Speakers

• Hon Chris Bowen
  Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs
  
  
• Mrs Pamela W S Chan
  Honorary Advisor, Consumers International
  
  
• Mr Robert Fitzgerald AM
  Commissioner, Productivity Commission
  
  
• Ms Sue Lewis
  Head of Savings & Investments, UK Treasury
  
  
• Ms Catriona Lowe
  Joint CEO, Consumer Action Law Centre
  
  
• Mr David Mair
  Head of Unit, Director General Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission
  

• Mr Michael Malone
  Chief Executive Officer, iiNet
  
  
• Ms Susan Nixon
  General Manager Consumer Marketing, Westpac
  
  
• Professor Iain Ramsay
  University of Kent
  

• Professor Lucia Reisch
  Copenhagen Business School, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management
  
  
• Professor Jane K Winn
  Charles I Stone Professor and Director, Shidler for Law Commerce & Technology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

• Ms Robyn Ayres
  Executive Director, Arts Law Centre of Australia
  
  
• Dr Jo Barraket
  Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne
  
  
• Ms Irina Cattalini
  Director, Social Policy, WA Council of Social Services
  
  
• Dr David Cousins
  Director, Consumer Affairs Victoria
  
  
• Ms Nicola Howell
  Director, Centre for Credit and Consumer Law
  
  
• Mr Peter Kell
  Chief Executive Officer, CHOICE
  
  
• Mr Stephen Knapp
  Executive Director, Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand

• Ms Catriona Lowe
  Joint Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Action Law Centre
  
  
• Mrs Robynne Quiggin
  Principal Solicitor, Vincent-Quiggin Consulting
  
  
• Mr Gordon Renouf
  General Manager, Policy and Campaigns, CHOICE
  
  
• Ms Delia Rickard
  
Acting Executive Director, Australian Securities & Investment Commission

• Mr Nigel Ridgway
  General Manager, Compliance Strategies Branch, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
  
  
• Mr Seah Seng Choon
  Executive Director, Consumers Association of Singapore
  
  
• Mr David Tennant
  Director, Care Inc Financial Counselling Service and the Consumer Law Centre of the ACT
  
  

Ms Robyn Ayres
Executive Director, Arts Law Centre of Australia

Robyn Ayres has been a lawyer for over 20 years and the Executive Director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia (Arts Law) for 5 years. Arts Law is the national community legal centre for the arts. Arts Law provides free and low cost legal services to the arts. In 2004, under the direction of Robyn, Arts Law established the Artists in the Black service, a legal advice service specifically for Indigenous artists.

Robyn is committed to ensuring that artists, and the arts community more broadly, properly understand their rights as well as their legal responsibilities, including the right to receive proper remuneration for their work.  Robyn has spent a significant part of her legal career working to achieve social justice for different groups in the community. Robyn has worked for the Australian Government Solicitor, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA and established and ran the Mental Health Law Centre of WA.

Robyn had extensive involvement in the arts community in WA before taking up her position at Arts Law and was on the Board of the Artists Foundation of WA (artsouce)  for four years. Robyn is married to a Sydney-based artist, Andrew Leslie, and has two daughters. She has two Bachelors of Arts and Law from the University of NSW.

Dr Jo Barraket
Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne

Dr Jo Barraket is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Melbourne. Her main areas of research include the relationship between government and civil society organisations in public policy development, and the social impacts of online technologies. Jo has conducted research and published on the use of online technologies by Australian not-for-profit organisations, and on the relationship between online technology use and civic engagement. She has a particular interest in the use of online technologies by contemporary social movements and community sector organisations.

Hon Chris Bowen
Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs

Chris Bowen was elected to the Federal Parliament as the Member for Prospect in October 2004.

He has a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney. He won the Australian Transport Officers Federation Prize for the best industrial relations student at the University.

Chris was elected Mayor of Fairfield for 1998 and 1999, and became President of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils from 2000 to 2002.

Immediately before being elected to Parliament, Chris was Chief of Staff to Hon. Carl Scully, NSW Minister for Roads, Housing and Leader of the House.

Since being in Parliament, Chris was elected as Deputy Chair of the House of Reps Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration and was a member of the Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. Chris was also Chair of Labor's Caucus Economics and Waste Watch Committees.

In December 2006, Chris was elected to the Federal Labor Party's frontbench and appointed Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Revenue & Competition Policy.

