Australia's health 2006 conference principal speakers

21 June 2006, Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Commonwealth Avenue, Yarralumla

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Hon. Tony Abbott MP

Minister for Health and Ageing

Tony Abbott was elected Member for Warringah at a by-election in March 1994. Prior to entering Parliament he was Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy from 1993-94. From 1990-93 he was press secretary and political advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson. His previous career was in journalism, where he wrote as a feature writer for The Bulletin and The Australian.

On the election of the Howard Government in 1996 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs. In this role, he was responsible for the establishment of the successful Greencorps program for young people.

Following the 1998 election he was appointed to the new portfolio of Minister for Employment Services. As Minister, he oversaw the development of the Job Network and a major expansion of Work for the Dole.

In January 2001, Tony was promoted to Cabinet as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Following the 2001 election he was appointed Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Leader of the House and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service.

Tony was appointed Minister for Health and Ageing on the 7 October 2003.

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Dr Penny Allbon

AIHW Director

Dr Penny Allbon was appointed as Director of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in February 2006. Dr Allbon has over twenty years of experience in government, at both Federal and Territory levels and within the financial, health and welfare arenas. As a former Board member of the Institute and someone who has used its work over a number of years, Dr Allbon has a particular interest in translating the needs of policy makers into relevant data analysis and ensuring that data is user-friendly and timely.

Immediately prior to her appointment to the AIHW, Dr Allbon ran her own consultancy, working with clients such as AusAID, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, the Statistical Information Management Committee and the Solomon Islands Government. She has also held a number of senior government appointments in the field of health and welfare, including the position of Chief Executive of ACT Health and ACT Commissioner for Housing, and has represented the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC) on the AIHW Board.

Born in New Zealand, Dr Allbon (or Dr Gregory as she was previously known) completed an Honours Degree in History at Massey University in New Zealand and then a PhD in Tongan History at the ANU.

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Hon. Peter Collins AM QC

Chair of the AIHW Board

Mr Collins is a former Health Minister, Shadow Health Minister and Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales.

He spent 22 years in the NSW Parliament as the Member for Willoughby, in Sydney's north, and served as the NSW Treasurer, Attorney-General, and in a variety of other ministerial roles including Minister for the Arts, Minister for State Development, and Minister for Consumer Affairs.

Mr Collins' has a wide range of experience as a lawyer, as a State Minister, and former ABC journalist and researcher.

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Professor Terry Dwyer AM

Director, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

Professor Dwyer is the Director of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, the largest child health research institute in Australia, based at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He was previously the Director of the Menzies Research Institute in Tasmania from 1988 to 2004.

Professor Dwyer's research expertise lies in the field of epidemiology - the study of disease in human populations.

He led important research in the 1990s demonstrating that sleeping in the prone position is a cause of SIDS, which led to the prevention of a large proportion of SIDS deaths internationally. In Australia alone, SIDS deaths decreased from 500 to 100 babies per year following Professor Dwyer's research group's finding. For this research and for his service and dedication to medical research, Professor Dwyer was awarded an Order of Australia in 2004.

Professor Dwyer's current work focuses on the joint effects of genes and environment on diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and multiple sclerosis.

He was a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council's Research Advisory Committee and also the national chair of the Gulf War Veterans Study Scientific Advisory Committee. He also has international involvements with the World Health Organization and the Global Advisory Committee on Health Research.

In 2000 he received a Global Health Leadership Fellowship from the World Health Organization and in 2003 was the Australian Society for Medical Research medallist. In 2004 he spent six months at the National Institutes of Health in the USA advising on the design of the National Children's Study, which involved follow up of a cohort of 100,000 babies.

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Jane Halton

Secretary, Department of Health and Ageing

As Secretary for the Department of Health and Ageing, Ms Halton is ultimately responsible for the efficient administration of the Department and for the corporate and strategic directions for the Department and portfolio. She also provides the most senior policy council on major and sensitive policy issues to the Ministerial team.

Prior to her appointment in January 2002 as Secretary at the Department, Jane Halton was Executive Co-ordinator, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) and was responsible for advising in all aspects of Commonwealth Government Social Policy. This included Health, Social Security, Employment, Education, Immigration and Indigenous Policy. In addition, she was responsible for the Office of the Status of Women and for advising the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women.

Other key tasks included Chairing the welfare reform and illegal arrivals taskforces, development of COAG initiatives on illegal drugs, gambling, human cloning and reconciliation and work with the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

Prior to joining PM&C in July 1998, Jane Halton was national program manager (First Assistant Secretary) of the Federal Government's Aged and Community Care Program in the Department of Health and Aged Care with responsibilities for long term care. She was responsible for the development and implementation of the Federal Government's Aged Care Structural Reform Package.

She has held the position of Principal Advisor, Corporate Development Group in the Department of Human Services and Health and Assistant Secretary, Community Care. Jane has also had experience in the Department of Finance, Social Security, Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU.