Hon. Anthony Albanese MP
Leader of the Opposition
Anthony has represented the Inner West of Sydney as the Federal Member for Grayndler since 1996.
Following the election of the Federal Labor Government in November 2007, he became the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, and Leader of the House of Representatives.
In 2010, Anthony was named Aviation Minister of the Year for producing Australia’s first ever Aviation White Paper. In 2012, he was named Infrastructure Minister of the Year by London-based publication Infrastructure Investor.
In June 2013, Anthony became Deputy Prime Minister, and also took on additional responsibility as Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
In July 2016 he was re-elected as the Member for Grayndler and appointed the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development and the Shadow Minister for Tourism.
On 30 May 2019, Anthony was elected unopposed as Leader of the Australian Labor Party.
Hon. Bruce Baird AM
Chairman | Tourism & Transport Forum
Bruce Baird’s professional career has spanned the Australian Trade Commission service and the NSW and Federal Parliaments. He was a Federal member for Cook for nine years and during that time he was Chairman of both the Trade Committee and the House Standing Committee on Economics. He previously held roles as NSW Minister for Transport, Tourism, Roads and Minister for Sydney’s Olympic Bid. Prior to this he was Australia’s Assistant Trade Commissioner in Germany and Trade Commissioner in New York. Prior Board positions include Chair of the National Rail Corporation, Chair of the Tourism and Transport Forum, Chair of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and Board Member of Sydney Theatre Company.
Bruce is currently Chair of BE Sydney, Trustee of Sydney Opera House, Chair of Advisory Board of Screen Producers Australia, Chair of Kamay Project, Heart Research Institute Board and Member of International Advisory Board of Cubic Transportation Systems.
Phil Coorey
Political Editor
Phillip Coorey is joined the Canberra press gallery in 1998 as the Chief Political Correspondent with Adelaide’s The Advertiser. He spent 2003 and 2004 in the US as News Ltd New York correspondent and covered the 2004 US primaries and presidential election. He was appointed Political Editor of The Advertiser upon his return to the press gallery in 2005. Coorey joined the Sydney Morning Herald in 2006 and was the paper’s Chief Political Correspondent until late 2012 when joined Australian Financial Review. He is the paper’s Political Editor. He won the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence in 2012 and 2013.
Hon. Paul Fletcher MP
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts
Paul Fletcher is the federal MP for Bradfield, in northern Sydney, and the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts in the Morrison Government. He entered parliament in December 2009, became a Parliamentary Secretary in 2013 and a Minister in 2015, and was appointed to his present role in December 2020. Before entering parliament, Paul was Director, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, at Optus for eight years. Earlier in his career, he was chief of staff to the Minister for Communications in the Howard Government, senator Richard Alston.
Paul has degrees in law and economics from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Columbia University, New York, where he was a Fulbright scholar
Antony Green
Chief Election Analyst, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Antony Green is well known as Australia’s leading Election analyst and has been the face of ABC elections for three decades.
Antony has worked for the ABC on more than 90 federal, state and territory elections. He also designed the computer system used by the ABC to cover elections and is responsible for the ABC’s authoritative on-line election guides.
As well as Australian elections, Antony has travelled overseas to cover and observe elections in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Antony produces regular publications on electoral matters for Australian parliamentary libraries and contributes to parliamentary reviews of electoral laws. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.
Laura Jayes
Anchor of AM Agenda, Sky News
Laura Jayes is Political Reporter at Sky News Australia and anchor of morning political program AM Agenda, weekdays at 9am.
Each weekday morning, Laura Jayes delivers unrivalled breaking political news, the day’s top stories and national affairs coverage to Sky News viewers across the country.
Laura joined Sky News in 2006 before being appointed Brisbane Reporter. In 2011 she moved to Canberra to take on the role of Political Reporter before returning to Sydney in 2014.