Following the election of the Rudd Government in November 2007, Chris was appointed as the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Competition Policy & Consumer Affairs where he has responsibility for carriage of the government's policy on trade practices, tax administration, competition policy and consumer affairs.

Ms Irina Cattalini
Director, Social Policy, WA Council of Social Services

Irina Cattalini is the Director of Social Policy at the West Australian Council of Social Service and has worked with WACOSS since early in 2005.

Irina has represented the interests of vulnerable and disadvantaged Western Australians on a number of government, regulator and independent committees. Her particular area of interest is distinguishing the line between corporate social responsibility and social welfare. This is an ongoing area of tension between the role of government, regulators, corporations and social justice advocates. Irina has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Western Australia.

Mrs Pamela W S Chan
Honorary Advisor, Consumers International

Mrs Pamela CHAN Wong Shui was Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Consumer Council from 1985 to June 2007. She was President of Consumers International (CI) from 1997 – 2000. CI has over 220 member organisations in 115 countries.

Mrs Chan is currently CI's Advisor for Asia and Honorary Advisor of the Macau Consumer Council.

Mrs Chan tenders advice to various consumer associations, provincial governments and Law Reform Commissions in Mainland China (there are over 3,000 consumer associations in the country). She was consulted by some governments, such as Bangladesh, South Africa and Canada on the drafting of consumer laws, consumer policy and competition issues.

Mrs Chan was given awards by the Hong Kong Government and the China Consumer Association for her contributions in advancing consumer welfare. In 2007, she received an award bestowed by the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) for her contribution to the international consumer movement as well as her pivotal role in advising the consumer movement in mainland China.

Mr Seah Seng Choon
Director, Consumers Association of Singapore

Seah Seng Choon is the Executive Director of CASE chartered to protect and enhance consumers' interests through information and education, and to promote an environment of fair and ethical trade practices in Singapore.

As an ardent advocate of fair trade, Seng Choon is well-respected and plays an active role in various organisations. He is a member of the Genetically Modification Advisory Council, the Management Systems Standards Committee (MSSC), SPRING, Food Standards, Committee Member of Singapore Articles National Code and a member of the Certification Advisory Council (SPRING).

Seng Choon had extensive experience in running organisations. He was the Executive Secretary of The Food and Beverage Industrial Workers Union which advocates fair employment terms for workers, General Manager of NTUC Denticare which provides affordable dental services, Director for Skills Development at NTUC training department which overseas among other things, the Skill Redevelopment programme which facilitates the retraining of workers in Singapore, board member of former National Productivity Board which oversee the productivity movement in Singapore.

Seng Choon obtained his BA (Economics, History) and Post Graduate Dip (Bus Admin) from the National University of Singapore, and was inducted into the Senior Executive Programme at the London Business School.

Dr David Cousins
Director, Consumer Affairs Victoria

Dr David Cousins was appointed Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria and Executive Director Consumer Affairs, Department of Justice in June 2002.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice he was a Commissioner with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and before that a Director with KPMG Consultancy. From 1989 to 1995 he was a Member of the Prices Surveillance Authority (PSA). He was Chairman of the PSA from 1992 to 1995 when it merged with the Trade Practices Commission to form the ACCC.

David completed his PhD at Manchester University in the UK and Economics degrees at Monash University. He has had an active
involvement in consumer and competition policy through university research and teaching, consulting and public administration for over 20 years.

Mr Robert Fitzgerald AM
Commissioner, Productivity Commission

Robert has been a full time Commissioner with the Australian Government Productivity Commission since 2004 and is currently Presiding Commissioner on the Inquiry into Australia's Consumer Policy Framework. He has been a Commissioner on seven inquiries including those into Consumer Product Safety, Australia's Health Workforce, National Competition Policy and Australia's Gambling Industries. Robert convenes the Indigenous Working Group representing the nine Australian governments for the production of the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report.

Robert practiced as a commercial solicitor for over 20 years and served on a number of government bodies including the National Competition Council and was formerly NSW Community Services Commissioner and Deputy Ombudsman.

He also has over 25 year's voluntary involvement in the community services sector including as President of the Australian Council of Social Services.

Robert holds degrees in law and commerce from UNSW.  He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1994.

