IIC Australia Chapter: Unpacking the Media Reform Green Paper

Ms Rowland was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 as the Member for Greenway. Prior to entering Parliament, she was a senior lawyer specialising in competition and regulation in the telecommunications, media and technology sectors.

In 2013 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism, and Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications.

In October 2015, Ms Rowland was elevated to the Shadow Cabinet and appointed the Shadow Minister for Small Business and Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

Ms Rowland was re-elected at the July 2016 election and appointed Shadow Minister for Communications. Michelle was again re-elected at the May 2019 election.

In June 2022, Ms Rowland was sworn in as the Minister for Communications.

Ms Rowland has served as a Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Blacktown City Council, Chair of Screen NSW, and a Director of the Western Sydney Area Health Service.

Michelle is passionate about affording everyone, regardless of their background, equality of opportunity.

Anna Draffin is an impact strategist across government, nonprofit and private sectors with a focus on policy, investment and infrastructure to drive economic and social return. She brings insight from a range of industries that have faced market transformation and uncertainty. She was appointed CEO of PIJI in March 2020, having served as strategic advisor to the board since late 2019.

Ms Draffin chairs the Victorian Government’s Inner Metropolitan Partnership that advises on priorities for jobs, services and infrastructure and a member of the the Government’s Metropolitan Development Advisory Panel. She is also a Non-Executive Director of the Community Council of Australia and sits on the Homes Melbourne Advisory Board (City of Melbourne).

Bridget Fair is Chief Executive Officer of Free TV Australia, the industry body that represents Australia’s commercial television licensees. She previously held a number of senior roles with Seven West Media, most recently Group Chief of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs.

Prior to joining Seven, Ms Fair worked as General Counsel for SBS, legal counsel for the ABC and in private legal practice. She is also a former Chairman of Screenrights and has been on the Boards of OzTAM and Freeview. She is also a non-executive Director of iSelect.

Ms Fair holds a BA/LLB from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and is a Graduate of the AICD.

Giles Tanner is an independent advisor on communications and media regulation and policy, a senior research fellow at Swinburne University of Technology and former head of radiofrequency spectrum management at the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Bio coming soon

Peter S Grant is an Adjunct Professor at York University, Toronto. In 2020, he retired as Senior Counsel at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, one of Canada’s largest law firms. For many years he was the head of its Communications Group. Mr Grant pioneered the field of communications law in Canada, and for over 50 years his practice was substantially devoted to this field, including broadcasting and cable television licensing, satellite services, copyright negotiations, cultural industries, and telecommunications regulation. Mr Grant is the author or co-author of numerous articles, books and publications, including Blockbusters and Trade Wars: Popular Culture in a Globalized World (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004), Canadian Broadcasting Regulatory Handbook, now in its 14th edition, and Communications Law and the Courts in Canada, now in its third edition. Mr Grant was one of six experts on the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, which published its report, Canada’s Communications Future: Time to Act, in January 2020.

Dr Rob Nicholls is an associate professor of regulation and governance at the UNSW Business School and a visiting professional fellow at UTS Sydney Law. His research interests focus at the intersection of technology and regulation. Dr Nicholls has had a forty-year career concentrating on competition, regulation and governance. His first degree was in electronics and communications engineering from the University of Birmingham, and he was awarded his PhD and MA by UNSW Sydney.

Dr Nicholls is director of the UNSW Business School Regulatory Laboratory, a deputy director of the UNSW Institute for Cybersecurity, and a member of the UNSW Business Insights Institute.

Before moving to academia, he worked for Webb Henderson, the ACCC and spent twelve years as a client-facing consultant at Gilbert + Tobin, including as a partner. Dr Nicholls is an accredited mediator.