Day 1: Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Influencing public opinion; policy makers - an audience based approach

15:30 - 16:40
Theatre
National Library of Australia

From the : 2009 HASS on the Hill program

The Panel comprises leaders in the field of research and practice in issues management and agenda setting in public affairs. The task is to consider how best to prepare Australian artists, humanities scholars and social scientists to take part in public debate and to communicate the importance of new discovery in their fields to policy makers and industry.

The following people are participating in the Influencing public opinion; policy makers - an audience based approach discussion.

• Professor Catharine Lumby

CHASS Board, Director of Journalism and Media Research Centre, UNSW

• Professor Stuart Cunningham

CHASS Board, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, QUT

• Neil Lawrence

STW Communications Group Ltd

• Mr Brett Gale

Executive Director, Tourism Victoria

Professor Catharine Lumby

Catharine Lumby is the Director of the Journalism and Media Research Centre (JMRC) at UNSW where she works with a team of researchers seeding and prosecuting research across public, private and community sectors. She was the founding Chair of the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney. Her first degrees are in Fine Arts and Law and she has worked as a contemporary art critic, curated exhibitions and served on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Catharine also worked for two decades as a feature and opinion writer for a range of key Australian and international print media and is an experienced public commentator on research in the HASS sector. Catharine is the author and co-author of seven books and has been a Chief Investigator on seven ARC Grants. She has also worked extensively on applied research projects in the private and community sectors. Catharine served as a member of the Advertising Standards Board (1999-2008), is a member of the NSW Health Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board and is on the international editorial board of the International Journal of Cultural Studies. She is strongly committed to communicating the value of new humanities knowledge to the public, private and community sectors and to promoting interdisciplinary collaborations that build the research capacity of the HASS sector.

Professor Stuart Cunningham

Stuart Cunningham is Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, based at Queensland University of Technology. This centre draws on contributions across the humanities, creative arts and social sciences to help build a more dynamic and inclusive innovation system in Australia. Stuart is known for his contributions to media, communications and cultural studies and works to promote their relevance to industry practice and government policy. He is the author or editor of several books and major reports, the latest being The Media and Communications in Australia (edited with Graeme Turner) and What Price a Creative Economy? A collection of his key essays is forthcoming in 2008. He has served as a Commissioner of the Australian Film Commission, as Foundation Chair of QPIX, Queensland's Screen Development Centre, and as Treasurer of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He was elected to a Board position of CHASS in 2005 and served as President of CHASS from 2006 to 2008, and has chaired the Humanities and Creative Arts panel of the ARC's College of Experts during 2007.

Mr Neil Lawrence

Neil is the founder of Lawrence Creative Strategy, as well as the Executive Creative Director of STW, Australia's largest communications group.

He was the strategic and creative mind behind the successful 'Kevin07' advertising campaign. His work for Kevin Rudd and the Australian Labor Party was recognised by The Australian newspaper, which awarded him the 'Australian Marketer of the Year' in 2007. More recently, Neil was responsible for the marketing campaigning behind Anna Bligh's successful bid to be elected Australia's first female Premier.

His work combines creative flair with a deep understanding of highly complex, strategic political and corporate issues. This approach has also been used on corporate positioning and merger and acquisition campaigns for clients such as Wesfarmers, AGL, and BHP Billiton. He is currently working on the Football Federation of Australia's bid to win hosting rights for the 2018-2022 FIFA World Cup.

Neil has represented Australia internationally as the Chairman of Judges at the Irish International Advertising awards and on the film jury at Cannes. He is on the board of Governors of the Centenary Research Institute and is Chairman of the Centenary Foundation.

Mr Brett Gale

Brett Gale has over twenty years experience both in working inside government at the highest levels and in influencing government policy from the outside.

He is currently the Executive Director of the Tourism and Transport Forum, the peak national industry association for the tourism and transport sectors. He is responsible for the day-to-day management, membership, advocacy and policy of the TTF.

He has held senior posts in both the Federal and NSW Governments working for 5 ministers and most recently was Chief of Staff to the Hon Chris Bowen, Minister for Human Services, and Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law. In his governmental roles he has worked on policy issues as diverse as reviewing service delivery in the welfare sector; to sexual harassment in the armed services; organizing the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games; and sweeping reforms to the Trade Practices Act.

As the Executive General Manager for Corporate Affairs at NRMA Motoring and Services he was responsible for revitalizing the advocacy services of this much loved NSW institution.

Brett holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from Sydney University and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. Upon graduating from Harvard, Brett was appointed to the position of Assistant Vice President for International Affairs at Yale University where he was responsible for establishing the Yale Office of International Affairs (the first of its kind at an Ivy League institution) and for extending Yale's globalization agenda.