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Welfare Working Group Forum
Speaker Profiles: A-M (by last name)

Please note not all speaker profiles were available at the time of publication.

 

 

Willem AdemaWillem Adema
Senior Economist for the Social Policy Division, OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour & Social Affairs
(The Netherlands)

Mr Adema leads a team of analysts of Family and Children policies in OECD countries and is responsible for several key online OECD resources including Family database and Social Expenditure database.

He has also written extensively on labour market, fiscal and welfare policy issues and was former Head of Asian Social and Health Outreach working with the Joint OECD/Korea Regional Centre for Health and Social policy in Seoul. Willem is a graduate of Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam, and has a doctorate from St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.

Paul AndersonPaul Anderson
National Manager, Health & Safety, KiwiRail (New Zealand)

Mr Anderson provides strategic direction, leadership and health, safety and employment (HSE) and technical advice and assistance to KiwiRail business units.

His position has responsibility for freight, passenger, mechanical and network units within New Zealand's train services.

He manages ACC requirements for Workplace Safety Management Practices and ACC Partnership Plan at tertiary level and develops, delivers and manages HSE external training and internal e-learning modules.

Dr. John AngusDr John Angus
Children's Commissioner (New Zealand)

Mr Angus was appointed Children's Commissioner in April 2009. He began his career as a historian after obtaining a doctorate in history from Otago University in 1977. After 10 years as a social worker in Dunedin, he moved to Wellington and into social policy.

From 1987 until 2006 he worked for the Ministry of Social Development as a social policy manager and principal advisor.

Innes AsherProf. Innes Asher ONZM
University of Auckland Department of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health (New Zealand)

Prof. Asher, FRACP 1979, has worked in paediatrics for 35 years, currently as respiratory paediatrician at Starship Hospital in Auckland.

She was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Paediatrics in 2003 and received the HRC Liley Medal for her research leadership, as the long-term head of The International Study Of asthma and Allergies in Childhood in 2007.

She is also on the Management Committee of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

Dr. Rick BovenDr. Rick Boven
Director, New Zealand Institute (New Zealand)

Dr. Boven has been a strategic management consultant for the past 25 years and has publications in Social Welfare, the Sociology of Education, Strategic Management, Business Ethics and Mathematical Psychology.

He has worked with leading companies in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A in a wide range of industries.

He has a Ph.D. in Environment Management from the University of Auckland, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Australian Graduate School of Management, as well as a Master of Arts (Psychology) degree from Victoria University of Wellington. Dr. Boven is an accredited fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Sue BradfordSue Bradford
(New Zealand)

Ms Bradford is a community activist with a long term commitment to improving the situation for unemployed people and beneficiaries in Aotearoa New Zealand. She was the Green Party Member of Parliament (MP) with responsibility for welfare, employment, housing and ACC (among other portfolios) from 1999–2009, and was a member of the Social Services Select Committee for the ten years she was in Parliament.

Before becoming an MP, she worked with the Auckland Unemployed Workers' Rights Centre and Auckland Peoples Centres from 1983–1999, including a period as national coordinator of Te Roopu Rawakore o Aotearoa (national unemployed and beneficiaries' movement) from 1987–1990.

Dr. David Bratt
Principal Health Advisor to the Ministry of Social Development (New Zealand)

An Otago Medical School graduate who always had a "health" focus rather than a "disease" focus and therefore naturally quickly tracked into General Practice – in the days when GPs were heavily involved in obstetrics. During this time Dr. Bratt was involved in training GP Registrars and also teaching Medical Students through the Wellington Clinical School.

After 30 years of enjoyable delivery of individual services in Newtown, Wellington he moved to a new challenge – improving the delivery of secondary and tertiary services – developing the role of GP Liaison and Primary care Advisor with Capital and Coast DHB.

5 years on the opportunity to look at system improvement and the wider determinants of health with the newly established position of Health Advisor to the Ministry of Social Development was too good to pass up.

He was a member of the working group on the Health Benefits paper – representing the RNZCGP and the Ministry.

Kay Brereton
Advocacy Coordinator, Wellington People's Centre (New Zealand)

Ms Brereton has extensive experience in advocating for beneficiaries to receive their full and correct entitlements. She brings grassroots knowledge of the benefit system, and the experiences of beneficiaries.

Jessica BrownJessica Brown
Policy Analyst, Centre for Independent Studies New South Wales (Australia)

Ms Brown is a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies, Australasia’s leading public policy think-tank.  Her research at the CIS focuses on family policy and government payments to families, welfare payments and welfare reform. She has published research on paid parental leave, jobless families, ‘welfare-to-work,’ and disability benefits, and comments regularly in the media on family, welfare and social policy issues.  

