Mr Bill Birnbauer (secretary)
Bill Birnbauer is a senior lecturer of Journalism at Monash University, and is one of Australia’s most senior journalists with more than 30 years experience working across a range of major publications including The Age, The Sunday Age and The Herald. He is a member of the invitation-only International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a committee member of the Melbourne Press Club, and member of the New Media Australia Editorial Board.
Ms Bronwen Clune (vice-president)
Bronwen has worked in traditional print newspaper as a journalist at the West Australian and is founder and CEO of Norg media, a company dedicated to creating people-powered news sites around the world. She has spoken at conferences both nationally and overseas on the future of the media and its content.
Dr Andrew Dodd (assistant secretary)
Andrew is the Convenor of Journalism at Swinburne. He has been a journalist for over twenty five years, working in radio, TV, print and on-line. He was a media and business writer with The Australian and a broadcaster with ABC Radio National, where he presented many of the network’s programs and founded the Media Report.He was a reporter on The 7.30 Report and has also worked for Radio Netherlands and community radio. He has freelanced for The Age and numerous magazines and newspapers and currently writes on media issues for Crikey and other outlets.
Mrs Elaine Henry OAM
Elaine Henry, formerly CEO of The Smith Family, is passionate about the power of education to transform lives. In her efforts to influence public policy she has served on public committees at the state, national and international levels. Current appointments include the Australian Government’s Financial Literacy Advisory Board; the Australian Statistics Advisory Board; the Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Board of the University of Wollongong; the Australian School of Business Advisory Council, University of NSW; the Dean’s Advisory Board, Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney; the Sydney Advisory Council of the Centre for Social Impact, The Board of Governors of CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia). Elaine is also a Trustee of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Mr Gerard Noonan
Gerard has been a journalist for more than 30 years, at both the Australian Financial Review, where he was editor for five years between 1988 and 1992, and at the Sydney Morning Herald. He represented Fairfax Media on the Australian Press Council for five years. While he was AFR editor, Gerard was elected chairman of the industry superannuation fund JUST Super, covering journalists and actors. He was instrumental in the recent successful merger of JUST with the printing industry fund to create Media Super.
Mr Jim Parker (treasurer)
Jim is a communications professional with a 26-year background in journalism, incorporating radio, television, newspapers, wire services and the web. After graduating in journalism in Auckland in 1979, he worked in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Asia variously as a reporter, producer, TV presenter and sub-editor. An economic history graduate from Deakin University in Victoria, Jim specialised in financial journalism and in the latter stages of his career worked with Reuters and the Australian Financial Review. He now works in funds management and blogs on media.
Dr Don Perlgut
Don lectures in public relations and media at the University of New South Wales, and is a Senior Community Outreach Educator with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. He holds a PhD in media from Macquarie University and is a former CEO of the Rural Health Education Foundation. He is a professional film critic, writer and television producer.
Dr Margaret Simons
Freelance journalist, author and Director of the Centre for Advanced Journalism at Melbourne University, Simons began her journalistic career on a country newspaper in South Australia before doing a cadetship at The Age, where she worked for almost ten years. During that time she reported on the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in Queensland, and then became a consultant to the inquiry to aid in writing its report. Simons has also worked for The Australian, and is currently a media commentator for Crikey.com.au. She has written seven books and numerous essays and articles, and been short listed in the Walkley Awards three times.
Ms Melissa Sweet (president)
Melissa is one of Australia’s most experienced health journalists, and has worked at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin magazine and Australian Associated Press. She has been freelancing for more than a decade, and her work appears in many professional and general publications. She is the author or co-author of four books, and was awarded a Dart Centre Ochberg Fellowship for “Inside Madness” (Pan Macmillan, 2006). She is a founding member of the Crikey Health and Medical Panel and holds an honorary appointment as a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra.
Professor Julian Thomas
Julian Thomas is Director of the Institute for Social Research and Professor of Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology. Before coming to Swinburne in 2000, he taught new media at RMIT University, and worked on the staff of the Productivity Commission’s Broadcasting Inquiry. Julian is an Associate Editor of the website Australian Policy Online, and was co-editor with Peter Browne of Briefings, a public policy book series published by UNSW Press. He is also a member of the Consumer Forum of the Australian Media and Communications Authority, and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation.