THE MODERATING TEAM

A/PROF SUE OLNEY

Sue (she/her) is the Director of Power to Persuade. She is the UoM-BSL Principal Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, an Honorary Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU, and a Visiting Fellow in the Public Service Research Group in the School of Business at UNSW Canberra. Her research examines policy design and implementation, and impacts of reform of public services on individuals and communities, with a focus on disability services, employment, and welfare-to-work service systems. Over her career in universities, government and in the not-for-profit sector, she has been part of numerous research teams, government inquiries, cross-government and cross-sector initiatives, committees and working groups examining governance, policy implementation and equity issues in employment, training and disability services in Australia and internationally, and has worked on both sides of government contracts. Sue holds a PhD in Public Policy and is on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Public Administration. She tweets @olney_sue

DR sophie yates

Sophie is a Research Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU and was previously Research Fellow at the Public Service Research Group, School of Business, UNSW Canberra and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Her research focuses on value creation in public services, particularly for those from marginalised groups. She has published on issues such as gender and family violence, disability policy, and services for people leaving prison. She is Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Social Issues and editorial board member of Public Management Review. She has published in top international journals and won several awards for her research. Sophie tweets @DrSophieYates.

DR SUSAN MAURY

Susan is Lead, Research and Impact in the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth). Prior to joining VicHealth, she was the Senior Research and Evaluation Officer at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, specialising in the gendered nature of poverty in Australia, the welfare system, and precarious employment. She oversees the Women’s Policy Action Tank, and also regularly contributes analyses on the differential gendered impacts of government policy and how psychology can illuminate policy shortfalls. Prior to moving to Australia, Susan spent 20 years in the international development sector. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English/writing concentration, a Master of Science in organisational behaviour, and a PhD in psychology from Monash University. Susan tweets @SusanMaury

THE ANTIPOVERTY CENTRE

The experts on poverty, disadvantage and unemployment are the people who live it. The Antipoverty Centre is an unfunded organisation run by people who rely on social security payments to live, working to put the voices and rights of people living in poverty at the centre of social policy development and discourse. You can follow the Centre’s work on its website, and on Twitter (@antipovertycent), Facebook and YouTube.

The Antipoverty Centre raises funds independently to pay people on low incomes to write posts for their moderating weeks. The link to donate to the Centre’s dedicated writers’ fund is here. Posts commissioned by the Antipoverty Centre are published on the blog and are also collated here.

Dr Jeremiah Brown

Jeremiah is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Melbourne in the School of Social and Political Sciences. His work employs Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach to human welfare to understand a variety of different wellbeing outcomes relating to freedom, democracy and public policy. Currently Jeremiah is working on the relationship between administrative burden and access to social security. His previous work has examined a range of public policy issues including the underfunding of Australian for-purpose organisations, the drivers of low financial wellbeing, and inequality in wellbeing outcomes across established democratic societies. He tweets @jeremiahtbrown.

LIFE COURSE CENTRE

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Life Course Centre) is a national research centre investigating the critical factors underlying deep and persistent disadvantage to provide life-changing solutions for policy and service delivery. The centre is a collaboration between The University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne and The University of Western Australia and is supported by international experts as well as Australian government and non-government organisations working at the front line of disadvantage. Life Course Centre researchers are committed to understanding the experiences of Australians facing disadvantage in their daily lives, and to better equipping them to overcome it. This commitment is founded in a life course approach to identifying key life transitions and how they shape life trajectories, and to developing strategic interventions to improve life opportunities and outcomes. Visit our website or follow us on Twitter @lifecourseAust

Dr Rhiannon Parker

Rhiannon is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW. She is interested in examining inequalities within education and healthcare systems through an exploration of the lived experiences of people from marginalised and vulnerable communities. Key areas she has undertaken research on include lived experiences of cancer care, the social dynamics of end-of-life care, socioeconomic disadvantage in educational attainment, school belonging, and sex & gender-based inequality in medical education.

Dr RAELENE WEST

Rae’s field of research is critical disability studies, with a focus on delivery of support services. She has also been involved in disability advocacy, has been on numerous disability committees and has lived experience of disability. She has a PhD in Sociology - Disability from the University of Melbourne and has worked for several years as an early career researcher on various disability and aged care research studies. She is currently working as a Social Researcher at the Melbourne Disability Institute (MDI) - University of Melbourne. She has publications in the areas of ableism, individualised funding models, marketisation of service delivery, use of technology in service delivery and human rights. She tweets at @raelene_west

Dr colette einfeld

Colette is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. She is interested in knowledges, evidence, and ethics in policy making, and how these are negotiated in approaches like nudge and co-design. Her research increasingly focuses on how different knowledges or epistemologies are considered in policy making in the Global South, specifically South East Asia. She also writes about methodologies and the experiences of ‘doing’ interpretive research. 

Colette completed her PhD in public policy at ANU, and previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Government at the University of Melbourne. She brings to her academic career experience working in applied research with businesses, governments, and not-for profit organisations, managing projects in the areas of media, health and welfare, finance, and energy and sustainability.

