Brian Ritchie, above
Brian Ritchie is Curator of MONA FOMA (Museum of Old and New Art Festival of Music and Art) in Hobart, Tasmania.
Brian is founding bassist/multi-instrumentalist of the seminal American alternative group Violent Femmes. He moved to Australia in 2006 and formed The Break, a modern Australian surf band, with three members of Midnight Oil.
Brian is also a licensed master of shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute).
Extra-musically he operates an Asian teahouse named Chado-the Way of Tea.
Natasha Cica – Panellist
Natasha Cica
Natasha Cica is an educator, change agent and public-interest commentator. Currently she is the Director of the Inglis Clark Centre for Civil Society at the University of Tasmania, where her brief is to advance the university’s community engagement and thought leadership agenda. This connects with the wider aim of improving the economic, cultural and social vibrancy of Tasmania in the 21st century.
In 2012 Natasha is the recipient of a prestigious Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. Just twelve Australians were selected for these fellowships from over three hundred nominations, with regard to two criteria – outstanding talent and exceptional courage.
Natasha has worked as a lawyer and at public interest think tanks in Europe and Australia. She was also a research specialist in the Department of the Parliamentary Library in Canberra, including secondments to the staff of Federal parliamentarians Petro Georgiou (Liberal) and Duncan Kerr (Labor). Natasha has provided analysis and comment on Australian politics and culture for a wide range of publications and broadcasters. Her book Pedder Dreaming: Olegas Truchanas and A Lost Tasmanian Wilderness was published by the University of Queensland Press in 2011, and officially launched by the Governor-General of Australia.
Born and raised in Tasmania, Natasha mainly lives on Bruny Island near Hobart.
Julie Collins – Panellist
Julie Collins
Julie Collins was born in Tasmania in 1971. Over the past twenty years she has worked to improve the lives of Tasmanian families in a variety of political and public sector roles, including as an adviser to former Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon. She was also State Secretary of the Tasmanian Labor Party from 2006 to 2007 and has a certificate in business administration.
Julie was elected to the House of Representatives on 25 November 2007 as the member for Franklin.
In 2011 she was promoted to the Ministry as Minister for Community Services, Indigenous Employment and Economic Development, and Status of Women.
She is married and is the mother of three young children.
Like most working mothers, Julie has taken an active interest in her children’s educational and sporting activities. She has a first-hand understanding of the difficulties many families face with interest rates, child care costs, petrol and grocery prices and balancing work and family responsibilities.
Eric Abetz – Panellist
Eric Abetz
Eric Abetz is a Liberal Senator from Tasmania, Opposition Senate leader and shadow minister for employment and workplace relations.
Renowned as a highly committed warrior for the Liberal Right, a reputation he won many years ago as a student politician, he is a ceaseless critic of progressive causes.
Eric was born in Germany in 1958, the youngest of six children. The family migrated to Australia in 1961.
Eric has degrees in arts and law from the University of Tasmania and says his political ideology was sparked during his university days when he was told exam results would not be credited unless he joined the Australian Union of Students. He became politically active and in 1980 was the only Tasmanian to become national president of the Australian Liberal Students’ Federation.
Eric became a Senator in 1994, filling a casual vacancy, after a career as a barrister and solicitor. He served as Special Minister of State from 2001-06 during the Howard government and was then Minister for Forestry until the government fell in 2007.
He is a strong advocate for curbs on union power, non-compulsory voting and a range of Christian conservative causes.
Terry Edwards – Panellist
Terry Edwards
Terry Edwards is the Chief Executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, a position he has held since January 2002.
In this role Terry has responsibility for the general management of the FIAT, including its financial and human resources. The FIAT provides a range of direct and indirect services to its industry members who are involved in the growing, managing, harvesting and processing of Tasmania’s forest products.
A principal role played by the FIAT is in the areas of public relations and lobbying, roles engaged in directly by Terry as CEO.
Prior to joining the FIAT Terry was the Deputy CEO of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with primary responsibility for industrial relations services and export facilitation. Terry was employed at the TCCI for 20 years.
Terry was born in Tasmania and has lived there for his entire life.
He is married with children, and has 4 8/9 grandchildren.
Andrew Wilkie – Panellist
Andrew Wilkie
In the 2010 Federal Election Andrew Wilkie was elected as the Independent Member for Denison, taking the previously safe seat from the ALP in one of the biggest swings seen in the country. Afterwards he provided certainty of supply and confidence to the ALP, making him one of the four cross-benchers giving government to Labor.
Pokies reform was one of the key issues he took to his negotiations with Julia Gillard and she agreed to introduce a mandatory pre-commitment scheme on poker machines in 2014. Andrew withdrew his support for the Government in January 2012 when the Prime Minister walked away from her written commitment to introduce the reform.
Andrew’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma of Management and Graduate Diploma of Defence Studies.
Andrew is 50 years old, married to Kate Burton and lives in Hobart, Tasmania. They have two young daughters, Olive and Rose.
ABC
