Key Conference Addresses

• The Honourable Tanya Plibersek – Federal Minister for Housing; Minister for the Status of Women.



• The Honourable David Borger – NSW Minister for Housing, and Minister for Western Sydney.
  

Key note speakers

We are pleased to announce a full complement of key note speakers including:

• Katherine Gibson - Professor of Human Geography at the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy, the University of Western Sydney.

Professor Gibson is an economic geographer engaged in rethinking economic concepts in the light of feminist and poststructuralist theory. Her research interests have been shared over three decades with Professor Julie Graham from the University of Massachusetts, USA, with whom she shares a collective authorial presence as J.K. Gibson-Graham. Together they have written The End of Capitalism (as We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy (Blackwell, 1996, Minnesota 2006) and A Postcapitalist Politics (Minnesota 2006) and co-edited with Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff Class and its Others (Minnesota 2000) and Re-presenting Class (Duke 2001). She has directed large action research projects with communities in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. In 2008 she produced a 50 minute DVD on Building Social Enterprises in the Philippines: Strategies for Local Development. A Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Gibson has been on the editorial boards key Human Geography journals such as Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Geoforum, Gender, Place and Culture, Antipode: a Radical Journal of Geography, The Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography and New Zealand Geographer. She has supervised doctoral research projects in the sub-fields of urban geography, development geography, resource management, community development, political geography, feminist geography, tourism studies as well as economic geography.

• Andrew Jones - Director of the Queensland Research Centre of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), and Professor of Social Policy, Institute of Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, Australia.

  Andrew Jones’s areas of academic expertise include social policy analysis, human services management and community planning. Much of his current research is focused on housing and housing policies for older people in Australia. In recent years he has undertaken research on rental retirement villages, affordable housing provision for older people, linkages between housing and care, and home maintenance and home modifications. His keynote address entitled ‘Implications of population ageing for housing research: Australia in the Asia-Pacific context’ will examine the policy and research response to population ageing in Australia and consider implications for comparative housing research.

• Michael Stone – Professor, Community Planning, the College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Professor Stone's research and professional work includes housing affordability, as defined and measured through his concept of “shelter poverty”; the political economy of housing in the U.S., with particular attention to the structure and dynamics of the housing finance system; housing policy, on the various contours of housing policy with increasing focus on models of social ownership; and collaborative action research with community organizations.

Professor Stone will be at Swinburne University from mid 2009.

• Dr. Kyung-Hwan Kim– Visiting Professor, School of Economics, Sigapore Management University; and Professor of Economics, Sogang University.

  Professor Kim holds a doctoral degree in economics from Princeton University. In addition to his Sogang professorship he has held positions at Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Kim specializes in urban and real estate economics and has published a number of books and journals articles on these topics. He was urban finance advisor to the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) from 1992 till 1994 and also worked as consultant for the World Bank and UNDP. Professor Kim served as president of the Asian Real Estate Society in 2002, and was inducted as a fellow at the Weimer Graduate School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics in 2001.

  In Korea Professor Kim has served on various government committees on real estate, urban and regional issues, including the current post as a member of the Presidential Commission on Balanced Regional Development. He is also an outside board member Of the Korea Housing Finance Corporation.

  Professor Kim will provide a key note address on the implications of the international financial crisis on Asian housing markets.

Conference Co-Chairs

• Associate Professor Rebecca L.H. Chiu, JP - is a member of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management, Hong Kong University.

  Before joining the Centre in November 1992, Rebecca was a lecturer in the School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) of HKU, taking charge of the Urban Studies area. Rebecca has developed a master's course and a bachelor's degree conversion program in housing management, now jointly offered by CUPEM and SPACE; she is the Course Coordinator of both programs.

  Rebecca was appointed Visiting Professor by the University of Ulster for a period of three years from November 2003. Her other professional services include founder and chairperson of the Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research and the Hong Kong Housing Research, a founding editor and member of the International Advisory Committee of the journal Housing, Theory, Society published in Sweden, she is a member of the Editorial Board of the Australian-based journal Urban Policy and Research. Locally Rebecca is a member of the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the Land and Building Advisory Committee, the Environmental Impact Assessment Appeal Board, and the Expert Advisory Committee of the Guangdong Real Estate Research Association. And is a former member of the Town Planning Board, and the Home Ownership Committee of the Hong Kong Housing Authority and is a Justice of the Peace of Hong Kong since July 2006.

  Rebecca was a consultant to the World Bank’s 1989 - 1990 study on housing policies and reform in China. She also was consultant to the Housing Department in 2000 on the provision of housing and care services for the elderly in public housing estates, and conducted a study on elderly housing needs and demands jointly with Hong Kong Housing Society and other colleagues within the University.

  Rebecca has been conducting research on China's modernization issues since 1981. Her housing studies work commenced in the late in 1980s, specializing in housing policy issues in Asian countries, particularly the newly developed countries and China. Her current research interests include sustainable housing development, cross-border housing, comparative housing policies, elderly housing, and housing markets in former centrally-planned economies.

• Professor Bill Randolph - Director City Futures Research Centre, UNSW

  Bill Randolph joined the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of New South Wales in August 2004 as Professor and Director of the City Futures Research Centre. He is a past Director of the UNSW/UWS AHURI Research Centre. For the previous six years he was Director of the Urban Frontiers Program at the University of Western Sydney. At UNSW he leads a research team specializing in housing policy, urban development and metropolitan planning policy issues.

  Bill has 30 years experience as a researcher on housing and urban policy issues in the academic, government, non-government and private sectors. Immediately prior to his appointment at UWS, Bill spent five years in market research and consultancy based in London, UK, with a primary focus on housing and urban research for the central and local government sectors. He had previously spent eight years as Head of Research at the National Housing Federation in London, the national peak body for non-profit affordable housing landlords, where he led the development of national research into affordable housing provision. During this time he spent a period of sabbatical leave at the Australian National University researching housing affordability and community housing in Australia. Bill has also worked as a research fellow at the Open University and the UK Department of the Environment.

Welcome to Country

• Michael West is a representative of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. He has 20 years experience in public service in both State and Federal government agencies. His work experience includes Indigenous employment, housing, inner city youth at risk programs and Reconciliation Action Plans. Presently Michael is working on Aboriginal health research at the Sax Institute. Michael is a Member of the Stolen Generation.

MC for Minister's Opening

• Rod Fehring has spent the past 26 years working in the Australian property sector. Rod has held various positions including Chief Executive of Delfin Lend Lease, Head of Lend Lease Communities, Asia Pacific (which consisted of three business units; Delfin Lend Lease, Lend Lease Development and Retirement by Design), Lend Lease Ventures (identifying new and emerging technologies capable of driving new growth whilst positioning Lend Lease at the forefront of the property and construction industry) and more recently in December 2009, appointed CEO Lend Lease Primelife. Rod is actively involved in the property industry and was appointed Chairman of Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, in March 2008. He is among others, a current Foundation Member & Chairman, of the Residential Development Council and Director of the Property Council of Australia.

  Rod Fehring has spent the past 26 years working in the Australian property sector. Rod has held various positions including Chief Executive of Delfin Lend Lease, Head of Lend Lease Communities, Asia Pacific (which consisted of three business units; Delfin Lend Lease, Lend Lease Development and Retirement by Design), Lend Lease Ventures (identifying new and emerging technologies capable of driving new growth whilst positioning Lend Lease at the forefront of the property and construction industry) and more recently in December 2009, appointed CEO Lend Lease Primelife. Rod is actively involved in the property industry and was appointed Chairman of Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, in March 2008. He is among others, a current Foundation Member & Chairman, of the Residential Development Council and Director of the Property Council of Australia.

Conference Workshop Facilitators

• Terry Burke - Professor of Housing Studies Swinburne University

  Terry Burke’s expertise is in housing and urban studies. Within these broad areas his interests are in housing affordability, local government housing, and public housing management and policy reform, and he has published a number of papers and reports around these themes. Professor Burke has co-authored a number of texts including Social Theory and the Australian City and Informed Decision Making. He established and is the convenor of Australia’s only suite of housing management courses offered in distance learning format. He has also served on numerous government advisory committees dealing with housing issues and is currently co-chair of the APNHR.

• Tony Chalkley Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (RMIT)

  Currently, Tony is based at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (RMIT), putting the finishing touches on a PhD that utilises ethnographic research to explore the work of Housing Staff at the frontline of public housing in Victoria. His Key research question is: How do Housing Services Officers and Senior Managers both understand and experience a major process of operational policy change associated with the shift from ‘public’ housing to ‘welfare’ housing? In order to identify and analyse the patterns of meaning created by housing staff as they attempt to understand the effect(s) of organisational change, Tony is combing 140 hours of interviews, many pages of scribbled observations and numerous boxes of artifacts, collating data into thematic categories, analysing high and low tension narratives and looking for common understandings of ‘what change means to housing staff’. Tony also work full time as a media and communications lecturer for Deakin University, teaching and researching organizational communication, particularly the role of new media in an increasingly ‘twitterized’ communication landscape.

• Owen Donald - Chairman of the National Housing Supply Council

  Dr Owen Donald is the Chairman of the National Housing Supply Council that was set up by the Federal Government in May 2008. The Council’s principal objectives are to monitor and forecast housing demand and supply across Australia, and to propose ways in which imbalances may be rectified.

  Owen was previously the Director of Housing in Victoria, Australia, where he managed an organisation providing housing policy advice to government and social housing to around 80,000 families and individuals. Hitherto, he was the CEO of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).