She holds a BA (Hons.) in Political Science from the University of Melbourne and is currently completing a Master of International Studies at the University of Sydney.

Graham CartersGraham Carters
Deputy Secretary, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (Australia)

Mr Carters is currently leading a multi-agency Taskforce, operating out of Australia’s Department of Human Services to look at ways to enable Centrelink to assist job-ready job seekers into employment as quickly as possible.

Prior to Mr Carters' secondment to the taskforce, he developed policies and strategies to improve employment services and increase workforce participation in Australia. This included managing labour market research and evaluation and policy formulation and advice. He also developed and implemented strategies to increase social inclusion and to increase labour supply and employer demand for priority groups such as people with disabilities, jobless families, the long term unemployed and Indigenous Australians. 

Hon. David CaygillHon. David Caygill
Chair, ACC Stocktake Group Associate member, Commerce Commission Chair, Electricity Commission (New Zealand)

Hon. Caygill is a former Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. After 25 years in elected politics (in local and central government) he retired from Parliament in 1996 and returned to his former profession as a lawyer.  He has held a number of governance roles including Chair of the ACC and Deputy Chair of the Commerce Commission. 

Mr Caygill currently chairs the Education New Zealand Trust and the Advisory Committee on Official Statistics. As Chair of the Electricity Commission, he has also been appointed as an Associate Member of the Commerce Commission and a Board Member of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. He is also chair of the Stocktake of ACC Accounts and a member of the 2025 Productivity Taskforce.

Prof. Deborah Coob-ClarkProf. Deborah Cobb-Clark
Director, Melbourne Institute (Australia)

Prof. Cobb-Clark’s research centres on the effect of social policy on labour market outcomes including immigration, sexual and racial harassment, health, old-age support, education and youth transitions. She currently leads the innovative Youth in Focus Project which analyses the pathways through which social and economic disadvantage is transmitted from parents to children in Australia. She is also Ronald Henderson Professor at the University of Melbourne and is the founding director of The Social Policy Evaluation, Analysis and Research (SPEAR) Centre, and has been Associate Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU.

Prof. Cobb-Clark holds a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan, USA. She is an elected fellow of the Academy of Social Science in Australia.

Denise CosgroveDenise Cosgrove
General Manager, People and Business Services, ACC
(New Zealand)

The General Manager, People and Business Services is responsible for the effective deployment and ongoing development of staff within ACC. This role is also responsible for marketing and communications and ACC’s legal function.

Ms Cosgrove took up this position in June 2006. She has held senior management positions for the past 13 years, primarily in human resources development but also in organisational management, strategy, and planning and communications. Before joining ACC, she was the Assistant Auditor-General, Strategy, at the Office of the Auditor-General.

Colleen Fakalogotoa
Chief Executive Officer, Family Start Manukau (New Zealand)

Ms Fakalogotoa is CEO of Family Start Manukau (FSM), and helped set it up five years ago. Family Start Manukau provides the Family Start Programme.  She is also a registered nurse with a strong nursing background. Ms Fakalogotoa started work in the community in 1978 as a Plunket Nurse and has worked in the early intervention, prevention & Well Child fields, holding various leadership positions in nurse advisory and management.

She has also worked as a senior nurse and manager within the South Auckland community and went on to become the General Manager of Operations for the Royal Plunket New Zealand Society. 

Taima FagaloaCr. Taima Fagaloa
Director for Pacific Health, Capital and Coast District Health Board. City Councillor, Porirua City. (New Zealand)

Tagaloa Taima Fagaloa is one of only two female Pacific Island city councillors in New Zealand.

She is active in providing services to a range of Boards and Advisory Groups within the area of Pacific peoples and is the current Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group, Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs.

In 2008 Ms Fagaloa graduated with an MA Applied in Social Science Research from Victoria University, where thesis focussed on the relevance of health promotion programmes for Pacific communities.

Michael FletcherMichael Fletcher
Independent public policy analyst and economic researcher (New Zealand)

Mr Fletcher has more than twenty years of experience as a researcher and analyst, working mostly on social policy, labour market and immigration issues.

He has worked in the Ministry of Social Development on child poverty issues and on the Working for Families reforms and as Group Manager, Policy and Research for the Families Commission.

He also worked for 10 years in the Labour Market Policy Group of the Department of Labour. He is co-author of A fair go for all children: Actions to address child poverty in New Zealand, published by the Children's Commissioner and Barnardos in August 2008. In 2009 he worked on contract for the New Zealand Treasury on a report relating to Sickness and Invalid's Benefit receipt.

