Gordon Anderson is Professor of Law at the Victoria University of Wellington and a barrister of the High Court of New Zealand.  He has taught labour law for many years, is the author of numerous academic articles on various aspects of the law and is joint author of the leading New Zealand text, Mazengarb’s Employment Law.

Jane Bryson is a Senior Lecturer in the Management School at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is an organisational psychologist, and prior to joining the University staff she worked for 15 years as a consultant in organisation development and HRM in both the public and private sector. Her research interests focus on the investigation of HRM, organisational and individual capability; and on professionals, managers and occupational change.

Keith D Ewing was appointed Professor of Public Law at King’s College London in 1989. He held previous academic appointments at the University of Edinburgh and Cambridge University and visiting professorial positions in Australia and Canada. He has published extensively in the fields of labour law and public law, including The Cost of Democracy: Party Funding in Modern British Politics (2007); Constitutional and Administrative Law (14th ed 2006, with A W Bradley); and Labour Law Text and Materials (2nd ed 2005, with Hugh Collins and Aileen McColgan).  He is President of the UK Institute of Employment Rights and together with John Hendy QC edited A Charter of Workers’ Rights on behalf of the Institute.  He is also Vice President of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights, and legal editor of International Union Rights.  As an authority on labour law he is called upon regularly to advise trade unions in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Peter Gahan is Associate Professor in the Department of Management at Monash University. He has held previous academic appointments at the University of New South Wales and Deakin University. He lectures in industrial relations policy and human resource management. He has published widely in the field of public sector management and is undertaking a project on women and equity in the Victorian public service. He was formerly Director, Workplace Innovation in the Victorian Department of Industry, Innovation and Regional Development.

Mark Molloy is a Senior Executive Lawyer with the Australian Government Solicitor in Canberra and is currently ‘outposted’ as the in-house counsel to the Department of the Treasury. Mark was admitted to practice in August 1993 after a career of nearly 20 years as an administrative and senior policy officer in the Australian Public Service. He obtained a Masters Degree in Law (with specialisation public law) from The Australian National University in 2001. Mark’s administrative, academic and legal background has had a particular focus on public sector employment law as well as industrial and workplace relations law in general. He has had extensive experience in advising public sector clients in the context of the recent changes in this area of the law, beginning with the Workplace Relations Act 1996 up to the most recent amendments of the ‘Workchoices’ legislation.

John R Nethercote edited the Canberra Bulletin of  Public Administration from 1980 until 2000. In three decades in the Australian public service his assignments included the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration, the Public Service Commission of Canada, the Defence Review Committee, the National Inquiry into Local Government Finance as well as the Public Service Board. He was also secretary to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration, 1987-88. Research for his chapter was funded by the Australian Research Council.

John O’Brien is Associate Professor in the School of Organisation and Management at the University of New South Wales.  He has researched and published in Australia and internationally in a broad range of areas including public sector management and industrial relations, union strategy and organisation; and employment relations in the education sector and on industrial relations legislation. He currently holds ARC Grants on public sector industrial relations in the United Kingdom and Australia and on executive remuneration and organisational performance. He is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Federal Privacy Commissioner

Michael O’Donnell is Reader in the School of Management, Marketing and International Business at The Australian National University. He has written extensively in the field of public sector employment relations and workplace bargaining and on topics ranging from performance-based pay to the management of change and leadership in the public sector. Recent research includes an ARC funded comparative study of changes in employment relations in public service agencies in Australia and the United Kingdom. A monograph exploring research findings from this project will be published by Routledge in 2008.

Marilyn Pittard is Professor of Law at Monash University and formerly Associate Dean in Research and Postgraduate Studies. She has written numerous book chapters, articles and papers on labour and employment law and co-authored the books Industrial Relations in Australia: Development Law and Operation (Longman) and several editions of Australian Labour Law: Cases and Materials (LexisNexis). With Philippa Weeks, she was chief investigator for an ARC grant on public sector employment. She is editor of the Employment Law Bulletin, and is on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Labour Law. She is also a member of numerous professional law organisations, including the executive committee of the Australian Labour Law Association, convenor of the Victorian chapter of that association and the advisory board of the Institute of Employment Rights. She is consultant to Clayton Utz, a national law firm.

Robert G Vaughn is Professor of Law and A Allen King Scholar at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington DC. He has held visiting appointments at many universities including King’s College London and Ritsumeikan University School of Law in Kyoto, Japan. His extensive publications of books and articles include the areas of public information law, public employment law, consumer law, whistleblower protection, and federal open government laws in the United States. He has testified before committees of the United States Congress on whistleblowers, freedom of information and civil service reform and consulted with organisations, such as the World Bank, the Treasury and Civil Service Committee of the House of Commons, and the Office of Legal Cooperation of the Organization of American States.

Phillipa Weeks was Professor of Law and employment law specialist at the College of Law, The Australian National University. She researched and published widely in the field including Trade Union Security: A Study of Preference and Compulsory Unionism (The Federation Press, 1995). She was a founding member of the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Labour Law and was called upon to speak at many conferences in her legal fields of expertise. With Marilyn Pittard, she was chief investigator for an ARC grant on public sector employment. The Tribute to her by Professor Michael Coper in this book contains more information.