Ms Nicola Howell
Director, Centre for Credit and Consumer Law

Mr Peter Kell
Chief Executive Officer, CHOICE

Peter Kell is the Chief Executive Officer of Choice (Australian Consumers' Association), having joined on 11 March 2004. ACA is Australia's leading consumer organisation, and the publisher of CHOICE magazine.

Prior to joining ACA, Peter was Executive Director of Consumer Protection, and NSW Regional Commissioner, at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Peter joined ASIC in 1998 when it was given significantly expanded consumer protection jurisdiction, and was responsible for ASIC's approach to consumer protection regulation in the financial services sector.

Peter's area developed and implemented successful regulatory campaigns in areas such as mortgage broking and financial planning, built ASIC's widely recognised consumer education and financial literacy programs, and developed policy and approval standards for consumer dispute resolution schemes. Peter was also responsible for establishing ASIC's Consumer Advisory Panel.

Peter has served on a wide range of consumer and industry bodies. He has a background in economics, and has previously worked as Finance Policy Officer at ACA, at the University of Sydney, and in the Commonwealth Department of Finance, as well as doing consulting work.

Mr Stephen Knapp
Executive Director, Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand

Steve Knapp is the Executive Director of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand (FTAANZ) and of Fairtrade Labelling Australia and New Zealand (FLANZ). In 2007 he was elected to the Board of Directors of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations (FLO) International. He is based in Auckland and is the Director of activities across both countries.

He graduated from the London School of Economics in Industrial and Business Economics and is currently completing a Masters in Development Studies. He was the Managing Director of a commercial trading company for 10 years and then the Executive Director of a regeneration company supporting social and community enterprise development in the UK. He has also held several voluntary directorships of community based organisations.

Ms Sue Lewis
Head of Savings & Investments, UK Treasury

Sue is Head of Savings and Investments in the UK Treasury. Her responsibilities include policy on savings and investment markets, mutual financial institutions, corporate governance and pensions protection. She also leads on the Government's long-term approach for financial capability.

Sue has previously held a number of senior civil service roles in the Treasury, Department for Education and Skills and the Cabinet Office. She has worked in a wide variety of policy areas including early years, children and young people, and equality issues. Sue also led the Cruickshank Banking Review team, an independent review into competition in banking markets.

Sue has two daughters in their 20s. She lives in west London, where she is a governor in a local primary school.

Ms Catriona Lowe
Joint Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Action Law Centre

Catriona Lowe is Co-CEO of the Consumer Action Law Centre, an independent, not-for profit, campaign focussed, casework and policy organisation. 

Consumer Action provides free legal advice and representation to 1000's of Victorian consumers each year and also advises other organisations assisting consumers.  Consumer Action undertakes policy campaigns on key issues affecting Australian consumers.  Current campaign issues include penalty fees; reckless lending and world class consumer policy. 

Prior to joining Consumer Action, Catriona was a Director in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (then) Policy & Liaison Branch. She was Deputy Director at Consumer Law Centre Victoria and spent 5 years in private practice as a litigation lawyer.

She has undertaken consumer advocacy on issues affecting Australian consumers across a range of markets including utilities, telecommunications and general consumer products and services.  She has a particular interest in the intersection between consumer protection and competition law and has authored a range of publications including the Consumer Strategies Chapter of the Lawyer's Practice Manual.  Catriona is also the current Chair of the Consumers' Federation of Australia.

Mr David Mair
Head of Unit, Director General Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission

David has worked for the European Commission since 1995 and in consumer policy since 1998. In consumer policy he has been involved in policy strategy, enforcement issues and more recently data and statistics. Since September 2007 he is head of a new taskforce on consumer market monitoring and analysis, responsible for the Commission's new consumer Market Scoreboard. Before the Commission he worked for the UK Treasury in Brussels and London and has also worked in the City of London as a corporate financier and in the British Army. He studied History at Cambridge University.

He is married with two daughters.

Hon. Sheila McHale MLA
Minister for Disability Services; Tourism; Culture and the Arts; Consumer Protection Western Australia

Ms McHale believes strongly in the importance of protecting consumers in today's complex marketplace.

Ms McHale has a Bachelor of Arts degree and postgraduate diploma and international experience in both the private and public sectors.

Born in Yorkshire, England, Ms McHale gained a love for Western Australia after emigrating in 1978.

