Commissioners
On advice from the Federal Executive Council and under the Commonwealth Grants Commission Act 1973, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia has appointed a Chair and three Members.
Chairperson
Mr Michael Callaghan AM PSM
Mr Callaghan has a long career in public policy, including 38 years in the Australian Treasury. From 2008 to 2012 he was Deputy Secretary, Macroeconomic Group, Australia’s G20 Finance Deputy and the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy, International Economy. From 2005-2007, he was Deputy Secretary, Revenue Group.
Mr Callaghan spent four years on the IMF Executive Board in Washington DC and served as Chief of Staff to the Australian Treasurer, the Hon Peter Costello.
He has chaired a number of reviews for the Australian Government and international organisations. In 2020, Mr Callaghan chaired the Retirement Income Review. In 2017, he chaired the review of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and the review of the Economic Impact of the Government’s Regulation Agenda. He also chaired the Northern Australia Insurance Premiums Taskforce. Mr Callaghan chaired the 12th and 13th replenishment of the Asian Development Bank’s Asian Development Fund.
From 2018 to 2020 he was Chair of the Aged Care Financing Authority. From 2013 to 2014, he was Director of the G20 Studies Centre at the Lowy Institute, and is now a non-resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. He served on the Board of the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation from 2017 to 2019.
Mr Callaghan is a Member of the Order of Australia and has been awarded the Public Service Medal and Centenary Medal. He has economics and law degrees from the Australian National University, and is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Current term: 25 June 2020 to 24 June 2025
Members
Dr Lynne Williams AM
Dr Williams worked as an economist in the public sector for over 30 years, and currently sits on several boards related to public policy. Dr Williams is Deputy Chair of the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, Chair of the Judicial Entitlements Panel and a member of the Victorian Legal Services Board. She also chairs the Audit Committees of the Victorian Legal Services Board.
She was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in January 2017 for her contributions to economic and public policy.
Dr Williams previously held senior executive positions in both the Victorian and Federal public services, including the Victorian Treasury and Finance, Premier and Cabinet and Industry departments, and the Federal Productivity Commission and Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research.
Dr Williams has degrees in economics from the University of Melbourne, the London School of Economics and Monash University. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) and Principal Fellow of St Hilda’s College (University of Melbourne), where she is also a Board member. In March 2019, Dr Williams was awarded the Faculty of Business and Economics (University of Melbourne) Alumni of Distinction Faculty Award. She sits on the Board of the Melbourne Business School and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Current term: 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2026
Dr Angela Jackson
Dr Angela Jackson is a health economist and Lead Economist at Impact Economics and Policy. Having started her career as an economist at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, she has worked across tax, fiscal and social policy. During her time in Government Dr Jackson also worked as the Finance Minister’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and was responsible for providing policy advice across fiscal policy and all areas of social policy, including National Health Reform. As Lead Economist at both Impact Economics and Policy and Equity Economics, she has advised Governments and non-profit organisations, and authored a number of high profile reports on health, aged care, disability, housing and gender policy.
Dr Jackson is chair of the Victorian National Heart Foundation Advisory Board, and is also a member of the GenVic Board, and National Deputy Chair of the Women in Economics Network. Previously she was non-Executive Director of Royal Melbourne Hospital for six years, including during the 2020 pandemic response in Victoria. Angela holds a Masters in International Health Policy (Health Economics) with Distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania. Angela was awarded her PhD on the Economics of Disability in Australia from Monash University.
Current term: 24 August 2022 to 23 August 2027
Professor Anne Tiernan
Dr Anne Tiernan is a leading Australian scholar in politics and public policy. Her career spans higher education, federal and state government, consultancy and teaching. Anne is respected for her independent, research-informed analysis and commentary on national politics, public administration and public policy. Now Managing Director of mission-led consultancy firm Constellation Impact Advisory, Anne consults regularly to organisations committed to purpose and positive impact.
Anne’s research focuses on the work of governing. She has written extensively on the political–administrative interface, governmental transitions, policy capacity and executive advisory arrangements - particularly the support needs of ministers, the role of the public service, policy influence and public policy agenda-setting.
She has published extensively in Australia and internationally, including The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics (co-edited with Professor Jenny Lewis, 2021), Lessons in Governing: A Profile of Prime Ministers’ Chiefs of Staff and The Gatekeepers: Lessons from Prime Ministers’ Chiefs of Staff (both with R.A.W. Rhodes, Melbourne University Publishing, 2014), Caretaker Conventions in Australasia: Minding the Shop for Government (with Jennifer Menzies, ANU Press, 2nd Edition 2014) Learning to be a Minister: Heroic Expectations, Practical Realities (with Patrick Weller, Melbourne University Press, 2010) and Power Without Responsibility: Ministerial Staffers in Australian Governments from Whitlam to Howard (UNSW Press, 2007).
Professor Tiernan is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, and a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and has held a range of Board appointments. These include: the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House (2017-2020), Chair of the Queensland Independent Remuneration Tribunal (2016-19), an Ordinary Commissioner for the Crime and Corruption Commission (2017-2020). From 2008 to 2012, she was a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Queensland Public Service Commission and served on the Board of St Rita’s College Ltd.
An Adjunct Professor with Griffith University, and previously a member of the University’s senior leadership team, Anne served as inaugural Dean (Engagement) of the Griffith Business School, where she led development of the Group’s internationally acknowledged Engagement Strategy and operating model. Professor Tiernan holds a Diploma of Teaching Secondary, a Bachelor of Arts (ANU), Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Griffith University and a PhD.
Current term: 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2027