In January 2016 Laura joined the Sky News primetime line-up as anchor of The Latest with Laura Jayes. Following this, Laura took on the role of anchor of NewsDay before moving to Sky News Australia’s flagship breakfast program First Edition with Peter Stefanovic.
A leading political journalist, Laura has covered the 2012 and 2013 Labor Leader leadership challenges, 2015 Liberal leadership challenge, the 2018 Liberal leadership spill and three Federal Elections.
She has also reported on Brexit live from London, the Queensland floods, the war in Afghanistan from Kabul, Kandahar and Tarin Kowt and Donald Trumps’ election win and inauguration in Washington. She is one of the only journalists to be granted access to Nauru to report on the fate of asylum seekers.
In 2016 Laura was the recipient of a team Walkley Award and Logie Award for the 2016 Sky News Federal Election coverage. In 2018, Laura was also part of the Sky News political team entry that won an AACTA Award for the coverage of the 2018 Liberal leadership spill, in the subscription television award category for best live event production.
Hon. Richard Marles MP
Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for National Reconstruction, Employment, Skills and Small Business
Richard Marles is currently the Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for National Reconstruction, Employment, Skills and Small Business, Shadow Minister for Science, and the Federal Member for Corio.
Richard’s previous appointments include Shadow Minister for Defence, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Minister of Trade, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry, and Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Affairs.
Campbell Newman AO
Chairman, Senate Candidate, Former Politician
Campbell Newman, AO is the Liberal Democrats Senate Candidate for Queensland.
When he isn’t campaigning he is the Chairman of Arcana Capital, syndicating commercial property investment opportunities for sophisticated investors, a Director & adviser to a number of start-up technology companies and a regular commentator on SkyNews Australia.
He previously held the role of Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 2004 to 2011 and Premier of Queensland from 2012 to 2015 and was involved in the conception and delivery of major infrastructure projects.
Before politics, Campbell worked for six years as an executive for Grainco Australia in the grain storage, handling and logistics industry and also for four years as a management consultant.
He also spent 13 years in the Australian Army and served as an officer in the Royal Australian Engineers.
BE Hons (UNSW), MBA Financial Management (UQ), Graduate of RMC Duntroon. FIE Aust.
Margy Osmond
Chief Executive Officer | Tourism & Transport Forum
Margy Osmond is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism & Transport Forum, assuming the role on 1 October 2014. Margy has extensive experience in policy development and advocacy, politics, membership organisations, management, media and public relations.
Before joining TTF, Margy was the inaugural CEO of ANRA which was established in 2006 as a lobby and research organisation to be the voice of the large national retailers in Australia. Prior to this, Margy was the CEO of the State and Sydney Chambers of Commerce in NSW for five years.
Margy has a wide range of Board experience having been Chair of the NSW TAFE Commission Board and Chair of the Australian Sports Foundation, Deputy Chair of Tourism NSW, and served on the boards of the Australian Sports Commission, Bell Shakespeare, the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, NSW Major Events, the NSW Police Minister’s Advisory Board and NSW State Transit Authority. Margy also chaired the bid and official Organising Committee for the largest non-elite sporting event in the world, the International World Masters Games, held in Sydney in 2009
Hon. Stuart Robert MP
Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business
Stuart Robert has been the Federal Member for the northern Gold Coast seat of Fadden since November 2007. He is a passionate advocate for the northern Gold Coast in Canberra, working hard to influence the decisions affecting local residents in the community.
In March 2021, Stuart was appointed Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business. In this role, Stuart is working to continue Australia’s economic recovery through protecting jobs, connecting Australians with work and building a workforce with the right skill set to secure our future prosperity.
He has a particular focus on increasing workforce participation for women, ensuring there is an environment for small and family business to thrive, and building a care workforce to support our veterans, our childcare centres, provide services for people with disability and our aged care sector.
Since entering public life Stuart has held a number of Ministerial appointments, including Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Human Services, Assistant Minister for Defence, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC.
