Peter Carroll is a research professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of Tasmania, having been Dean of the Faculty from 2001–06. He was Professor and Head of the Department of Management at the University of Wollongong from 1999–2001 and, from 1997–99, Assistant Dean and Director of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Business, Queensland University of Technology. He has research and consulting interests in the OECD, government regulation of business, policy transfer, innovation and policy analysis. His publications cover a variety of areas, including regulatory reform, innovation, regulatory compliance, international expositions, tourism and international business. He undertook several consultancies for the Queensland government as part of its major regulatory reform drive in the 1990s, focusing upon reviews of a number of acts, including the Pharmacy and Optometry acts, the Tow Truck Act and the Radiation Safety Act, as well as providing training in the process of regulatory review for public servants.

Rex Deighton-Smith is a director of a consulting company that provides specialist advice on policy and regulatory issues to governments, international organisations and the private sector. He previously worked on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s program on regulatory management and reform, where he contributed to several country reviews of regulatory processes. Rex is also a former director of the Victorian government’s Office of Regulation Reform and has worked in policy areas in the Department of Treasury and Finance and the Department of Premier and Cabinet. He is an authority on regulatory impact assessment and the author of a number of publications on a range of regulatory policy issues.

Helen Silver is Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria, and was formerly the General Manager, Government Business — Business and Private Banking Australia at the National Australia Bank Limited. She was previously Deputy Secretary, Policy and Cabinet, of the Department of Premier and Cabinet and prior to that Helen held the position of Deputy Secretary, Economic and Financial Policy at the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance. She has many years experience in senior management positions in the Victorian and Commonwealth public sectors, centred on the provision and management of high level policy advice and operational systems.

Chris Walker is a senior lecturer and the co-ordinator of the Master of Policy Studies in the School of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of New South Wales. He has worked in various senior and middle level management and policy positions at the NSW Department of Health, the Roads and Traffic Authority and the Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator. Prior to joining the School, he was a member of the NSW Senior Executive Service working at the Cabinet Office. Chris has been on staff exchange with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Department of Health and worked on developing training material in public sector ethics for the Institute of Public Administration Australia. His research interests include intergovernmental relations, federalism, regulatory reform, public sector management and public sector reform. Of particular interest is the practice of separating policy from operations in government agencies and the consequences this presents for policy development and policy implementation.