Ms McHale was elected to State Parliament in 1996 for the Australian Labor Party. This followed three years in Local Government as an elected councillor. In 2001 she was re-elected to Parliament as part of the Gallop Government. She was appointed a Cabinet Minister, as Minister for Community Development, Women's Interests, Seniors and Youth; Disability Services; and Culture and the Arts.

Ms McHale was also the first Minister to be appointed with responsibility for Volunteer Services. The State Government's policy Valuing Volunteers was the first in the State's history.

With the re-distribution of electoral boundaries, Ms McHale was re-elected as the Member for Kenwick at the 2005 State Election and re-appointed to Cabinet.

Mr Michael Malone
Chief Executive Officer, iiNet

Michael founded iiNet in 1993, leading the rapid growth and innovation which has seen iiNet grow from a small WA based Internet pioneer, into the third largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Australia. Michael has been pivotal in the establishment of industry bodies such as the .au Domain Administration (auDA), Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) and the WA Internet Association (WAIA).

Michael was awarded an industry lifetime Achiever award in the WA Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards in 2005. He was the winner of the Business News Award in 2006 for the most outstanding business leader in WA under the age of 40, and the Young Leader of the Year in the JML Australia Human Capital Leadership Awards in the same year.

Ms Susan Nixon
General Manager Consumer Marketing, Westpac

Susan Nixon joined Westpac as General Manager, Ask Once & Marketing in October 2006.

Originally from the UK, Susan arrived in Australia in 1993. Her extensive experience in strategy and marketing spans 25 years in both Australasia, North America and Europe. Her industry expertise includes FMCG, professional services and over 10 years in financial services.

Prior to joining Westpac, Susan's achievements included developing the brand strategy and its relaunch for the Commonwealth Bank. She was also heavily involved in the de-merger strategy of AMP into two publicly listed companies. In her 10 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, she was responsible for the implementation of their global strategy in terms of positioning, marketing, business development and client service.

Susan specialises in developing strategic positionings and then creating aligned brand, customer service and "go to market" strategies to benefit customers while sustaining long term profitable growth.

Susan's qualifications include: BAEcon(HONS), Post Grad Dip Mgmnt Studies, Post Grad Dip Marketing and AICD Diploma.

Mrs Robynne Quiggin
Principal Solicitor, Vincent-Quiggin Consulting

Robynne Quiggin is principal solicitor at Vincent-Quiggin Consulting based in Sydney. She is descended from the Wiradjuri people of central western New South Wales.  Robynne specialises in Indigenous legal issues including those related to the arts, Indigenous intellectual and cultural property, banking services and consumer issues, human rights and general practice matters such as wills and probate.  

Robynne is currently as member of the National Indigenous Consumer Strategy Reference Group, a board member of the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) and Gadigal Information Services incorporating Koori Radio (93.7FM).

Robynne is currently on the Editorial Board of the Indigenous Law Bulletin, Balayi: Culture, Law and Colonialism and the Journal of Indigenous Social Policy.

Professor Iain Ramsay
University of Kent

Iain Ramsay is currently Professor of Law at Kent Law School, University of Kent, Canterbury UK and was previously a Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada from 1986-2007. His primary areas of research are regulation of consumer markets and consumption relations at the national and international level and consumer bankruptcy.

He is an internationally recognised scholar in these areas and in 2003 was elected President of the International Association of Consumer Law. He has written many books and articles on consumer law and bankruptcy including several empirical studies of consumer bankruptcy, consumer redress and small claims courts.

Iain is currently engaged in a comparative research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada studying approaches to over-indebtedness in Canada and England. He has also acted as a consultant on consumer law and policy to governments and NGOs in Canada, Europe and South America. Iain is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Professor Lucia Reisch
Copenhagen Business School, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management

Lucia A. Reisch is a Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management. She holds a doctorate degree in economics and social sciences from University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart (Germany). Since the early 1990's, her main research focus has been on consumer behaviour, sustainable development, and consumer policy issues. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Consumer, Food, and Nutrition Policies to the German Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture and she chairs the “Consumer Commission”, an independent high-level think tank advising the Government of Baden-Württemberg (Germany) on food and consumer policy issues, with a current focus on the development of polices for sustainable consumption.

Mr Gordon Renouf
General Manager, Policy and Campaigns, CHOICE

Gordon Renouf is General Manager, Policy and Campaigns at CHOICE having joined in May 2005.