Norman GemmellDr. Norman Gemmell
Chief Economist at The Treasury (New Zealand)

Dr. Gemmell is Chief Economist at The New Zealand Treasury, advising the Chief Executive and Deputy CEs on key economic policy issues.

Dr. Gemmell  was initially appointed as Principal Adviser (Tax), in August 2007 to advise on medium-term reform options for New Zealand’s tax structure.

He has spent most of his career as an academic economist, most recently as Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham in the UK, and previously at the Australian National University, Canberra.

From 2003-2006 he was an Assistant Director in the UK Inland Revenue’s Research Department, advising IR and HM Treasury on tax issues. His research interests are mainly in the areas of public finance and economic growth. He has published several books and numerous journal articles in these areas including the recent Modelling Tax Revenue Growth (with John Creedy; Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006) and articles in the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Public Economics.

Jennifer GillJennifer Gill
Chief Executive Officer, ASB Community Trust
(New Zealand)

Ms Gill is the CEO of the ASB Community Trust. Prior to this she had a career in the voluntary sector working for CORSO, Presbyterian Support, JR McKenzie Trust and the YWCA. She was the CEO of Fulbright New Zealand from 1994 until 2004.

She has served on numerous non-profit, philanthropic and educational committees and boards at a community, national and international level.

Mike GourleyMike Gourley
Broadcaster, advocate and researcher on Health and Disability (New Zealand)

Mr Gourley is currently the producer and presenter of Radio New Zealand's weekly disability issues series, One in Five. Prior to this he was Senior Advisor for Disabilities with Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC). Mr Gourley was also involved with the disability issues TV series, Inside Out. His experience with both radio and TV broadcasting saw him win a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Heath Journalism in 2001.

Mr Gourley holds a Diploma in Tertiary Teaching, and has completed several papers at Canterbury, Victoria and Massey Universities. He has lectured on Disability Studies at the Wellington College of Education, as well as served as an EEO Consultant to Wellington City Council. He also set up and taught the first ever Wellington TOP's course for mental health consumers.

Mr Gourley is the immediate past President of the Disabled Persons Assembly. His research interests revolve around Health and Disability (including mental health), employment, broadcasting and media, and sports and recreation.

Prof. Paul Gregg
Professor of Economics, University of Bristol (United Kingdom)

Prof. Paul Gregg has had more hands-on experience of his subject matter than most labour market experts. As a young man during the recession of the early 1980s, he spent long spells out of work, punctuated by temporary jobs in Luton's ailing factories.

At the age of 22, with two stints of long-term unemployment behind him, Prof. Gregg studied economics. Almost 30 years on, he is regarded as a leading thinker in his field. He helped design the UK's New Deal welfare-to-work programme, and was heavily involved in creating its successor, the Flexible New Deal (FND).

Prof. Bob GregoryProf. Bob Gregory
Economist, Australian National University (Australia)

Prof. Gregory has been closely involved in the analysis and development of Australian economic policy. He has been a member of the Board of Management at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, principal consultant in a series of government Aged Care Reviews, member of the committee that recommended the introduction of student income contingent loans and member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia and of Australian Sciences and Technology Council.

Prof. Gregory has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne. He is Professor Emeritus at the ANU, Professorial Fellow at Victoria University and Adjunct Professor, Queensland University of Technology. He has held positions at varies international universities.

David HannaDavid Hanna
Director, Wesley Community Action (New Zealand)

Mr Hanna has worked as a national Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) youth director, a policy manager in Central Government, a consultant on youth development and a trainer in policy analysis.

Key themes across his activities are bicultural / Treaty of Waitangi perspectives, systems / holistic action / thinking, positive child and youth development and grounding what we do in an authentic spirituality.

Sonia Hawea
Chief Executive, Taikura Trust (New Zealand)

Taikura Trust is a charitable trust contracted by the Ministry of Health to provide eligibility screening, assessment, service co-ordination and budget management for disabled people under 65 years old living in the greater Auckland region. Taikura Trust supports over 12,000 people. Ms Hawea joined the Trust not long after its inception in 2002. She came from policy and regional development roles with Te Puni Kokiri, and prior to that she worked as a researcher on Treaty matters and health issues.

Prof. Emeritus Gary HawkeEmeritus Prof. Gary Hawke
Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)

Prof. Hawke retired as Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History in 2008. He was a visiting fellow at universities across the globe. He was Tawney Lecturer for the Economic History Society in the UK in 1978. In 1998 he was awarded the NZIER-Qantas Prize in Economics.

