Coming up
Monday 8 February, 2016
8 February 2016
coming up
Panellists: Fiona Nash, Rural Health Minister; Catherine King, Shadow Health Minister; Neil Mitchell, Radio Broadcaster; Grace Collier, IR commentator & columnist The Australian; and Dave Oliver, ACTU Secretary.
Panellists
Fiona Nash - Panellist
Fiona Nash
Nationals Senator Fiona Nash and her husband, David, live on a property at Crowther near Young in the south-west of NSW.
For Fiona, the Rural Health Minister, balancing family – she and David have two teenage sons – with the business of running a farm and representing the people of NSW shapes and influences everything she does on professional and personal levels.
Fiona was raised in Sydney, but the wealth of opportunities that open up to people when they live outside major metropolitan centres became apparent when she moved to Bathurst to study at Mitchell College. She and David moved to Crowther and in 1991 she joined the local branch of the National Party.
She was elected to the Senate in 2004 and her term began on 1 July 2005. Before joining the ministry Fiona’s roles included Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education.
Catherine King - Panellist
Catherine King
Catherine King, shadow health minister, was first elected to Parliament in 2001 to represent the Victorian electorate of Ballarat. She has continued to hold the seat in the four elections since.
After the 2010 election Catherine was made a parliamentary secretary and in 2013 she entered the Gillard government ministry in the portfolios of regional services, local communities and territories and road safety.
She was promoted to Cabinet in July 2013 as Minister for Regional Australia, Local Government and Territories in the Rudd government. After Labor’s loss in the September 2013 election she became shadow health minister.
Catherine holds a degree in social work and a masters in public policy from the Australian National University, and is currently completing a law degree from Deakin University.
Catherine worked in the social welfare sector in Ballarat and later in the public sector in Canberra, as an assistant director for the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care and then as a director.
Prior to entering Parliament she was a senior manager at KPMG’s health consulting practice.
She is married with one son.
Neil Mitchell - Panellist
Neil Mitchell
Neil Mitchell is in his 48th year in journalism and 30th year in radio.
He is a former reporter and news executive on The Age and was editor of The Melbourne Herald.
For 27 years he has hosted Melbourne's leading morning current affairs radio program on 3AW. He has also hosted TV interview programs for various networks and worked as a commentator and columnist for TV and newspapers.
He has won a Walkley Award as well as multiple radio and Press Club awards for excellence in journalism. He has been awarded an AO for his services to charity and journalism.
Grace Collier - Panellist
Grace Collier
Grace Collier is a columnist for The Australian newspaper and an industrial relations expert.
Grace is a specialist commentator for radio station 2GB and appears regularly on Paul Murray Live. Grace has been published in books and is consulted by corporations and governments on workplace issues.
Grace has more than 20 years of first-hand experience in the field of Industrial Relations, 8 years in the Union Movement followed by over a decade consulting to a wide range of businesses.
Dave Oliver - Panellist
Dave Oliver
Dave Oliver was re-elected as ACTU Secretary at the ACTU Congress in May 2015. He has held the position since 2012.
Prior to that, Dave was elected National Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in 2007.
Dave began his working life at 15 as an apprentice at JR Simpson Engineering in Botany, NSW. Upon completion as a fitter, he then worked for Johns Perry Lifts.
He first became a union site delegate while working on the construction of the elevator in the new NSW Industrial Relations Commission building in William St, Sydney.
After 10 years in the industry, and as a union activist with a passion for safety and asbestos issues, Dave became an organiser with the AMWU in 1988.
As a NSW Branch official, Dave led campaigns to protect workers’ entitlements from company collapses, before moving to Victoria as the Assistant National Secretary and then becoming Victorian Branch Secretary in 2002.
As AMWU National Secretary, Dave played a key role in the Your Rights at Work campaign and the Manufacturing: Australia’s Future campaign, as well as several government taskforces on apprenticeships, skills and the resource sector.
He is a director of Australian Super and a member of the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Manufacturing.
Dave is married with four children and lives in Melbourne. He is a member of St Kilda Football Club and in his spare time likes to escape on his touring motorbike.
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