Our members

Public Policy Institute

The Public Policy Institute's founding members are Professor Scott Prasser and Professor Father Frank Brennan. Recently, the Hon Dr Gary Johns was appointed as Associate Professor to the PPI. Additional appointments are being made and will involve practitioners from the public sector and other areas of public life. Supplementary support will be provided by postgraduate research students focusing on public policy issues and who will be involved in key PPi projects.

Professor Scott Prasser - Executive Director

Professor Scott Prasser is the inaugural Executive Director of the Public Policy Institute and is a graduate of the University of Queensland and Griffith University. Prior to joining Australian Catholic University (ACU), Professor Prasser held senior policy and research positions in federal and state governments and has held senior academic positions across universities in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. His recent publications include: Restraining Elective Dictatorships: The Upper House Solution? and Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia. In 2009 Professor Prasser was appointed to the Australian Law Reform Commissions Advisory Committee that reviewed the Commonwealth Royal Commissions Act 1902. Listen to an interview with Professor Prasser.

 
    

Father Frank Brennan - Law Professor

 

Father Frank Brennan SJ AO is a Jesuit priest and a committed advocate for human rights and has won a number of human rights awards. A graduate of the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne Fr Brennan was the founding Director of the Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre in Sydney. He has written extensively on Aboriginal issues including The Wik Debate, One Land, One Nation and Sharing the Country and publications on civil liberties including, Acting on Conscience and Tampering with Asylum. Professor Brennan was awarded an Order of Australia for his services to Indigenous Australians and in 2008 he was appointed by the Australian Government to chair the National Human Rights Consultation. Listen to an interview with Fr Brennan from ABC Local Online

 
 

The Hon Dr Gary Johns

The Hon Dr Gary Johns is an Associate Professor in Public Policy in the PPI. He served in the House of Representatives from 1987-1996 and was Special Minister of State and Assistant Minister for Industrial Relations from 1993-1996 and as an Associate Commissioner of the Commonwealth Productivity Commission 2002-2004. He was for 10 years, Senior Fellow Institute of Public Affairs, Australia, and a senior consultant with ACIL Tasman economic consultants from 2006-2009.

He received the Centenary Medal for ‘service to Australian society through the advancement of economic, social and political issues and the 2002 Fulbright Professional Award in Australian-United States Alliance Studies, served at Georgetown University Washington DC.

He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science) University of Queensland, Master of Arts (Geography) Monash University, and a Bachelor of Economics Monash University. He is a member of the editorial board of Agenda (ANU) and a columnist for The Australian newspaper. He is author of Aboriginal Self-Determination: The Whiteman's Dream (2011) and Right Social Justice: Better Ways to help the Poor (forthcoming).
 
      

J R Nethercote

 

John Nethercote has been appointed as Adjunct Professor at the Public Policy Institute. Educated at the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and the London School of Economics, he brings a wealth of experience in government administration, both in Australia and abroad. A long-serving officer of the former Australian Public Service Board, he also worked in the secretariat of the (Coombs) Royal Commission in Australian Government Administration. He worked for the Public Service Commission of Canada in 1979; he has been Secretary of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration and later the Senate Select Committee on Uranium Mining and Milling. During 1984-85 he was Secretary of the Commonwealth’s National Inquiry into Local Government Finance.

John has held many posts in the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA). For two decades he edited the Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, and has subsequently been Consulting Editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration. From 2002 until 2004 he edited Australasian Parliamentary Review.

He has also edited or co-edited many books, including Parliament and Bureaucracy (1982), The Menzies Era (1995), The House on Capital Hill (1996), Liberalism and the Australian Federation (2001), The ‘Whig’ View of Australian History and other essays (by A. W. Martin)(2007 ), and Restraining Elective Dictatorship (2009).

He writes frequently on Australian government and political history, mainly for the Canberra Times.

Greg Mahony - Visiting academic, June-November 2010

Greg Mahony is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Business and Government at the University of Canberra where he has taught economics and international business since 2001. For 10 years Greg taught in the UK – from 1994-2001 at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He has also taught and undertaken research in Poland, Singapore and China. His research interests are in the areas of the interface of economics and international business with an engagement in public policy. He edited 'The Australian Economy Under Labor' a  book published in 1993. His current research interests include trade in services and the role of educational exports from Australia’s knowledge economy. He has recently published on institutions and administrative regimes in the regulation of Foreign Direct Investment.