He has consulted for government on education policy, social science capabilities and retirement policy, and currently chairs an Experts Advisory Group on Tertiary Education ReforMs He has had a long association with the New Zealand Committee of the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council and currently chairs its board. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Distinguished Fellow of the NZ Association of Economists and Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand.

Simon HullSimon Hull
Managing Director, Allied Work Force (New Zealand)

Mr Hull founded Allied Work Force in 1988 and has been its Managing Director for the past 22 years. He has extensive knowledge of the on-hire labour market and has been instrumental in growing the Allied Work Force business from its small beginning to its current market leading position.

While he continues to work on developing and improving operational performance he is also focussed on identifying strategic growth opportunities for the Group.

Before founding Allied Work Force, Mr Hull was involved in farming, horticulture and small business management.

Dean HyslopProf. Dean Hyslop
Professor of Econometrics, School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University (New Zealand)

Prof. Hyslop is has previously held positions at UCLA, the Treasury and the Reserve Bank, and visiting research positions at UC Berkeley and the University of Melbourne.

His distinctions include being the co-recipient of the Econometric Society's 2008 Frisch medal, given biennially to an applied paper published in Econometrica in the previous 5 years. He did his undergraduate study in Mathematics and Economics at Victoria University of Wellington, and has a PhD from Princeton University. His research interests lie in labour economics and applied econometrics, and his current research is mainly focused on Statistics New Zealand's Linked Employer-Employee Database (LEED).

Marge Jackson
Manager, Kites Trust (New Zealand)

Kites Trust is a Wellington based community development organisation whose purpose is to ensure people who experience mental health and addiction problems have equal opportunities as all citizens to live, work and participate in the community.

As the manager of Kites Trust, Ms Jackson is responsible for ensuring Kites remains a well established, sustainable organisation that remains innovative, ethical, collaborative and effective.

Ms Jackson is also a Trust Board member of Refugees as Survivors Wellington and is working toward a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Sector Evaluation Research at Massey University.

Prof. Natalie JacksonProf. Natalie Jackson
Director, Population Studies Centre at the University of Waikato (New Zealand)

Prof. Jackson is Professor of Demography. Her research is focussed on the different drivers and patterns of population ageing unfolding across regional Australia and New Zealand, and their consequences for education, the labour market, government, the welfare state and business in general.

Darren Kemp
Benefit Rights Advocate, Wellington Peoples Centre (New Zealand)

Prior to working as a Benefit Rights Advocate for the Wellington Peoples Centre, Mr Kemp has spent over ten years as a part-time library assistant with the University of Canterbury Physical Sciences Library. He has an Honours degree in Pacific Studies with his primary research interest being Maori religious history.

Mr Kemp has also spent several years as an organiser and activist working in a number of different areas such as peacemaking and civil rights.

Margaret McClureMargaret McClure
Senior Historian, Ministry for Culture and Heritage
(New Zealand)

Ms McClure gained her MLitt from the University of Auckland (1993) for a thesis on 'Perceptions of Work in Late Nineteenth Century New Zealand 1870 – 1900'. In her work as a public historian she has published books and articles on a wide range of topics in the fields of government policy and social and cultural history. Her major works are A Civilised Community: A History of Social Security in New Zealand 1898 – 1998, Auckland University Press, 1998 and The Making of Tourism, Auckland University Press, 2004.

She is currently working as a Senior Historian in the Ministry for Culture and Heritage to write a commissioned history of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (to be published in 2012).

Leo McIntyreLeo McIntyre
Services Manager for Wellink Trust (New Zealand)

Mr McIntyre worked as an apprentice painter and decorator for the New Zealand Post Office and Telecom then retrained to work at the Police National Video Unit in Porirua, where he developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as result of overexposure to forensic video material, forcing him to resign. He returned to the paint industry, working for Resene Paints, and began studying NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), after which he decided to pursue a career in mental health.

Mr McIntyre completed his undergraduate degree in 2002, and in December 2003, began working as the manager of Temp Solutions; while studying part-time for a BA (Hons) in Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, and graduating in May 2006.

He is currently the Chairperson of Balance NZ Bipolar and Depression Network, and a member of the Mental Health Commission's Advisory Group, and works as a Services Manager for Wellink Trust.

Tim MaloneyDr. Tim Maloney
Professor and Discipline Chair of Economics, Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand)

Dr. Maloney's current research focuses on the impacts of literacy programmes in the workplace; class size effects on cognitive achievement; minimum wage impacts in the labour market and evaluating training within the social welfare system.

