Panel 1. Green new deal — what changes do we need to make?
Cheryl Buchanan
Chair of the Kooma Traditional Owners Association, Cheryl Buchanan from Queensland. Recently appointed to the Murray Darling Community Committee, Cheryl has a long and distinguished history in Aboriginal affairs. She was 2005 NAIDOC person of the year and is currently devoting her considerably energy to looking after Kooma traditional lands centred on Murra Murra in south west Queensland.
Lin Hatfield Dodds
Lin Hatfield Dodds is the National Director of UnitingCare Australia and former President of the Australian Council of Social Service. She has worked as a psychologist in government and community settings including on drug rehabilitation and with young people at risk, taking a particular interest in trauma and abuse. She has also advised federal and state governments on health, health ethics and community services.
Iain McGill
Iain McGill, Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales, and Joint Director (Engineering) for the University’s Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM). His teaching and research interests include electricity industry restructuring, the Australian National Electricity Market, and sustainable energy technologies with a particular focus on wind power, energy policy and environmental regulation.
Dean Mighell
Dean Mighell has been State Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (Victorian Branch) since 1995 and is also National Vice President of the CEPU Electrical Division and on the Victorian Trades Hall Executive. He started out as an apprentice electrician in 1979 and became the youngest ever full-time organiser with the ETU in 1988. He is a member of the ACTU Environment Committee and the Victorian Building Industry Consultative Council.
Georgia Miller
Georgia Miller from Tasmania, coordinator of the Friends of the Earth Australia Nanotechnology Project since 2005. She has been engaged in environment and social change campaigns since the mid-1990s, including in relation to genetically modified organisms. She is particularly interested in supporting greater funding for public interest science and in making technology more responsive to social and environmental needs.
Mark Lister
Mark Lister is the Interim CEO of the newly formed Australian Alliance to Save Energy (www.a2se.org.au), a cross-sectoral alliance designed to globalise, mainstream and raise the profile of energy efficiency in the climate change debate. He also acts as Group Manager Corporate Affairs with Szencorp, which specialises in energy and water efficiency in buildings and renewable energy technologies. The company is a leader in retrofitting commercial buildings and is the owner and developer of Australia’s highest rated green building at 40 Albert Road, South Melbourne. Through contribution to industry and government policy development processes, Mark is active in advocating for takeup of energy efficiency to local, State and Federal Governments. Mark’s diverse work in public and private sectors, spanning banking, policy design and advice, international aid, communications and marketing has given him broad experience across sustainability, finance and energy policy issues. As well as being involved in establishing the Australian Alliance to Save Energy, Mark is Vice President of the Alternative Technology Association, a foundation committee member of Safe Climate Australia and a representative on the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. Mark holds an economics degree and a Master’s degree in social science majoring in environmental policy. (Mark has kindly stepped in to replace Peter Szental who is unable to attend.)
Moderator. Amanda Lohrey
Essayist and novelist Amanda Lohrey will moderate the panel debates. She has written five novels, most recently a novella, Vertigo, published by Black Inc in 2009. Her essays include Groundswell, The Rise of the Greens (Quarterly Essay 8, 2002) and Voting for Jesus, Christianity and Politics in Australia(Quarterly Essay 22, 2006) both published by Black Inc. She is currently a Senior Fellow of the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
