Free and Fair Reporting for Australia

Wendy Bacon is a Professor of Journalism at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. An Australian investigative journalist and non-practicing lawyer, she publishes with The Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey.com, and Reportage Online. Before joining UTS, she worked at the Sunday Program and Sixty Minutes, the National Times and Sun Herald and Dateline. She won Walkley feature-writing and Follow Me awards for inspiration to women for her investigations into corruption.

Ben Brandzel is a leading international practitioner, trainer and writer in the field of progressive online organising. Director of Incubation and International Programs at Citizen Engagement Lab, he's served as Advocacy Director for MoveOn.org and Director of New Media Campaigns and Fundraising for Barack Obama's Organizing for America.

Dr Richard Denniss is the Australia Institute’s Executive Director. He is an economist with a particular interest in the role of regulation. Prior to taking up his current position he was an Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at ANU where he continues to hold an adjunct appointment. Richard has also worked as Strategy Adviser to Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown, as the Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Australian Democrats, and for Senator Natasha Stott Despoja.

Miriam Lyons is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Development. Formerly the Policy Coordinator of New Matilda, Miriam has a history of bringing policy debates to new audiences, as the former director of the Interface Festival of Ideas in Sydney, and the Ideas Program for the Straight out of Brisbane Festival. Miriam has also worked as a freelance writer and researcher and as a media development consultant in East Timor, where she worked on media law reform and co-wrote a report on Freedom of Expression for ARTICLE19. Miriam was a delegate to the media and governance stream of the 2020 Summit and was profiled in the Thinkers category of The Australian’s Emerging Leaders series, as a ‘Woman Shaping Australia’ in Madison Magazine and as an AFR Boss 2010 ‘True Leader’. She is an occasional guest on the ABC shows Q&A and The Drum and co-edited the book ‘More Than Luck: Ideas Australia needs now‘ with Mark Davis.

Nick Moriatis is a Director of MakeBelieve, a strategic communications consultancy working with leading non-profits,movements and social enterprises. Nick has spent 12 years working at the forefront of social change communications in New York, Toronto, London and Sydney.

Ed Coper is one of Australia's leading online campaigners and political communicators. A trained lawyer and historian, as GetUp!’s Director of Campaigns he led Australia's largest political organisation through dozens of successful high-profile campaigns. To achieve this he pioneered campaigning techniques that harness the power of new media and online technologies to mobilise and empower grassroots movements for change. He advises internationally on digital organising and campaigning to some of the world’s largest organisations, and is a regular media commentator on 'Politics 2.0' and grassroots engagement.

Kate Walsh is a Communications and Political Strategist with 15 years international experience. Working with agencies such as Blue State Digital and Essential Media Communications, her clients have included Slow Food USA, GetUp!, Vogue Magazine USA, Tribeca Film Festival, the Jewish Federations of North America and the ACTU. She is currently a consultant with USA’s fastest-growing food activist organisation, Food Democracy Now!