Business Skills - Media - Public finance & fiscal policy

Percy Allan is a public policy economist and visiting professor at UTS. In 1996 Percy was awarded an Order of Australia for his contribution to public sector reform while he was Secretary (Head) of the NSW Treasury. These included adopted modern accounting and budgetary processes, the corporatisation of state trading enterprises, and the conceiving of IPART. From 1999 to 2007 he chaired the NSW Premier’s Council on the Cost and Quality of Government that reviewed 25 state government departments. Between 2018 and 2022 Percy chaired and coordinated the Evidence-Based Policy Research Project that benchmarked the quality of 100 federal and state government bills which helped persuade the NSW Upper House to adopt a Statement of Public Interest for all Bills.

Hazel Bateman is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) and a Professor of Economics in the UNSW School of Risk and Actuarial Studies. She is the inaugural President of the International Pension Research Association (IPRA). Hazel Bateman researches consumer financial decision making especially as it relates to retirement accumulation and decumulation. In particular, her work focuses on interventions to facilitate better retirement financial decisions; retirement product design in Australia and China; and the taxation and regulation of pension and superannuation funds. Hazel Bateman is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has been Chief Investigator on over a dozen ARC funded projects. Hazel has consulted on retirement income issues to international organisations including the OECD, the World Bank, the Social Insurance Administration (China) and the Korean Institute of Health and Social Affairs. She is a member of Netspar’s Scientific Council, the Steering Committee of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index and the China Ageing Finance Forum. She is an editor of the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, and serves on the editorial board of the Economic Record..

arolyn Currie is a member of the Association of Certified Practising Accountants, the Chartered Secretaries Association, and a Fellow of FINSIA, a merger of the Australian Institute of Banking and Finance and the Securities Institute. Her qualifications include: an Honours Degree in Economics from Sydney University, a Bachelor of Commerce (Pass with Merit), a Master of Commerce (Honours) from the University of NSW, a Master of Forensic Accounting from the University of Wollongong and a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney; in financial markets regulation, financial systems crises and financial institutions management. Dr Currie’s experience represents almost four decades in the public and private sector, as a merchant banker, regulator, internal auditor and financial trainer.

Professor Alan Duncan is Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University. Prior to taking on the role of BCEC Director, Alan was Director of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) and before that, Head of the University of Nottingham\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s School of Economics.\\\\\\\\r\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\r\\\\\\\\nAlan’s research is motivated by a passion to influence public debates on economic and social issues through rigorous, evidence-based research. He ranks among the top 5% of economists worldwide, having published widely in both academic and policy outlets of the highest international reputation on topics covering labour and workforce issues, gender equity, economic evaluation, public policy, childcare, housing, migration, poverty and wellbeing.\\\\\\\\r\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\r\\\\\\\\nAlan completed a DPhil in Economics at the University of York. He has served on senior advisory panels and boards for government and public sector organisations in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the US, and has given evidence at numerous Federal Senate Committee inquiries, advising on areas including tax policy, pensions, labour markets and household welfare. He has served as instructor to World Bank country experts on policy evaluation, and was recently invited by the International Monetary Fund to serve as a Mission Expert to the People’s Republic of China Technical Assistance mission on tax reform and employment incentives.\\\\\\\\r\\\\\\\\n\\\\\\\\r\\\\\\\\nAlan was awarded the prestigious Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society in 2000 for the best paper to be published in the world-leading journal, Econometrica. He was appointed John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University in 2020 in recognition of his research scholarship and sustained contribution to Curtin and the wider community.

David Gilchrist is a chartered accountant and holds a PhD in economic history from the University of Notre Dame Australia. He is currently professor of accounting and convenor of the Not-for-profits UWA Research Group at the University of Western Australia where he is also chief investigator and convenor of the Australian Non-profit Accounting Standards Project. David is a member of the Australian Accounting Standards Board Academic Advisory Panel. Previously, he held the role of Assistant Auditor General in Western Australia and, prior to that, he taught accounting and finance at the London School of Economics and Portsmouth University in the UK as well as at Curtin University, Notre Dame Australia and Edith Cowan University in Australia. He was Foundation Director of the Curtin Not-for-profit Initiative for five years, is currently a Visiting Professor and Research Chief Investigator in NFP Studies at the NFPO Research Centre, Hebei GEO University, Peoples’ Republic of China and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Accounting, Airlangga University, Indonesia. David has undertaken significant research related to sustainability and the NDIS. Amongst other things, he was author of several reports presenting the results of a longitudinal study focusing on NDIS sustainability for disability service providers and published many articles related to this area including the NDIS White Paper “Six Years and Counting: The Australian Disability System and the NDIS” and various green papers on that subject. David was appointed a Fellow of the Western Australian Parliament in 2021.