As Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman leads the largest local government in Australia. The council area represents some 617,854 voters in an area that covers 1220 square kilometres, spanning the Brisbane River, with a radius of up to 25 kilometres from the CBD.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is dedicated to making Brisbane an innovative, liveable, new world city. One of his top priorities is getting Brisbane’s traffic moving by building a network of cross-city tunnels and bridges, and improving public transport.

As Brisbane's Lord Mayor, Cr Newman draws on his diverse experience to plan for the city's future. He is a qualified civil engineer and spent 13 years in the Australian Army, retiring with the rank of Major. After leaving the army and before public office, he worked as a business consultant and manager for several large Australian companies, and established his own consulting firm specialising in bulk commodity logistics.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has an honours degree in civil engineering from the University of New South Wales and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Queensland.

An International authority on city and regional economic development, Greg Clark advises local and national governments and major corporations world-wide.

His current roles include Chairman of the OECD Forum of Development Agencies and Senior Fellow, ULI, Chairman of British BIDs.

Previously, Chairman of the OECD Forum of Cities and Regions, Lead Advisor on City, Regional and Economic Development at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (UK Government), Executive Director of the London Development Agency, CEO of the London Enterprise Agency, and a member of the Boards of Directors of the Council for Urban Economic Development (USA), the European Association of Development Agencies (EU).

He is author of 4 OECD books on Local Government and Economic Development. Harkness Fellow in City & Regional Development, and Professor of City & Regional Leadership at Cass Business School, City University, London.

Greg led an international economic development review of the Auckland Region in 2006, and has maintained active links with Auckland and NZ government since then.

Peter Biggs is Managing Director of Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne, winner of the B&T Agency of the Year for Victoria in 2007 and 2008 and Campaign Brief Agency of the Year in 2008.

Before taking up his appointment in Melbourne in March 2006, he was Managing Director of Clemenger BBDO in Wellington, New Zealand.  During his time at Clemenger BBDO/Wellington, the agency was New Zealand Agency of the Year in 2002 and 2004, and he was chosen as Agency Chief Executive of the Year in 2003.

He is a member of the Board of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Chunky Move Dance Company and the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. 

Peter has a first class honours degree in English Literature and Latin from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  He was chair of the Arts Council of New Zealand from 1999-2006 and, before moving to Australia, was a member of numerous private and public sector boards in New Zealand.

Peter was chosen as Wellingtonian of the Year in 2003.  He is a sought-after speaker on branding, marketing, creativity and leadership. 

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Michael has held a number of significant roles in the areas of infrastructure, investment and governance, including being the Director General of the NSW Department of Transport and President of the Property Council Australia. He leads Infrastructure Australia, a national body established to develop a blueprint for unlocking infrastructure bottlenecks and modernising Australia’s transport, water, energy and communication assets.

Recently, Michael was responsible for establishing a Major Cities Unit within Infrastructure Australia to identify opportunities where federal leadership can make a difference to the prosperity of Australian citizens and their residents.

A combination of his background experience and current role places Michael in a unique position to advise on the key elements of city and economic development.

Ganesh is Chief Economist at BERL (Business and Economics Research Limited) an independent, private sector, economic consultancy. He joined BERL full time in 1998. He has a 25 year career in economics including research, tutoring and lecturing at Victoria University. He also had a four year stint in the UK in economic forecasting gaining experience using the IMF Multimod model.

Ganesh is a regular commentator on the New Zealand economy for various media outlets and is responsible for BERL Forecasts – providing a quarterly assessment of prospects for the New Zealand economy.

Despite his passion for numbers, Ganesh believes economics is about people; their jobs, incomes, opportunities and futures. He strongly believes robust economic analysis is critical to ensuring informed choices and policy decisions are made, that have positive effects on the life and prospects of New Zealanders. Away from economics and family, Ganesh regards cricket as his first passion, and also maintains an intense interest in rugby. 

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John Key was born in Auckland in 1961. His twin ambitions as a small boy were to be a successful businessman and to one day be Prime Minister of New Zealand. As he said later, “I wanted to make sure that other kids who were like me, who grew up without advantages, would get the same kind of opportunities to succeed that I got”.

John graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Canterbury University. He launched his investment banking career in New Zealand in the mid-1980s, and worked in Singapore, London, and Sydney for Merrill Lynch, becoming head of global foreign exchange and European bond and derivative trading. In 1999 Mr Key was invited to join the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In 2001, Mr Key returned to New Zealand. He was elected MP for Helensville in 2002. He was appointed the Finance spokesman for the National Party before the 2005 election and Leader in November 2006. Following the 2008 General Election he became Prime Minister. He is also the Minister of Tourism.

Hon Phil Goff, Leader of the Opposition

Phil Goff was elected by unanimous decision as Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party in November 2008.

He first entered parliament in 1981, and has held numerous high-profile ministerial portfolios including Foreign Affairs and Trade, Justice, Education, Environment, Defence and Housing.

Mr Goff, 55, grew up in Mt Roskill and South Auckland. He is married with three children and lives on a small farm near Ardmore in Manukau, where he runs sheep and cattle, enjoying physical work as a break from the demands of Parliament. He has a passion for motorbikes, horse-riding, gardening, watching rugby and league, and international affairs.

Since becoming Labour Party Leader, Mr Goff has begun a series of regional visits throughout New Zealand. The visits are an ideal opportunity to learn first-hand from people in cities and provinces about the issues that are most important to them, including, of course, issues affecting local government. Phil Goff says he is determined that while in Opposition Labour will use its time productively to reconnect with New Zealanders as it develops new policy.