Prior to joining CHOICE, Gordon worked for a range of non-government organisations on consumer and legal issues, including as Director of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre and of the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service. 

Gordon has served on a wide range of consumer and industry bodies including as convenor of the National Association of Community Legal Centres and as a Board member of the Finance Industry Complaints Service.

Ms Delia Rickard
Acting Executive Director, Australian Securities & Investments Commission

Delia Rickard has a legal background and is ASIC's Acting Executive Director for Consumer Protection and International and ASIC's ACT Regional Commissioner. She is also the Chair of ASIC in the Community.

Delia has been with ASIC since 1999 and been involved in most areas of ASIC's consumer protection function including work in the areas of financial literacy and consumer education, electronic banking, superannuation, disclosure, self-regulation and dispute resolution.

Prior to coming to ASIC she worked as an adviser to 2 Federal Ministers, ran the ACCC's consumer protection Branch for a number of years and was a member of both the Secretariat to the Wallis Inquiry into Financial Services in Australia and of the Australian Payments System Council. She has been a member of the steering Committee for the ANZ National Financial Literacy survey since it's inception.

Mr Nigel Ridgway
General Manager, Compliance Strategies Branch, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Nigel Ridgway has been the General Manager of the Compliance Strategies Branch within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission since July 2004. With qualifications in both law and public administration, Nigel joined the ACCC in 1998.

In that time, Nigel's work has included a range of trade practices compliance and enforcement matters.

Nigel's current responsibilities include operation of the ACCC's consumer, outreach and small business programs as well as the delivery of its compliance, product safety, and industry codes programs. These roles provide regular opportunities to work with both consumer and business organisations in identifying and responding to trade practices concerns in the Australian market place.

Mr David Tennant
Director, Care Inc Financial Counselling Services and the Consumer Law Centre of the ACT

David Tennant was appointed as the Director of Care Inc Financial Counselling Service in July 2000. Care has been the main provider of financial counselling and related services in the ACT since 1983.

From 1995 to 2000 and prior to his appointment as Care's Director, David was the Principal Solicitor of Care's Consumer Credit Legal Service, the forerunner to the Consumer Law Centre of the ACT, which is co-located with Care. Other services co-located with Care include a:

• No Interest Loans Scheme;
• NSW outreach service for Queanbeyan and region;
• specialist financial counselling service for public housing tenants; and
• community development and education program.

In almost 13 years at Care, David has directly represented many hundreds of consumers in the ACT and region in relation to a wide variety of complaints and difficulties. He maintains a client service delivery role and a firm commitment to the principle that the experiences of vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers must be heard and addressed.

David is a previous Chair of the Consumers' Federation of Australia, current Chair of the Australian Financial Counselling and Credit Reform Association, and is the Consumer and Small Business Member of the Code of Banking Practice Compliance Monitoring Committee.

Ms Karen Tighe
TV/radio sports presenter/master of ceremonies

Karen is the host of ABC Radio’s national Grandstand program, and has also presented many of ABC TV and radio’s major sports broadcasts such as the Hopman Cup. She has also broadcast from numerous Commonwealth Games including Kuala Lumpur, Manchester and Melbourne as well as Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics. Karen was also a member of the team who presented the highly popular ABC TV Friday night program ‘Live & Sweaty’ for four years in the nineties. For two successive years Karen was awarded the Media Award in the Sports Australia Awards. Prior winners have included Bruce McAvaney, Roy Masters and Ron Reed. Her polished communication skills, professionalism and engaging personality have led to Karen becoming one of Western Australia’s leading masters of ceremonies.

Professor Jane K Winn
Charles I Stone Professor of Law, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

Professor Winn, is the Charles I Stone Professor of Law and Director of the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology at the University of Washington, Seattle.

A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of London and a Fulbright Scholar, Professor Winn is a leading international authority on electronic commerce law and technological and governance issues surrounding information security. She joined the University of Washington faculty in 2002. Her current research interests include electronic commerce law developments in the United States, the European Union, and China. She is co-author of Law of Electronic Commerce and the casebook Electronic Commerce, and editor of Consumer Protection in the Age of the ‘Information Economy”.

In 2007 she taught Cybersecurity Law and Electronic Commerce Law as part of the Masters of Law course at the University of Melbourne Law School.