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Election special: Policy priorities for the next government
Election special: Policy priorities for the next government
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DateWednesday 19 March 2025
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Time12.30pm to 1.30pm
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LocationState Library of NSW
Election special event – update
We are delighted to announce that Fran Kelly from the ABC will be hosting our upcoming pre-election policy special event in Sydney.
In this special Grattan Institute event, hosted by the ABC’s Fran Kelly, our experts will discuss the big new ideas Australia needs, and the necessary but difficult reforms where we should stay the course. Drawing on Grattan’s 2025 Orange Book, the panel will set out a policy blueprint to boost living standards for current and future generations.
Fran Kelly will be joined by Grattan Institute CEO Aruna Sathanapally, and Grattan Program Directors Tony Wood (Energy and Climate Change), Brendan Coates (Housing and Economic Security), and Sam Bennett (Disability).
As Australians prepare to go to the polls, our experts will identify the policies that should be in the spotlight. And they will answer your questions on what should be on the agenda of the next government – whether Labor or Coalition, majority or minority.
Venue: Metcalfe Auditorium, State Library of NSW, 1 Shakespeare Pl Sydney NSW 2000
Event partners
Panel
Fran Kelly
Fran Kelly has held positions including chief political correspondent for ABC Radio’s AM and PM programs, political editor of the 7.30 Report and ABC Europe correspondent based in London. In 2005, she became host of Radio National’s agenda-setting Breakfast program, a seat she filled until 2021. She then took on a new role hosting her own talk show ‘Frankly’, talking to some of Australia’s biggest names and brains. Fran also created and co-presents The Party Room podcast with Patricia Karvelas, and presents Saturday Extra on ABC Radio National.
Over her career, Fran interviewed twelve former and sitting Prime Ministers, one US President, one British Prime Minister and other world leaders and thinkers. She’s covered eleven elections and one Olympics and is a big Sydney Swans fan!
Aruna Sathanapally
Dr Aruna Sathanapally joined Grattan Institute as CEO in February 2024. She heads our team of leading policy thinkers, researching and advocating policy to improve the lives of Australians. A former NSW barrister and senior public servant, Aruna has worked on the design of public institutions, economic policy, and evidence-based public policy and regulation for nearly 20 years. Before joining Grattan, Aruna worked in senior roles in the NSW Treasury. She led the 2021 NSW Intergenerational Report and led the economic analysis for the 2022 Women’s Economic Opportunities Review.
Tony Wood AM
Tony Wood is the Director the Energy and Climate Change Program at Grattan Institute. Before that he worked at Origin. From 2009 to 2014 he was also Program Director of Clean Energy Projects at the Clinton Foundation, advising governments in the Asia-Pacific region on effective deployment of large-scale, low-emission energy technologies. In 2008, he was seconded to provide an industry perspective to the first Garnaut climate change review. In January 2018, Tony was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his significant service to conservation and the environment, particularly in the areas of energy policy, climate change and sustainability. In October 2019, Tony was elected as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
Brendan Coates
Brendan Coates is the Housing and Economic Security Program Director at Grattan Institute, where he leads Grattan’s work on housing, retirement incomes, and superannuation.
He is a former macro-financial economist with the World Bank in Indonesia and consulted to the Bank in Latin America. Prior to that, he worked in the Australian Treasury in areas such as tax-transfer system reform and macro-economic forecasting, with a strong focus on the Chinese economy.
Brendan holds a Masters of International Development Economics from the Australian National University and Bachelors of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne.
Samuel Bennett
Dr Sam Bennett joined the Grattan Institute as its inaugural Disability Program Director in September 2023. Sam has worked on disability, aged care, and health reforms at a national level for over fifteen years.
In his previous role, he led the Policy, Advice and Research Division of the National Disability Insurance Agency, where he shaped and delivered national policy, and implemented the Agency’s Research Strategy. Sam was also responsible for supporting the work of the NDIS Independent Advisory Council.
In the UK he led transformation programs in the National Health Service (NHS) integrating social care and health services. He was responsible for the UK Government’s program to extend personal health budgets for people with complex disability and chronic health conditions until 2018.