He has held a number of teaching positions in New Zealand and overseas and has previously served as an Economic Advisor to the New Zealand Treasury, a Researcher at the Institute of Policy Studies in Wellington, and a Visiting Professor at Institute for Research on Poverty and the Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin.

John MartinJohn Martin
OECD Director for Employment, Labour & Social Affairs (Ireland)

Mr Martin, a highly regarded researcher and writer on labour and global economics policy, has worked with the OECD since 1977.

With a Post-Graduate Degree in Economics and experience as a lecturer and research fellow, he is also heavily involved in international research and advocacy including roles as Policy Associate Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy, University of Nottingham; Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA), Bonn and is a part-time Professor at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris.

Donna Matahaere-AtarikiDonna Matahaere-Atariki
Executive Director of Arai Te Uru Whare Hauora
(New Zealand)

Ms Matahaere-Atariki (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Te Atiawa) heads a community-based provider of health and social services. She is a ministerial appointment to the University of Otago Council and the New Zealand Council of Legal Education as well as a trustee of the Southern PHO. She is also a member of the Family Services National Advisory Council and Deputy Chair of the Ministry of Health NGO Working Group.

Her passion is whānau and the quality of outcomes that they receive from their engagement with education and other statutory agencies.

Michael MendelsonMichael Mendelson
Senior Scholar at the Caledon Institute of Social Policy (Canada)

Mr Mendelson is Senior Scholar at the Caledon Institute of Social Policy. Prior to his appointment to the Caledon Institute, he was the Deputy Secretary (Deputy Minister) of Cabinet Office in Ontario. He has served as an Assistant Deputy Minister in Ontario's Ministries of Finance, Community Services and Health. In Manitoba, he was Secretary to Treasury Board and Deputy Minister of Social Services.

Mr Mendelson has been an active participant in several of Canada's major developments in federal-provincial relations, finance and social policy in the last decades. He led Ontario's delegation on 'division of powers' in the Charlottetown Constitutional negotiations. In the federal government's Privy Council's Ministry of State for Social Development, he played a critical role in the development of the Canada Health Act. He was a consultant for the Parliamentary Task Force on Federal-Provincial Fiscal Relations. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto School of Social Work.

Mr Mendelson has published many articles on social and fiscal policy, as well as a book on the issue of universality. Some of his recent articles include: Improving Education on Reserves: A First Nations Education Authority Act (published by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy); Asset-Based Social Programs: A Critical Analysis of Current Initiatives (published by the OECD); Financing the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (published by the American Association of Retired Persons); Measuring Child Benefits: Measuring Child Poverty (published by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy) and Aboriginal People in Canada's Labour Market: Work and Unemployment, Today and Tomorrow (also published by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy).

Michael MillsMichael Mills
Director, Martin Jenkins & Associates Ltd (New Zealand)

Mr Mills is a Director of Martin Jenkins & Associates Ltd, a New Zealand based management consulting firm specialising in public policy.  He has intimate knowledge and first-hand experience of government and parliamentary processes. He has managed major policy reviews and reforms and has particular experience in the areas of regulatory policy and the use of economic tools.

He has also held positions in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, where he advised the Prime Minister on matters related to health, social welfare and ACC and the Wellington Regional Council and the New Zealand Planning Council where he provided secretariat support to the Social and Population Monitoring Groups and co-authored a number of reports for the Social Monitoring Group including from Birth to Death II, and Care and Control.

Lindsay MitchellLindsay Mitchell
Welfare Researcher (New Zealand)

Ms Mitchell is a Wellington based welfare researcher. She regularly provides media commentary, makes parliamentary submissions and her articles appear in various newspapers and other publications. She is also author of Māori and Welfare, a working paper published last year by the New Zealand Business Roundtable.

Dr. Kevin Morris
Clinical Director, ACC (New Zealand)

Dr. Morris has worked for ACC since 1992, rising to Director of Clinical Services in 2006 following his appointment to Corporate Medical Advisor in 1998. He has extensive experience in compensation medicine and is recognised as New Zealand’s foremost authority on impairment evaluation.

Dr. Morris has a background in general practice and obstetrics, occupational medicine, computer science and medical administration. He also has a particular interest in the relationship between health, employment status and compensation systeMs

Before joining ACC, Dr. Morris was a principal in a group general practice, the principal doctor of one of New Zealand’s first after-hours medical clinics and a consultant with a technology company developing software for medical practice management systeMs Most recently he has completed a Masters in Public Policy at the School of Government, Victoria University Wellington. His research paper looked at the impact of lump sum compensation for non-economic loss on rehabilitation outcomes.