State of Australian Cities National Conference 09

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

John Day MLA
Minister for Planning; Culture & the Arts
A member of the Legislative Assembly since 1993, John Day has been the Minister for Police and Emergency Services (1997-98) and the Minister for Health (1998-2001), and more recently held Shadow portfolios including Resources Development and Energy; Pilbara; Education and Energy; Education and Training and Indigenous Affairs; Transport; and Water Resources and Energy. John also served on numerous Parliamentary and other committees, including those concerned with the Darling Range bushfire hazard, road safety and acquired brain injuries.

In 2008 John was appointed as the Minister for Planning and Culture and the Arts, where he has focused on streamlining the planning approvals process and laying the foundation for planning reform. Identifying areas for future urban and industrial growth in WA has also been a particular focus of attention, and John is committed to seeing the Perth Cultural Centre revitalised.

Adjunct Professor Dennis Eggington
CEO, Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia
Dennis Eggington is the Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Inc), a role that he has held since 1995. A Nyungar man, Mr Eggington brings a wealth of experience to ALSWA gained through his widespread involvement with a number of Aboriginal organisations and government departments throughout his working life. He is known throughout Australia for his work within the justice system and is proud to be part of such an important organisation which advocates for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. With a background in education, management and community development, he holds a Diploma of Teaching (Armidale NSW 1976), a Bachelor of Applied Science (Curtin University of Technology WA 1991) and has recently graduated with a Master of Human Rights Education from Curtin University. Mr Eggington is the Chairman of Curtin University’s Western Australian Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and has previously lectured at the university’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies and worked as a teacher in NSW and the Northern Territory. The former Director of the Western Australian Aboriginal Media Association, he also played a key role in setting up Perth’s inaugural Aboriginal radio station in the late eighties. Having held numerous executive positions on community based and controlled Aboriginal organisations, Mr Eggington also represents ALSWA on a number of committees including the National Aboriginal Justice Council and the nation’s Aboriginal Legal Services. He maintains strong links with his community and Country, and is a proud family man who has two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren.

Dorte Ekelund
Head, Major Cities Unit, Office of Infrastructure Australia
Ms Ekelund is the head of the Federal Government's new Major Cities Unit, within the Office of Infrastructure Australia. The Major Cities Unit provides coordinated action across all spheres of government, the private sector and the community aimed at improving the prosperity, liveability and the sustainability of our major cities. Ms Ekelund has more than 25 years of urban planning experience, having held senior planning and infrastructure leadership positions within the governments of Western Australia and the ACT, as well as working extensively within the NSW local government sector.

Professor Jorg Imberger
Director, Centre for Water Research
The University of Western Australia
His interests include eco-hydraulics, lake hydrobiology and human decision processes. He graduated as a Civil Engineer, did a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and taught Mathematics for a number of years. In the past 20 years he has devoted most of his energies to field work in lakes in all continents of the world; the focus has been on understanding the underlying transport and mixing processes that control the health of the lake ecosystem. Most recently he has pioneered real time self learning management systems that allow a natural ecosystem to be managed for multiple objectives. He has become interested in understanding behavioural response of humans to climate change.

Jeff Kenworthy BSc. (Hons), PhD Murdoch
Professor in Sustainable Cities
Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP), Curtin University
Jeff Kenworthy has spent 30 years in the transport and urban planning field and currently teaches courses and supervises postgraduate students in the city policy and urban sustainability fields. He is co-author (with Peter Newman, Felix Laube and others) of a number of books, as well as author and co-author of over 200 other book chapters and journal publications in the area of city policy. He has extensive experience in the areas of compact housing developments, public transport systems and sustainable transport policy and has worked as a consultant for local, state and federal governments in Australia, as well as private organisations and the World Bank. He has also acted in an advisory capacity in the Premier's Department in WA, and lectured internationally in 20 countries and over 50 cities to universities, government agencies and community organisations on city policy issues. He was Project Director of the Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport study for the International Union (Association) of Public Transport in Brussels (UITP).

Jeff Kenworthy received the Australian Centenary Medal from the Australian Prime Minister’s Office for service to planning and sustainability in relation to public transport and urban form. Lately he has been teaching at the Fachhochschule - Frankfurt am Main on a DAAD visiting professor fellowship.

