The Politics of Climate (Online)

Marian Wilkinson is a multi-award winning journalist with a career that has spanned radio, television and print. She has covered politics, national security, terrorism, environment and refugee issues as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She also worked as Deputy Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, as well as Executive Producer of the ABC’s Four Corners. Until recently she was a senior reporter on Four Corners.

She is currently working on a book about Australia’s climate change policies. As environment editor for the Sydney Morning Herald Marian reported on the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice for a joint ABC Four Corners-Sydney Morning Herald production which won a Walkley Award for journalism as well as the Australian Museum's Eureka prize for environmental journalism.

In 2016 she worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) for Four Corners’ coverage of the Panama Papers and shared in the ICIJ’s Pulitzer Prize for that project. She has written several books including the political biography, The Fixer, on one of Australia’s most controversial Labor figures, Graham Richardson, and Dark Victory, on Australia’s response to asylum seekers which she co-authored with David Marr.

Studying French in Paris and English literature under author JM Coetzee instilled in Derryn a love of language. Covering women's issues as a journalist in apartheid South Africa taught her to question orthodoxies. Working on magazines and television made her appreciate how each communication medium presents challenges but requires similar fundamentals: well-expressed, engaging content. And founding and building BWD into one of Australia's leading strategic sustainability consultancies confirmed for her what Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School said . . . and what she suspected all along: communication is the real work of leadership.

Professor Ross Garnaut (AC) Short Biography Professor Garnaut is a Professor of Economics at The University of Melbourne. He was previously distinguished Professor of Economics at the Australian National University, the Director of the ANU Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management and was the longstanding Head of the Department of Economics. He is the author of numerous publications in scholarly journals on international economics, public finance and economic development, particularly in relation to East Asia and the Southwest Pacific. Recent books include The Great Crash of 2008 (with David Llewellyn-Smith, 2009); Dog Days: Australia After the Boom (2013); and Forty Years of Reform and Development in China (2018). He is Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Economic Society, Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resources Economic Society, Fellow of the Australia Academy of Social Sciences and Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Professor Garnaut has had longstanding senior roles as policy advisor, diplomat and businessman. He was the senior economic policy official in Papua New Guinea’s Department of Finance in the years straddling Independence in 1975, principal economic adviser to Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke 1983-1985, and Australian Ambassador to China 1985-1988. He is the author of a number of influential reports to the Australian Government, including Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy, 1989, The Review of Federal State Financial Relations (with Vince Fitzgerald) 2002, The Garnaut Climate Change Review 2008, and The Garnaut Review 2011: Australia and the Global Response to Climate Change. Professor Garnaut has chaired the boards of major Australian and International companies since 1988, including Lihir Gold Ltd (1995 – 2010); Bank of Western Australia Ltd (1988 – 1995); Primary Industry Bank of Australia Ltd (1989 – 1994); Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Limited Pty Ltd (2002 – 2012) and its subsidiary OK Tedi Mining Ltd; Lonely Planet Pty Ltd; Aluminium Smelters of Victoria Ltd; ZEN Energy Technologies Pty Ltd. In May 2019 he resigned as the President and Director of Simec ZEN Energy and became the Chairman of Sunshot Energy. Professor Garnaut was made Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1991 for service to education and international relations and a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2017 for service on climate change and energy.