Wendy McCarthy has been an educator, advocate and commentator in Australian public life and company director for the past forty years. Wendy was a founding member and co-convenor of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in 1972 and is a former CEO of Philips Fox, former Chancellor of Canberra University and a former director of the ABC.

Monica Dux is a writer and commentator. She is the author of Lapsed: losing your religion is harder than it looks (HarperCollins ABC Books, 2021), Things I Didn’t Expect (when I was expecting) (MUP, 2013), co-author of The Great Feminist Denial (MUP, 2008), and editor of the anthology Mothermorphosis (MUP, 2015). Monica was a founding board member of the Stella Prize, and the Feminist Writers Festival. From 2013 until 2022 she was a columnist for The Saturday Age. She is currently doing a PhD in Creative Practice at RMIT.  

Stephen Mayne is a Walkley Award winning journalist who for almost 10 years worked as a reporter, business editor, gossip columnist and chief of staff at major Australian newspapers.

A former press secretary in Jeff Kennett’s media unit, Stephen turned on his former boss in 1997 by going on Four Corners as a whistleblower about the Premier’s share dealings. He then published the anti-Kennett website www.jeffed.com during the 1999 state election after his planned tilt in Jeff’s seat was knocked out on a technicality. Jeffed.com attracted 115,000 page views in two weeks from a standing start, was more popular than the ALP’s website and was credited in some circles with contributing to Kennett’s shock defeat.

With Jeff gone and having burnt all his bridges back into the mainstream media, Stephen launched www.crikey.com.au in February 2000 – right at the top of the dotcom boom. After many battles, including the loss of his home in a defamation battle, Crikey was sold in March 2005 to Eric Beecher and Di Gribble for $1 million. Crikey is now Australia’s best known independent ezine with 15,000 paying subscribers for the daily email and more than 1.5 million page views on its website each month.

These days Stephen is a humble Crikey contributor who is also pursuing shareholder activism through his corporate governance ezine www.maynereport.com.

As Australia’s best known shareholder activist, Stephen has asked questions at more than 400 AGMs and had many memorable exchanges with the likes of Rupert Murdoch, James Packer, Kerry Stokes and Frank Lowy.

Stephen also claims to have “the world’s biggest small share portfolio” with tiny investments in more than 700 Australian companies to support his shareholder activism, which has included 40 unsuccessful board tilts.

He is a director of the Australian Shareholders' Association and a councillor at the City of Manningham.

Despite being Australia’s most unsuccessful candidate in contested elections, Stephen is confident of winning a spot on Melbourne City Council at this year’s local elections.

Jennifer Byrne is a senior journalist and broadcaster who has worked in all arms of the media: print, radio and television.

Having done her cadetship at the Age and worked on UK’s Fleet Street, she was a founding reporter with Channel Nine’s Sunday programme and spent some 12 years traveling the world for 60 Minutes and as anchor for Foreign Correspondent. She was publishing director of Reed Books, morning presenter on ABC radio, won national awards as interviewer and columnist for the Bulletin and, in May 2006, returned to TV to create the country’s first televised Book Club, which ran on the ABC for 11 years until December 2019.

Alongside books, Jennifer’s favourite pastime – far too serious to be called a hobby – has since the age of two been the playing of games. Including quizzes, cards, board games, and crosswords (physical and electronic). To be invited to become the first Australian host of Mastermind – a show she grew up watching, of course – is the realisation of a dream she didn’t know she had. Jennifer hosted series two of Mastermind plus Celebrity Mastermind in 2020.

Gay Alcorn began her career in Queensland, and joined The Sunday Age before its launch in 1989.

She worked as the Darwin correspondent for four years, and was The Age’s Washington correspondent from 1999-2002, where she covered both the 2000 presidential election and the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

She has won three Walkley awards, the latest in 2004 when she was part of the investigative unit which profiled former ALP leader Mark Latham. Her other Walkleys were for news and feature writing.

Gay was appointed Sunday Age editor in March 2008 after two years in the position of deputy editor for The Age.

Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre and chairs the Intelligence Squared debates in Sydney and Melbourne.

Simon Longstaff spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge, before returning to Australia in mid-1991. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy.His research centred on related questions arising in the areas of political philosophy, ethics and the philosophy of education.

Dr Longstaff was inaugural president of The Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of its Global Agenda Council. Publications include, Hard Cases, Tough Choices and numerous articles.

Virginia Haussegger is an award winning journalist, author and social commentator.

Her outspoken views on women and their place in contemporary society have been widely debated in the Australian media, in public forums, and on talkback radio. Virginia’s seminal article on feminism and childlessness was ranked by the Age newspaper as among the most significant opinion pieces published in its 150 year history.

Virginia’s book Wonder Woman: the myth of ‘having it all’, was launched at the National Press Club in 2005 by Julia Gillard and broadcast live on ABC TV. She currently presents the nightly news for the ABC in Canberra.