Mr Tony Jones

One of the ABC’s most experienced radio and television current affairs journalists, Tony Jones has reported for Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent, and other TV and radio current affairs programs. He has collected respected awards for reports such as ‘Horses for Courses’ on the Waterhouse racing dynasty (Walkley), ‘My City of Sydney’ on the city’s development boom (Penguin), and ‘Frozen Asset’ on the exploitation of Antarctica (Gold Medal, New York Film and Television Festival).

Tony will host a “Q and A” style session discussing the cost of
healthcare now and into the future.

Dr Philip Nitschke

For more than a decade, Dr Philip Nitschke has been the face of the voluntary euthanasia debate in Australia and around the world. Philip came to prominence after becoming the first doctor in the world to administer a legal lethal voluntary injection to four terminally ill patients in 1996 under the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.

Philip is Director of Australia's national peak Voluntary Euthanasia
advocacy group, Exit International, and is recognised internationally for this work.

Philip has written and advocated extensively on the issue of end of life rights and is the co-author of two books, the banned Peaceful Pill eHandbook and Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill published by Penguin in 2005. His autobiography (with Peter Corris) will be published by Melbourne University Press in 2013.

Philip holds a PhD in applied physics from Flinders University and is a graduate of the Sydney Medical School.  He is an seven-time nominee for Australian of the Year and is the recipient of many awards including Australian Humanist of the Year.

Prof. James Isbister

Professor James Isbister is Clinical Professor of Medicine, Sydney Medical School, Adjunct Professor, University of Technology and Monash University, Sydney and Emeritus Consultant Haematologist, Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney. He is the recent past Chair of the Advisory Committee and Board Member of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.  He has a wide range of research and teaching interests, particularly in transfusion medicine and patient blood management with over 100 publications and authorship of textbooks on haematology and transfusion medicine as well as contributions to several major critical care textbooks. His career contributions have been acknowledged by several national and international awards.

Mr Michael Bailey

Michael Bailey is an Investment Specialist. Michael held roles in Westpac and BT from 2003 to 2011, and has over 40 years experience in the financial services industry across Australia and the UK. He started his career with a stockbroking firm in London in 1961 and became a member of the London Stock Exchange in 1971. In 1985, after making the move to Australia, he worked with MLC for 14 years before moving to Westpac/BT.

Asst. Prof. Grant McFadyen

MBChB, FRCA

Grant McFadyen grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and graduated in 1992. Grant completed anaesthesia training in the South West of England in 2002. He was Visiting Instructor at Mott Children’s Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan 2002-2003 and Consultant in Swansea, Wales, 2003-2009. Since 2009 he has been Assistant Professor at Seattle Children’s Hospital 2009 and Director of paediatric regional anaesthesia fellowship program.

Grants research interests include pediatric regional anaesthesia. 
Outside interests include Hawaiian outrigger canoe racing and stand-up paddleboarding.

Prof. Michael Ashby

MBBS (Lond), MD (Adel), MRCP (UK), FRCR, FRACP, FAChPM, FFPMANZCA

Michael Ashby is Director of Palliative Care, Royal Hobart Hospital and Southern Tasmania Area Health Service.

He holds a conjoint position as Professor of Palliative Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, and is currently Coordinator of Theme 4 (Personal and Professional Development) in the MBBS course, and chairs the Clinical Ethics Committee at RHH.

He graduated from St Bartholomew's Hospital, London University in 1978, and trained in medicine and radiation oncology in the UK, France and Australia.   He has held clinical, academic and managerial positions since 1989 in Adelaide and Melbourne prior to moving to Hobart in 2007.

He is a Past President of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM) and a past Chairman of the Chapter of Palliative Medicine at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

He has research interests in law, ethics and the humanities as they apply to care and decision-making at the end of life, advance care planning, and pain and symptom management.  During his time as Leader of the Palliative Care Clinical Network he developed a health promotion project entitled “Health Dying’, a broad-based approach to dealing with end of life issues engaging the health professions and the wider community.
He is Consultant Editor to the Journal of Bioethical Enquiry, an editor of the Journal of Palliative Care and Mortality, and a reviewer for a number of international journals. 

Dr Paul Claus

Dr Paul Claus is a consultant in the Division of Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine.  He is a graduate of Mayo Medical School in 1983, completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Mayo in 1986, and earned board certification in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine in 2008. He is the medical director of the Mayo Clinic Hyperbaric and Altitude Medicine Program which was accredited by the UHMS/Joint Commission in 2010 and is in its fourth year of clinical operations.  He is a member of the UHMS practice compliance committee’s AskTheExpert panel.  Hobbies and interests are flying, fishing, diving, and equine sports.

Rev. Prof. Michael Tate

Michael was Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tasmania before being elected to the Senate of the Australian Parliament where he served from 1978 to 1993. He served as Minister for Justice from 1987-93, in addition to other portfolios. Rev. Prof. Tate was Ambassador to the Netherlands and the Holy See from 1993-96. While residing in The Hague he appeared as co-agent and counsel for Australia before the International Court of Justice and was a keen observer of the initial operations of the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Rev. Prof. Tate received an Order of Australia in 1996 and was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in May 2000.

In 2010 he was appointed inaugural Parliamentary Standards Commissioner under the Tasmanian Integrity Commission Act 2009. The Commissioner provides advice to Members of Parliament and the Integrity Commission about conduct, propriety and ethics and the interpretation of any relevant codes of conduct and guidelines relating to the conduct of Members of Parliament.

Rev. Prof. Tate is an Honorary Research Professor at the University of Tasmania where he lectures in International Humanitarian Law.

Ms Angela Jackson

An economist by training, Angela Jackson was Deputy Chief of Staff to the former Australian Finance Minister the Honourable Lindsay Tanner, and was his principal adviser on health policy until the 2010 Federal Election.  In 2011 Angela was awarded a Masters with Distinction in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the London School of Economics. Angela’s thesis focused on the impact of competition on cost and quality in health care in the United Kingdom.  Most recently Angela worked as a corporate strategy consultant at Medibank Private prior to going on maternity leave with her first child in January 2012.

Dr Louise Nash

Dr Nash is a psychiatrist with expertise in young people with psychosis and medical education. She has research expertise in early psychosis, cannabis and psychosis, and the impact of medico-legal matters on Australian doctors. The latter was her PhD project.

Dr Nash is the co-ordinator of the Master in Psychiatry course at the NSW Institute of Psychiatry, a course for psychiatry trainees, and also works in an early psychosis unit. Previous work includes being a lecturer with University of Sydney, clinical work  in country NSW, and the Northern Territory in both Alice Springs and Darwin. Dr Nash lives in Sydney.