  For much of his life, Owen has worked with national and state governments on improving social policy, service delivery and financial management. But he has also worked in the private sector and academia. Owen is also the Chairperson of Barwon Health, a fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of Australia and member of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australasian Housing Institute. He also provides consulting services on policy and management.

• Hazel Easthope – Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre, University of NSW

  Dr Hazel Easthope is an early-career researcher in the area of housing and urban studies. Her main research interests are in residential decision-making and the management of residential properties. She has a strong interest in the governance of strata-titled properties and is currently working on both an ARC Linkage project and a NSW Office of Fair Trading funded project in this area. Hazel is also currently involved in projects on knock-down rebuild development, secure occupancy and Indigenous housing services provision. In addition, Hazel supervises student research projects for both Bachelor of Planning and Masters of Planning courses at the University of NSW.

• Kath Hulse - Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research, and Director of the Swinburne-Monash Research Centre of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)

  Her primary research interests are in social policy, particularly the restructuring of social policies in the context of cultural, social, political and economic change. She has a strong interest in comparative social policy. Over the last few years, Kath’s research has focused on housing and social policy including the linkages between social cohesion and housing/place; the role of housing and place in shaping economic and social participation, and new approaches to social and affordable housing. She has also undertaken research which questions traditional assumptions about housing tenure in the light of significant economic and social changes.

  Kath brings extensive, high level experience in policy development, applied research and management of social programs from a long career in government and the not for profit sector. She has particular experience in housing, urban development and community services. She is a long-term Director of Melbourne Affordable Housing, a housing association registered in Victoria.

• Peter Phibbs - Professor, Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney

  Professor Phibbs is an urban planner with an international reputation in the area of housing studies. Formerly the Associate Dean (Staff) in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sydney, his research in recent years has been in two main areas: the non-shelter outcomes of housing and the broad area of affordable housing. Since 2001 he has supervised 14 PhD completions and five Masters by Research.
  

  Since coming to the Urban Research Centre he has been Co-ordinator of Academic Programs. As part of this role he is convenor of the Master of Urban Management (which will become the Master of Urban Management and Planning in 2010) and the suite of short courses which makes up the Professional Development Program of the Urban Research Centre. He has a keen interest in the use of films in teaching and has produced a variety of short films that are used in the Centre’s short course and degree programs. He is the UWS co-ordinator for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).

• Angela Spinney – Research Fellow, Institute of Social Research, Swinburne University

  Angie has recently joined Swinburne from the Housing and Community Research Unit at the University of Tasmania, to work on a three year ARC funded project on family homelessness and its effects on the lived experiences of citizenship. Before this Angie worked for the Salvation Army Tasmania on the Safe from the Start Research project, which identified key elements of best practice for working with young children who have been made homeless by family violence. Her PhD involved a comparative study of policy responses to homelessness attributed to domestic and family violence in Australia and England. Before moving to Australia in 1997 Angie worked for fifteen years as a senior policy and social housing manager in the UK in both the statutory and non-government sectors. Over the course of her career Angie’s work has concerned involvement with public policy development, including influencing and advising on social housing policy at both a local and national level. She has also worked as a Senior Lecturer in Housing at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.

• David Thorns - Professor of Sociology School of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand FRSNZ, Director of the Social Sciences Research Centre

  David taught previously at the Universities of Nottingham, Exeter, and Auckland. He has authored or co-authored ten books, recent publications in the field of housing, tourism, inequality, methodology, urban and regional implications of economic restructuring. Current areas of research are: restructuring and change within advanced capitalist societies and the meaning of house and home, globalisation and the creation of the knowledge economy/society

  David’s primary interests are urban and regional sociology; globalisation; social inequality; home and identity; inter-generational conflicts; modernising welfare states.

• Peter Williams - Visiting Professor at the Centre for Urban Studies at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol and Honorary Professor at the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York

  Peter Williams is Deputy Director General of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, a position he took up in January 1997. He joined the former Building Societies Association and the Council of Mortgage Lenders as Head of Research and External Affairs in January 1994. He has overall responsibility for housing policy contributions as well as a range of financial and mortgage-related issues at the CML and is a regular contributor to conferences and the media.

  He has had a long involvement with housing policy and practice in the UK and abroad. In 1983 he became Assistant and then Deputy Director at the Chartered Institute of Housing with responsibility for education, training and research. In 1988, he joined the University of Wales as the first Professor of Housing Management. He was Chairman of the Secretary of State's Housing Management Advisory Panel and a Board member of Housing for Wales from 1989 to 1994. From late 1995 to 2002, he was a Board Member of the Housing Corporation. From 1999 to 2001 he was a member of the DETR Housing Sounding Board, an advisory group for the Minister of Housing.

Conference Planning Group

• Professor Terry Burke
• Ms Helen Fletcher
• Associate Professor Kath Hulse
• Associate Professor Vivienne Milligan
• Mr Mike Pelling
• Professor Bill Randolph
• Ms Maria Schwensen