Keynote Speakers
Brian Dollery
Brian Dollery is Professor of Economics and Director, Centre for Local Government, at the University of New England, Armidale New South Wales, Australia.
Brian has published extensively in the economics of local government in general and Australian local government in particular. Brian has been involved in the debate over local government restructuring in Australia and has written a number of papers that explore promising alternatives to amalgamation, including various kinds of shared service models.
Recent books include The Economics of Australian Local Government (2006), Reform and Leadership in the Public Sector (2007), and Local Government Reform: A Comparative Analysis of Advanced Anglo-American Countries (2008) (forthcoming).
Kindly supported by 
Judy McGregor
Dr Judy McGregor is the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission. She is a trained lawyer, a former newspaper editor and a former university professor. Her doctorate is in political communication and she has written seven books, the most recent on older workers in New Zealand. Judy is the former chair of the Palmerston North Enterprise Board and has received large government grants to research improving the managerial competence of small and medium enterprises in New Zealand. She is currently working on extending EEO in the public sector, including local government, and in the private sector. In 2007 she ran a series of seminars throughout New Zealand for women standing in the local body elections and she is currently working with local bodies and regional agencies to profile a range of migrant worker issues.
Internationally Judy has recently worked with human rights institutions in Jordan, Palestine, Malaysia, and with Pacific journalists to develop media and communication strategies around human rights issues. Last year she led New Zealand's mission to monitor the media's coverage of Timor-Leste elections. Judy was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to journalism in 2006.
Kindly supported by 
Simon Upton
Simon Upton is currently a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is also Chairman of the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development responsible for a programme of climate change-related work over the next three years. Between 2001-2007 he chaired the Round Table from Paris dealing with a wide range of sustainable development-related issues. Prior to that he was a Cabinet Minister. Between 1990 and 1999 he held a wide variety of portfolios including Environment, Biosecurity, Science & Technology, Health and State Services.
In his time as New Zealand's Environment Minister, Simon was responsible for the introduction of the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Hazardous Substances & New Organisms Act 1996 and became a prominent figure in international environmental negotiations on climate change and sustainable development.
Simon is a Rhodes Scholar who has degrees in English literature, music and law (University of Auckland) and a MLitt in political philosophy (Oxford University). He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Otago University. A prolific contributor of articles on a wide variety of science and environment topics, he is a two-weekly commentator in the DominionPost and the Christchurch Press.
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Last updated: August 2008
