Luca Belgiorno-Nettis is the Managing Director of Transfield Holdings, and Prisma Investment – a private Family Office. He has a B. Arch. (UNSW) and a Dip.Urb.Est. Mgmt. (UTS).

In 2004 he founded The newDemocracy Foundation, a non-for-profit research organization focused on political reform.  In 2009 he was awarded an AM for his work in arts and the community generally, and in 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Western Sydney University.

Kathy Jones, is currently a Director and an Executive Chair of a number of organisations that focus on democratic reform, social infrastructure and precinct activation.  Kathy utilises her skills in advisory work and strategy in both  Australia and the UK. She was the founder and chief executive of KJA, one of Australia’s largest engagement and community consultation companies before selling it internationally in 2018.

Lyn Carson is a former professor in applied politics at the University of Sydney Business School, former professor with the University of Western Sydney, former academic director of the United States Studies Centre, and currently an associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance at the University of Canberra. ‘Carson’ also currently serves as newDemocracy’s research director.

She has written handbooks on community engagement and many articles and book chapters on public participation, including a book, with Brian Martin, Random Selection in Politics (1999) and co-edited The Australian Citizens’ Parliament & The Future of Deliberative Democracy (2013).

Iain Walker is Executive Director of the newDemocracy Foundation (nDF) in Australia, a role he has held since 2011.

Iain has led over 20 trial projects at local government and state government level including projects for State Premiers on both sides of politics. The topics have ranged from long-term budgeting for the $4bn City of Melbourne Financial Plan to the potential for a high-level nuclear waste storage facility in South Australia. In the water industry, nDF designed the 2017 Citizens’ Jury process for Yarra Valley Water.

Christine previously worked as a senior broadcast journalist and producer for two decades in long-form national news and current affairs. Starting at community television in Melbourne, Christine moved to Sydney to join SBS television’s Insight in 2006. This was followed by stints with NITV and the independent production sector, before moving to the ABC, where she has worked for Q&A, 7.30, local radio and won a UN Media Peace Prize for a Radio National Background Briefing on Anti-Muslim Extremists. Since having two boisterous boys, Christine has freelanced in policy development, community engagement, communications and training in the university sector. She has a Bachelor of Media Studies, Post-graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) and a Master of Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Sydney.

Emeritus Professor Dr. Geoff Gallop was born in 1951 in Geraldton, Western Australia.

He attended local primary and high schools before studying Economics at the University of Western Australia from 1968 to 1971. After winning a Rhodes Scholarship he attended Oxford University from 1972 to 74 and again from 1977 to 1981, the last two as the Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow at Nuffield College. He was awarded his Doctorate from Oxford in 1983.

After a stint teaching at Murdoch University, he was elected Member for Victoria Park in the Western Australian Legislative assembly in 1986 and re-elected in 1989, 1993, 1996, 2001, and 2005.

From 1990 to 1993 he was a Minister in the Lawrence Government (holding a range of portfolios most notably Education, Fuel and Energy and Minister Assisting the Treasurer)
In 1994 he was elected Deputy Leader of the State Parliamentary Labor Party and in 1996 he was elected Leader.

At the 2001 general election, Dr. Gallop was elected the Premier of Western Australia and was returned to office in 2005.

Robert was a member of the Australian Senate from 1981 to 2006, representing South Australia.

Elected Leader of the South Australian Liberal Party, and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1990 to 1996 and then, on the election of the Howard Government, Leader of the Government in the Senate from March 1996 until his resignation in January 2006. He was Minister for the Environment 1996-1998, Minister for the Environment and Heritage 1998-2002, and Minister for Defence 2001-2006. He was Australia’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 2006-09, and was Chancellor of the University of Adelaide from 2010-14.

Robert was educated at the University of Adelaide and the London School of Economics, where he gained a Masters Degree in Law. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in Sustainability at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

Elizabeth Proust has held leadership roles in the private and public sectors in Australia for over 30 years. She has worked in local, State and Federal Government, the oil industry and in banking. She has held senior positions in the ANZ Banking Group, the Victorian Government and was CEO of the City Of Melbourne.

Elizabeth is Chairman of Nestle (Australia), and Chairman of Bank of Melbourne, and a director of Lendlease Corporation. She is the immediate Past Chairman of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Elizabeth has a Law degree (University of Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from La Trobe University.

She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010 for distinguished service to public administration and to business, through leadership roles in government and private enterprise, as a mentor to women, and to the community through contributions to arts, charitable and educational bodies.

Carolyn M. Hendriks is a Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy with a background in political science and environmental engineering. She has published widely on the democratic aspects of contemporary governance, including participation, public deliberation, inclusion, and representation.

Carolyn is the author of three books, including Democratic Mending: democratic repair in disconnected times (with Ercan & Boswell, Oxford University Press, 2020, Oct), The Politics of Public Deliberation (Palgrave, 2011), Environmental Decision Making: Exploring Complexity and Context (with Harding and Faruqi, Federation Press 2009). She has also authored over 30 journal articles, a number of which have won international prizes.

Martin is a Professor of Law at the University of NSW, co-director of the European Law Centre, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. He has studied philosophy, politics, and law and his doctorate is in the history of ideas.

In June 2005 he was appointed recurrent visiting professor at the Centre of Social Studies, Academy of Sciences Warsaw and in 2005-06 was a Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences, Stanford.

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO is a Eualayai/Gamillaroi woman and Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is a graduate of the UNSW Law School and has a Masters and SJD from Harvard Law School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2020 for her work in Indigenous education, the law and the arts.

Larissa won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her second novel, Legacy, won a Victorian Premiers Literary Award. Her most recent novel,  After Story (2021, UQP) won the 2022 Voss Literary prize. Larissa is an award-winning filmmaker. She won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for best Direction of a Documentary Film for After the Apology and the 2020 AACTA for Best Direction in Factual Television for her documentary, Maralinga Tjarutja.