James Arvanitakis

Professor James Arvanitakis is the Director of the Forrest Research Foundation which brings together the five Western Australian-based universities to attract world class early career researchers to the state, link with government and industry and confront the world’s grand challenges. He is an award-winning educator, cultural researcher, and media commentator. James is a Fulbright alumnus, having spent 12 months at the University of Wyoming. In 2021, he was appointed the inaugural Patron of Diversity Arts Australia and founded Respectful Disagreements, a brave spaces project. He sits on various boards including the Perth Festival, he is an Adjunct Professor at both the Institute for Culture and Society (at Western Sydney University) and Curtin University.

Daniel Baldino

Associate Professor Daniel Baldino is a political scientist specialising in Australian foreign, defence and security policy including counter-terrorism, intelligence studies and government and politics of the Indo-Pacific at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle.

In 2000, he was a Research Associate at the Library of Congress, Washington DC. In 2009 he was a visiting scholar within the Security and Governance Program, East-West Center, Hawaii, USA. In 2015, he was a visiting scholar at The Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, University of Carleton, Ottawa. He has also provided education and professional development programs at the University of Fiji.

He has produced numerous books and articles. His edited book (with Langlois, A and Carr, A) Controversies in Australian Foreign Policy: the core debates, published by Oxford University Press, was the winner of the Australian Institute of International Affairs' inaugural publication grant.

He is currently the Western Australian chapter convener for Australian Institute for Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO), and an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region as well as the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism.

Bruce Cheesman

Bruce Cheesman’s career in journalism spanned more than 35 years, including spells on Fleet Street and more than 25 years as a staff and war correspondent in South-east and North-east Asia. He was a staff correspondent on papers such as the Daily Telegraph in the UK, South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Business Times, Singapore, and Australian Financial Review. In total, he reported from more than 40 countries, working for more than 50 publications worldwide, either as a staff correspondent or freelance, including The West Australian.

Mandy Downing

Associate Professor Mandy Downing is identified through maternal lineage to the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people of the Lerrumugudu (Roebourne) area. However, as the granddaughter of a Stolen Generation survivor, she was raised off-Country on Wadjuk Noongar Boodjar. Mandy is the Dean of Indigenous Futures, responsible for ensuring Australia’s Indigenous futures across the nation’s culture and economy are supported and considered in the learning, research, and partnership activities of the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. Mandy is an applied scientist in Indigenous Australian research with research interests in institutional racism and the first Aboriginal person appointed as a Dean in the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. Nationally, Mandy is the Senior Indigenous Facilitator for the National Environmental Science Program Sustainable Communities and Waste Research Hub and is the Co-Chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies National Research Ethics Committee. In the community, Mandy co-designed an emerging leadership program through the Western Australian Aboriginal Leadership Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and has voluntarily facilitated this since its inception in 2019. Associate Professor Mandy Downing is a 2023 inductee into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame for her contributions to education for more than 20 years.

Martin Drum

Professor Drum is the Executive Dean for the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, Business and Law and Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Notre Dame Australia.

He has taught and researched on a range of issues including public policy, voting, elections, and Australian politics. He has also supervised Higher Degree by Research students in these areas. He has previously held senior roles at the University, including Chief-of-Staff and Director of Public Policy.

He has collaborated with the following WA State Government agencies: Western Australian Electoral Commission, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Education, and Public Sector Commission. He has also partnered with the City of Fremantle and Shire of Christmas Island on various projects.

He has been a WA Convenor of the Electoral Regulation Research Network since 2017 and is a member of Australasian Studies of Parliament Group.

He has participated in a range of Commonwealth and Western Australian parliamentary government inquiries, including 2016 and 2019 Federal Elections (Cwth), 2017 WA State election (WA), Governance on Christmas Island (Cwth), Foreign Donations to political parties (Cwth), Lowering the Voting Age (Cwth), WA Local Government Act (WA). He also participated in the parliamentary inquiry into Political Donations in 2020 (WA).

Professor Drum was appointed to the Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform in 2021. Its recommendations led to the reform of the voting system for the Legislative Council in Western Australia.

Alan Fenna

Alan Fenna is Professor of Politics at the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy, Curtin University. He specialises in Australian and comparative federalism and public policy and has authored or co-authored a range of book chapters and journal articles on those subjects. He has worked in the Federal Affairs Division of the WA Department of Premier and Cabinet; was an elected member of local government; and served as President of the Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) 2009–2010. Professor Fenna’s recent books are: Comparative Federalism: a systematic inquiry, 2nd edn (2015); Interrogating Public Policy Theory: a political values perspective (2019); Australian Government and Politics (2021); Climate Governance and Federalism: a Forum of Federations comparative policy analysis (2023); and, most recently, The Constitution of Western Australia: an exploration (2023).

Dr Kelly Gerard

Dr Kelly Gerard is Senior Lecturer and Discipline Chair of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia. Her research focuses on the political economy of aid and development policymaking. Kelly was an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award fellow and an Endeavour Cheung Kong Award recipient, and in 2017 she delivered the conference keynote for the ASEAN Forum. She is co-editor of the series, Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy (Palgrave).