Professor Marilyn Waring

Professor of Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, and a Director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Entered the NZ parliament at the age of 22, served as an MP between 1975 and 1984. Author of several significant books, including 'Counting for Nothing', which revealed how unpaid work, significantly of women, is consistently devalued by standard measures of economic activity, such as the UN System of National Accounts. She has been a consultant for organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Yukon Territorial Government, Ford Foundation, and the Ontario Provincial Government. Professor Waring's unique career has informed her provocative and progressive political economy.

Dr Tom Uren (AO)

Consistently described as 'one of the most respected Labor politicians of his generation', Tom Uren, ex-boxer, heroic survivor of the infamous Thai - Burma Railway, the last Second World War veteran to serve in Federal Parliament, became the first Minister for Urban and Regional Development in 1973, establishing the Australian Heritage Commission, and the National Estate, and led from the front on great progressive causes, including the moratorium against the Vietnam War, the struggle for Timorese Independence, and the war in Iraq. A giant of progressive public policy, Tom Uren remains an energetic social activist and author in his 80's, and is a most honoured keynote speaker at this conference.