in contributing to public life.
The Hon. Richard Marles MP
Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry
Richard Marles was elected to Federal Parliament as the Member for Corio in November 2007. In 2009, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry.
In 1998, he became Federal Assistant Secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union where he was responsible for bargaining with national transport companies and managing the union’s activities in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
In 2000, he became Assistant Secretary of the ACTU and ran the Working Hours Case which gave workers the right, for the first time, to refuse unreasonable amounts of overtime. He was a member of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission and led the ACTU’s work on OHS.
Senator Christine Milne
Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens
Senator Christine Milne, Australian Greens spokesperson on climate change, was elected to represent Tasmania in the federal parliament at the 2004 election after a distinguished career in the Tasmanian state parliament where she served as Leader of the Tasmanian Greens from 1993-1998. Until recently, Christine was one of four Global Vice-Presidents of the International Union for the Conservation for Nature and represented the IUCN at the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention at Montreal in 2005, Nairobi in 2006 and at Bali in 2007.
Christine is a leader in the environment movement in Australia and overseas. She was appointed to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1990 and in 2003 The Bulletin magazine named her one of Australia’s Smart 100. In November 2008 Christine was elected as Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens.
Monica Richter
Sustainable Australia Program Manager, Australian Conservation Foundation
Monica Richter and her team work on numerous issues such as advocating for better designed and more liveable homes, workplaces and cities, greater investment in public and active transport, and appropriate responses to peak oil. Her team has also recently developed a sustainability framework for Melbourne’s Werribee Plains region. Prior to this, Monica headed up ACF’s Climate Change Program and worked on numerous policy and public outreach campaigns to avoid dangerous climate change.
Monica has also worked for Greenpeace as the Corporate Environmental Campaigner building the business case for taking into account greenhouse gas emissions. Monica has also worked in the Federal government and corporate sector.
Graeme Sawyer
Lord Mayor of Darwin
Lord Mayor Graeme Sawyer is the Lord Mayor of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory and Australia’s gateway to south-east Asia. Darwin is arguably Australia's most cosmopolitan city, boasting a population made up of people from more than 60 nationalities and 70 different ethnic backgrounds.
Lord Mayor Sawyer was elected to office in March 2008 and is currently the Chair of the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors (CCCLM), a representative on the Federal Government’s Australian Council of Local Government and co-chair of the CCCLM’s Major Cities Working Group which includes capital city’s plus Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong and Geelong Councils. The CCCLM recently released a submission on National Urban Policy entitled “Towards a City Strategy” calling for a new era of city building and a raft of planning reforms.
Lord Mayor Sawyer has a background in Education and Multimedia. He was a teacher for 15 years and has been an advisor to the NT Department of Education on IT in teaching and learning environments.
He was instrumental in establishing and running the QANTM Multimedia Centre as a part of the Federal Creative Nation Strategy and since 2001, has been the Managing Director of the eNTITy1 a business working in the internet, e-business, e-learning and multimedia areas. His expertise and focus is on research and development associated with new internet technologies and assisting public and private organisations to integrate these new technologies into their operations.
Lord Mayor Sawyer is co-founder of FrogWatch NT which has developed and implemented the ToadBuster strategy to stop the advance of cane toads in the Northern Territory. He has also worked on several national projects as a member of the WWF Rio Tinto Frogs Programme Education Panel and the FrogZone national project panel.
Jim Soorley
Chairman, Unity Water
In 1990, Jim made the decision to enter politics because he strongly believed he could make a difference. He ran a strong grassroots campaign as the Labor Party candidate and won a narrow victory in March 1991. He was re–elected by resounding margins in 1994, 1997, and 2000 before deciding to step down in May 2003.
The Lord Mayor of Brisbane presides over the largest local government authority in Australia, with an annual budget of $1.6 billion and a workforce of 7,000. The position is directly elected by a constituency of over 600,000, representing 900,000 people. As Brisbane's second longest–serving Lord Mayor, Jim's achievements include:
- The development of long term strategic planning for the city, outlined in two major documents Liveable Brisbane and Brisbane 2010, which have become blueprints for the city's future.
- Responsible management of the city's financial resources, including a balanced budget and a 20% debt reduction per capita.
Emma Synnott
Associate, Arup
Emma is an Associate in Arup’s Sydney office, leading Arup’s Sydney Sustainability Team. Emma is a sustainability expert with over 18 years experience in Australia and London working primarily with local, regional, state and national governments.
She is focussed on sustainable cities, having led or been instrumental in developing city-wide strategies for London, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Emma is currently leading Arup’s project teams in preparing a business case for the City of Sydney on an Alternative Waste Treatment facility, and in advising the NSW Department of Planning on spatial strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Before joining Arup in 2008, Emma spent over three years working for the Mayor of London and the London Sustainable Development Commission. In this role, Emma provided advice to Olympic authorities on the London 2012 carbon and energy strategy, and was instrumental in establishing the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012.
The Hon. Lindsay Tanner MP
Minister for Finance and Deregulation
Lindsay Tanner is the Federal Member for Melbourne and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation in the Rudd Labor Government. He has been the Member of Melbourne since 1993 and in opposition held a range of shadow ministerial positions.
Prior to entering Federal Parliament, Lindsay worked as a Solicitor with Holding Redlich and then later as State Secretary for the Federated Clerks Union.
Lindsay holds Bachelor degrees in Arts and Laws, a Masters of Arts degree and has written numerous books and articles on social, labour, and economic issues, including a weekly blog for the National Times website. Lindsay is committed to social justice and regularly participates in a range of forums on social issues.
Matthew Trigg
Smart Cities Project Coordinator, Australian Conservation Foundation
Based within the Sustainable Australia team, Matthew's work focuses on delivering positive environmental outcomes through smarter and more sustainable cities for the benefit of all Australians. Among a variety of projects, Matthew is responsible for coordinating the 2010 ACF Sustainable Cities Index and the Sustainable Cities Internship program.
Prior to this, he worked as a sustainable design advisor for Victorian local government where he co-founded the Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment and chaired the Municipal Association of Victoria’s ESD Advocacy Group. Matthew has also worked within numerous leading architectural practices around Australia and as a built environment policy consultant.
Lucy Turnbull
Turnbull & Partners
Lucy is a businesswoman and company director. She is a director of the board of Melbourne IT, and the Redfern Waterloo Authority, which is charged with the urban renewal of the Redfern-Waterloo area of Sydney and the Australian Technology Park also at Redfern.
Lucy was Sydney’s first female Lord Mayor (2003-2004) and Deputy Lord Mayor (1999-2003). She was the first woman to hold both these positions. She served as a Councillor on the City of Sydney from 1999-2004 and chaired many council committees, including the Central Sydney Planning Committee, the Planning, Transport and Development Committee and the Finance and Audit Committees.
In 1999 Lucy published a book Sydney – Biography of a City. Lucy’s interests include history, contemporary culture, planning, architecture and design.
Jennifer Westacott
Partner in Charge, Sustainability, Climate Change & Water, KPMG
Jennifer Westacott is the Chair of the South Australian Public Sector Performance Commission. The Commission is currently engaged in a fundamental reform of public sector governance, performance management and leadership development. She is a Commissioner on the Commonwealth Grants Commission and a Commissioner on South Australia's Sustainable Budget Commission.
Jennifer's substantive role is as KPMG's National Lead Partner for Climate Change, Water and Sustainability. She is also the Partner in Charge of Government Advisory Services in NSW.
Prior to joining KPMG, Jennifer spent over 20 years as a senior public servant in NSW and Victoria, in public sector leadership positions including the Director of Housing in Victoria, the Secretary of Education and Training in Victoria and the Director General of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources in NSW.
Jennifer is a Chevening Scholar from the London School of Economic and is the Adjunct Professor at the City's Future Research Centre at the University of NSW.
Senator the Hon. Penny Wong
Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water
In December 2007 Penny was appointed to the Federal Cabinet in the new Rudd Labor Government as the Minister for Climate Change and Water, and in March 2010 the Prime Minister added the Energy Efficiency portfolio to her responsibilities. Penny is responsible for the co-ordination, implementation and delivery of the Government’s climate change, energy efficiency and water policies including the design and implementation of the Governments Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
Before entering Parliament, Penny Wong was a barrister and solicitor in Adelaide and worked as an adviser to the Carr Government in New South Wales. She was elected as a Labor Senator for South Australia in November 2001 and began her term in July 2002.
Mike Zorbas - event MC
Mike Zorbas represents the interests of Stockland, Australia's largest diversified property company, to the nation's parliamentarians in his capacity as General Manager, Government Relations.
His former roles include Chief Advocate for the Property Council of Australia, Deputy Head of Media for the Liberal Democrats in the UK and Executive Officer for the Motor Trades Association of Australia. Mike is a past director of the Canadian Government's Forum of Federations and served two terms on the SBS Community Advisory Committee.
