Both Major Parties are Failing the Australian People

Greg Barns is a barrister and writer. He practices in the areas of criminal law, administrative law and family law and is a member of the Tasmanian, Victorian and WA Bars. Greg is a graduate of Monash University (BA/LLB) and spent over a decade working as a political adviser to a number of state and federal ministers and premiers. He ran the 1999 Republic Referendum campaign and was Chair of the Australian Republican Movement from 2000–02. 

Greg is a former National President of the Australian Lawyers Alliance and is a spokesman for the Alliance on criminal justice issues.  He is also an Adviser to the Australian Assange Campaign. Greg is the author of four books including the recently published Rise of the Right: The War on Liberal Values (Hardie Grant Publishing 2019) and is a weekly columnist with the Hobart Mercury. He also writes for the Age.

Shaun Carney is a journalist and memoirist.

In a career spanning 35 years, he worked as a journalist, editor and columnist with the Herald and the Age. After leaving full-time journalism he became a weekly columnist for the Herald Sun and is an adjunct associate professor with the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. His memoir, Press Escape, is released in October 2016.

John Hewson is an economic and financial expert with experience in academia, business, government and the financial system.

He has worked as an economist for the Australian Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the IMF and as an advisor to two successive federal treasurers and the prime minister. He is currently a professor at the Crawford School ANU.

Hewson's academic career included 11 years as the Professor of Economics and four years as the head of the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales and, more recently, two years as Dean of Macquarie Graduate School of Management at Macquarie University. Before entering politics in 1987, his business career was as a company director and business consultant – and included roles as foundation executive director, Macquarie Bank Limited and as a trustee of the IBM Superannuation Fund.

Hewson’s political career included seven years as a ministerial advisor and a further eight years as the Federal Member for Wentworth in the Federal Parliament. He was Shadow Finance Minister, Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Industry and Commerce, then leader of the Liberal Party and Federal Coalition in Opposition for four years.

Since leaving politics in early 1995, Hewson has run his own private investment banking business, including as director/advisor of a wide range of companies and was, until December 2004, a member of the advisory council of ABN AMRO (having previously been chairman of the bank). He's also chairman of Osteoporosis Australia and KidsXpress, and a director of several other companies. He writes opinion columns for a number of newspapers and online news services, and is a weekly panelist on the Sky News Agenda program, as well as a regular commentator on a wide range of radio and television programs.

Hewson's work has involved a considerable focus on climate change and sustainability – ranging from his 1993 'Fightback' policy promising a 20% cut in emissions by 2000 (off a 1990 base), through his role as member and chairman of the National Business Leader's Forum on Sustainable Development, and now as Chair Asset Owners' Disclosure Project.

Hewson has also recognised and acted on the business opportunities of a genuine response to the challenge of climate change – starting businesses in garbage recycling, energy efficient lightbulbs, bio-diesel plants, green data centres, converting sugar cane into electricity and ethanol, producing ultra pure graphite for lithium-ion batteries and heat storage, coal refining, base load solar, and many others. He was also a member of the South Australian Government’s Expert Panel on the Transition to a Low Carbon Economy, and Patron of the Solar Council.

Senator Helen Kroger has been in Federal Parliament since 2008 following an extensive career in small business, corporate fundraising and Human Resource Management.

Helen has also been a reformist as a former Victorian State President and federal Vice President of the Liberal Party. She is the Chair of the Senate References Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade along with other Senate Committee positions. In 2008, she relaunched Parliamentarians Against Child Abuse and Neglect (PACAN) which aims to increase awareness of, and take positive action in, eliminating the serious issue of child abuse and neglect.

Carmen Lawrence is Winthrop Professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Western Australia. She is a former Premier of Western Australia and federal government minister.

After training as a research psychologist at the University of Western Australia and lecturing in a number of Australian universities, Dr Lawrence entered politics in 1986, serving at both State and Federal levels for 21 years. She was at various times W.A Minister for Education and Aboriginal affairs and was the first woman Premier and Treasurer of a State government.

She shifted to Federal politics in 1994 when she was elected as the Member for Fremantle. She was appointed Minister for Health and Human Services and Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. She held various portfolios in Opposition, including Indigenous Affairs, Environment, Industry and Innovation, and was elected national President of the Labor Party in 2004. She retired from politics in 2007.

Dr Lawrence is now a Professorial Fellow at the University of Western Australia where she is working to establish a centre to research the forces driving significant social change in key areas of contemporary challenge as well as exploring our reactions to that change. The centre will also seek to expose for public discussion the processes most likely to achieve social change where that is a desired objective.

Penny Wong is the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Penny was born in Malaysia. As an eight year old she moved to Australia with her family and settled in Adelaide.

Penny graduated in law and arts from the University of Adelaide. She went on to practice labour law, advocating for the rights of workers. She also secured better pay and conditions for workers as a union representative, and served as a policy adviser in the New South Wales Government.

Penny was elected to the Australian Senate in 2001, with her first term commencing in 2002. She was re-elected in 2007, 2013 and in the double dissolution election of 2016.

After just two years in the Senate, Penny was promoted to the Shadow Ministry.

Upon the election of the Labor Government in 2007, Penny was appointed Minister for Climate Change and Water. In Labor’s second term, Penny served as Minister for Finance and Deregulation.

In 2013 Penny was appointed Leader of the Government in the Senate, the first woman to hold this role. After the change of government she became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. 

Since 2016, Penny has served as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Penny lives in Adelaide with her partner and their two daughters.