Following the May 2019 election, Stuart took on responsibility for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and services such as Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, provided to Australians by Services Australia, the executive agency established under his leadership, formally known as the Department of Human Services.
As Minister for Government Services, Stuart led the Federal Government’s efforts to provide social supports to millions of Australians throughout the Black Summer bushfires, several major flooding events and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of the greatest need of government supports since the Great Depression, Stuart ensured the government services Australians relied upon were provided in a timely and respectful manner. As a result of his leadership, the crisis call wait times reduced, even as demand was at unprecedent levels. Over 3 years’ worth of government supports were processed within five weeks.
As Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Stuart continued the delivery of the most significant social reform since Medicare through rolling-out the NDIS. This included completing the national roll-out and improving scheme delivery, which saw the National Disability Insurance Agency provide supports to NDIS participants faster while also ensuring the scheme expanded to cover over 430,000 Australians – with thousands receiving supports for the very first time. Through his time as Minister, satisfaction with the NDIS remained very-high among NDIS participants.
Dave Sharma MP
Member for Wentworth
Dave was elected to the Australian Parliament for the seat of Wentworth, in eastern Sydney, in May 2019 as a candidate of the Liberal Party. Prior to politics, Dave enjoyed an extensive and distinguished career as an Australian diplomat.
Dave joined Australia’s diplomatic service in 1999 and served in Papua New Guinea, Washington DC and Israel. Dave served with the Australian-led peacekeeping force in Bougainville in 2000, for which he was awarded the Australian Service Medal. From 2001 to 2003 Dave was stationed in Papua New Guinea, helping to negotiate an end to the civil war in Bougainville. On his return to Australia, he worked as the legal and multilateral adviser to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
From 2006 to 2009, Dave served as the political counselor at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, where he worked to coordinate and align policies with the US Administration on important challenges in East Asia and the Middle East.
From 2010 to 2012, Dave headed the International Division in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in Canberra, helping spearhead the Prime Minister’s diplomatic effort across the breadth of Australian interests.
From 2013 to 2017, Dave served as Australia’s Ambassador to Israel, helping strengthen the relationship in the defence and technology sectors and ensuring strong Australian support for Israel in international forums.
Dave is Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, and Chair of the Foreign Affairs and Aid Subcommittee.
David Speers
Host of Insiders, ABC
David Speers is the host of “Insiders”, the ABC’s flagship political program, where he interviews leading political figures and explores the big issues each week with an expert panel. David also writes political analysis each week for ABC news online, appears across TV and radio platforms and is a regular host of Q&A.
He joined the ABC in 2020 after 19 years as the Political Editor of Sky News Australia.
David has won two individual Walkley Awards for interviewing, along with a number of other Walkley, Logie and Kennedy Awards for his journalism. He has also won the Press Gallery Journalist of the Year Award.
David spent 20 years working from the Canberra Press Gallery, serving 3 years as Gallery President and 15 years on the board of the National Press Club.
Tim Wilson MP
Federal Liberal Member for Goldstein
Tim Wilson is the Federal Liberal Member for Goldstein, and Assistant Minister to the Minister for Industry, Environment and Emissions Reduction and is the author of The New Social Contract: Renewing the Liberal Vision for Australia. He previously served as Chair of the House Economics Committee and Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner. He has postgraduate qualifications in Energy and Carbon Management from Murdoch and a Masters of Diplomacy and Trade from Monash, as well as a Bachelor of Arts.
Trent Zimmerman MP
Federal Member for North Sydney
Trent Zimmerman is the Member for North Sydney in the Australian Parliament. He was first elected to Parliament in a by-election on 5 December 2015 and re-elected at the 2016 and 2019 general elections.
Trent is the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport. He is also a member of the House Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy, the House Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts and the House Privileges Committee. He is Convenor of the Coalition Friends of Tourism, Co-Convenor of several bipartisan Parliamentary Friendship Groups including Amnesty International, the SBS, Rare Diseases and the Australian Catholic University. He has also been Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Armenia and Argentina.