CARISSA JEDWAB

Carissa is a social researcher and policy advisor in the migration and humanitarian settlement sector. In her current role at AMES Australia, Carissa delivers primary research and policy advice that reflects the diverse needs and experiences of multicultural communities. Carissa’s interests include migration policy, language, and community development, and she is on the Research Working Group for Volunteering Australia’s National Strategy for Volunteering. Carissa holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Melbourne. You can find Carissa on Twitter @carissajedwab.

DR Cadhla o’Sullivan

Cadhla is a research fellow at the Children’s Policy Centre in the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. She was recently awarded her doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland where she conducted qualitative, participatory research with children and youth in Colombia for peace. Prior to this, Cadhla completed her masters degree with the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast, with a focus on conducting genuinely rights-based research with children and young people.  This led her to receive a studentship to conduct her PhD studies with the LINKS team based between Queen’s University in Belfast and Lancaster University in the UK.

Cadhla’s research interests involve conducting participatory, rights-based research with children of all ages, but particularly within the middle childhood period (6-12 years). Her research revolves around issues of child justice. Her current research with the Children’s Policy Centre focuses on child poverty and wellbeing, looking at the structural barriers that perpetuate cycles of entrenched disadvantage. Her past research has involved addressing childhood disadvantage in the post conflict environment of Colombia, using creative arts-based methods in educational settings for peace.  

Cadhla has undertaken research with children of all ages from 4-18 years across the geographical contexts of Ireland, the UK, Colombia and now Australia.

AUWU: Australian unemployed workers’ union

The Australian Unemployed Workers' Union is an independent national volunteer organisation run by the unemployed, for the unemployed. The AUWU is dedicated to protecting the rights and dignity of unemployed workers and pensioners through our national advocacy hotline and campaigning work. Membership is free and open for all. You can follow us on twitter @ausunemployment

DR ELROY DEARN

Dr Elroy Dearn (they/them), Research Fellow Summer Foundation, alumni RMIT University and GIS Research Fellow RMIT University completed a PhD in 2021. Their PhD study was a critical ethnographic study exploring the experience of choice and control for people with psychosocial disabilities living in supported residential services (SRS) over the first 18 months of the NDIS. Elroy’s professional background includes employment as a psychosocial rehabilitation worker in the community-based mental health sector, as a community development worker in the homelessness sector and 20 years’ experience in senior policy and research positions in local and state government and at the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate. Research interests include homelessness, institutionalisation, psychosocial disability, and human rights. Elroy is leading research at the Summer Foundation about why young people are (still) stuck in residential aged care despite the presence of new funding and accommodation alternatives. A passionate advocate for pathways out of SRS, Elroy co-founded of the Private Congregate Care Alliance in 2018, and has been invited to be guest editor for the Parity Magazine special edition on SRS and private supported boarding houses in 2024.

MOLLY SAUNDERS

As a PhD Candidate at the University of New South Wales, Molly's research examines gender inequality within the National Disability Insurance Scheme, using a capability-based understanding of human rights. Molly also works as a Research Associate at the Australian National University (ANU), supporting a co-designed project which explores young people with disabilities’ and young carers’ experiences of institutional listening. Her broad research interests include critical health humanities, intersectional feminist and critical disability theory, human rights, participatory and accessible research methodologies, and minority group experiences of social policy. With a professional background in legal and policy advocacy, Molly is passionate about contributing to academic, community and government initiatives that promote the equality of all women and people with disability. She co-chairs the ANU Disability Research Network, serves on the steering committee of the UNSW's Women's Wellbeing Academy and has previously served on multiple government reference groups as an advisor on disability and mental health policy. 

DR MEGAN LANG

Megan is a Research Fellow at the Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment, University of Tasmania. Her research focus is in children’s rights and participation, with expertise also in the fields of education, informal learning, and in music. In 2024, Megan spent 6 months as Research Fellow with the Children’s Policy Centre at the Australian National University working on child-centred approaches to understanding and measuring child poverty in Australia.

Megan has authored and co-authored academic publications related to education and child participation, as well as child poverty. She has also produced and co-produced numerous child-friendly reports, newspaper articles, presentations, and other non-traditional publications, as well as two online courses on children's rights and safety.

women's policy action tank

The Women’s Policy Action Tank is a joint initiative of the Power to Persuade and the Social Policy Team at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand.  Women and men experience the impacts of policy in different ways. Acknowledgement of this fact is evident in specific policy areas such as childcare and domestic violence. The vast majority of policies, however, purport to be gender-neutral. There is growing concern that this approach drastically fails women, contributing to a feminisation of poverty, negative health and safety consequences and an accrual of disadvantage across the lifespan.  The Action Tank is addressing the policy gap, by providing an analysis of a range of policies using a gender lens.  You can read more about the Women’s Policy Action Tank and its other initiatives here.