Hon Alannah MacTiernan MLA, BA LLB BJuris JP
Shadow Minister for Regional Development; Strategic Infrastructure; Climate Change; Member for Armadale
Alannah was the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure from February 2001 to September 2008. This portfolio combined planning, lands, transport and roads, and included three departments, eight port authorities, five development authorities and the Pastoral Lands Board. During her time as Minister, Alannah's achievements included the New MetroRail Project; integration of planning and transport into a single agency; upgrades of all 8 ports; key road projects including Roe Highway, Tonkin Highway, Geraldton Southern Transit Corridor, Tom Price to Karratha Road; improvements to regional air services, airports, boating facilities and freight rail projects; and major reforms and innovations in coastal and environmental planning.
Alannah graduated in arts and later law at the University of Western Australia. She was elected to the Perth City Council in 1988 and served as a Councillor until 1994. Alannah was first elected to Parliament in 1993 as Member of the Legislative Council for the East Metropolitan Region. She resigned from that position in November 1996 and won the Legislative Assembly seat of Armadale in the December 1996 election.
Alannah has also been Chairman of the Community Development and Justice Committee from 13 November 2008.

Phillip O'Neill
Professor and Foundation Director
Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney
Phillip is an economic geographer renowned for his work on corporate and industrial change. His most recent work is on the role of infrastructure provision in large urban economies. He has been first named chief investigator on five large ARC projects and is on the editorial boards of the prominent journals: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Journal of Economic Geography, Progress in Human Geography and Compass; and will soon commence as co-editor of Geographical Research. Phillip is widely published in the key international journals and is a prominent media commentator with regular columns in the Fairfax press and Business Spectator. Phillip is currently Professor and Foundation Director at the Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney, and was previously Foundation Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle.

Gary Prattley
Chairman, WA Planning Commission
Gary Prattley has 41 years experience in planning, urban management and governance at local, metropolitan, regional, state and national government levels. He has private sector planning experience as a senior planning consultant working across Australia and headed government planning systems in Western Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. He was also responsible for Metropolitan Sydney in The New South Wales Department of Infrastructure and Planning. For four years, from 1997 to 2001, Mr Prattley was the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry for Planning in WA, predecessor of the Department of Planning. He has a Masters in Town Planning; is a Certified Practicing Planner; Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and the Australian Property Institute; and a member of the Urban Development Institute of Australia. He was appointed as Chairman of the Western Australian Planning Commission in April 2009.

Tony Sorensen
Adjunct Professor in Geography and Planning
University of New England
Tony specialises in urban and regional economics at the University of New England, and is simultaneously an economic libertarian associated with Sydney's Centre for Independent Studies and a corporate Member of both PIA and the UDIA. He has long analysed appropriate boundaries between private action and either government regulation or the public supply of goods and services. At a time of financial crisis and reappraisal, it is appropriate to assess the impacts of the market revolution sweeping the world since 1980 on Australia's cities and their management, and consider how those relationships might evolve over the coming decade.
It is now 25 years since Tony and a colleague published Libertarian Planning in Town Planning Review, followed at irregular intervals by others dealing with the interface between urban planning theory and practice. More recently, Tony has focused his research on related themes connecting the economic processes shaping regional Australia, issues of spatial inequity, and the configuration of effective public policy responses. His chapter on Regional Economic Governance: States, Markets and DIY, published in an edited collection by OUP (2002), and Changing Governance of Australian Regional Development: Systems and Effectiveness (2007) summarise his developing line of thinking and led to a succession of research grants funded by the ARC, RIRDC, and - more recently - the Cotton CCCRC.

Jon Sutton
Managing Director, Bankwest
Jon Sutton is Managing Director of Bankwest and Western Australia's most senior banker. He has held senior leadership positions with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and started his career in regional NSW with Rice Growers. Since his appointment in December 2008, Jon has reaffirmed Bankwest's commitment to the Western Australian economy and community. He is a strong advocate of the "WA economic success story" and believes projects like Gorgon and the booming Chinese economy will position WA to lead Australia out of the downturn.

Susan Thompson
Associate Professor in Urban Planning and Development
University of NSW
Susan Thompson has over 30 years of experience as an urban planning practitioner, teacher and researcher. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Urban Planning and Development Program, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of NSW. Susan's interests are wide and crossdisciplinary, encompassing healthy planning, meanings of home and belonging, the implications of cultural diversity for cities and planning practice, and the importance of local environments for communities. She is a passionate advocate of qualitative research methods, pioneering their use in built environment disciplines. Over the years Susan has received various awards for her contributions to planning scholarship. Most recently her edited text, Planning Australia, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007, was awarded the National Planning Institute of Australia's Prize for Excellence. Details of Susan's other key publications can be found at: http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/staff/susan.thompson/



city growth, sustainability, vitality and vulnerability