Ministerial Advisory Board

Bran Black commenced as the Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia in September 2023.

Bran has served as Chief of Staff in 4 NSW ministerial portfolios, including as chief of staff to the Premier and Treasurer. In these capacities, Bran played a significant role supporting business through the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic recovery.

Bran has also held executive positions in the higher education and community housing sectors, after having commenced his career as a corporate lawyer.

Liam O’Brien, was re-elected as Assistant Secretary at the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress in July 2021.

Before joining the ACTU, Liam was the Victorian Assistant Secretary and National Vice-President of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU). It was there where he fought for the rights of workers across the diverse range of industries that the AWU represents. As a national official he led the AWU’s work in the aluminium, aviation, glass and construction sectors.

As ACTU Assistant Secretary Liam is responsible for leading the movement's policy, industrial and campaigning work on work health and safety and workers’ compensation matters. Liam is passionate about the rights of all workers to have safe, healthy and decent work, and is a member of Safe Work Australia and the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Council.

Liam is also responsible for the skills and VET portfolio at the ACTU.

Lill Healy is the Deputy Secretary, Skills and Employment Group in the Victorian Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions having joined from the Victorian Department of Education and Training where she was Deputy Secretary of Higher Education and Skills. Lill has worked across community, private and public sectors and has held leadership positions in a diverse range of portfolios focussed on greater economic and social inclusion for Victorian communities. Lill is the Victorian representative on the national skills network leading cross-jurisdictional planning of vocational education and training (VET) policy and programs.

Lill led critical work with partners across government to enable Victorian industries and businesses to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to this, she led a cross-government team at the Department of Premier and Cabinet to progress new ways of tackling entrenched socio-economic disadvantage through community led place-based approaches and wider service delivery reform. From 2016 to 2019, Lill oversaw the development of Jobs Victoria and the establishment of Victoria’s first Social Procurement Framework and Social Enterprise Strategy in her role as Deputy Secretary. Other previous leadership roles include in Agricultural Victoria and Regional Development Victoria. 

Lill is a Director of Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre Ltd. She is a former member of the Public Engagement Committee of the OXFAM Australia Board and former Director of Victorian Women’s Housing Ltd and Macaulay Community Credit Co-operative. Lill holds a Bachelor of Business, Banking and Finance, a Diploma of Youth Work, and is an Executive Fellow of ANZSOG.

Jodie Wallace is the Executive Director Policy Planning and Innovation at the Western Australia Department of Training and Workforce Development and is Western Australia’s Skills Senior Official. Jodie is a steward of Western Australia’s skill system relative to education, training, migration and workforce planning. In her decade plus career with the Department of Training and Workforce Development, she has held Senior Executive positions in Service Delivery, State Workforce Planning and Skilled Migration. 

Jodie’s career experience also includes senior roles in international education and the school education sector. Jodie’s career has been shaped by her passion for education and training, in which she has cultivated expertise in stakeholder and community engagement, intergovernmental relations, public policy, corporate communications and service delivery. 

Luke Achterstraat is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia and offers experience of leadership within membership organisations, small business management, advocacy, and policy development. 

Prior to this, Luke served as the NSW Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia and held the position of Chair of the Expert Housing Advisory Panel for the NSW Government. Luke has also worked in advisory roles for the Federal Government, including for the ministers for trade, investment, tourism, and international education. 

Dr Jodie Trembath leads the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (ACCI) policy and advocacy work in the skills area – including VET, higher education, international education and schools – as well as employment and workforce planning, migration, tourism and small business. In her ACCI role, she sits on a range of boards and industry taskforces, including as a non-executive director on the board of Manufacturing Skills Australia, and as a member of the Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance Strategic Industry Taskforce, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ Strategic Industry Advisory Committee and the Department of Education’s Higher Education Research Commercialisation IP Framework Committee. 

Jodie’s policy background has ranged across higher education, international education and arts and cultural policy. She has also held a range of academic and non-academic roles at universities in Australia and Vietnam, and remains a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. She started her career as a high school teacher in Queensland and Northern NSW where her passion for education, training and skills began. Jodie holds a PhD in organisational anthropology.

Annie Butler is a Registered Nurse, with more than a decade’s experience working in public hospitals, the community and on health education projects, and a further decade working in research and education.

Annie’s career with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation began at the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association where she held a variety of roles including professional officer, organiser, and lead organiser. In 2014, Annie was appointed as the Assistant Federal Secretary, before being formally elected to the role of Federal Secretary in 2018.

Correna Haythorpe has spent 17 years teaching in public primary schools. Most of her teaching has been in low socio-economic areas of northern Adelaide and Port Pirie, in regional South Australia. She also taught in the UK and Japan.

Correna served as Australian Education Union (AEU) SA Branch President from 2008 to 2013. She took on the additional role of Deputy Federal President of the AEU in 2013 and has represented the AEU nationally and internationally with Education International.

As the AEU’s Federal President since 2015, she leads the union in the fight to secure a strong, fully funded public education system via the For Every Child, Rebuild with TAFE and Preschool Funding Now! Campaigns. She has extensive experience and understanding of social justice issues, with a particular interest in students and their families from disadvantaged areas. Correna has a strong philosophical and personal commitment to public education.

Professor Jack Beetson is a Ngemba Aboriginal man from Western NSW who has been involved in Indigenous education in Australia and internationally for over 30 years. He is Executive Director of Literacy for Life Foundation, an Aboriginal organisation focussed on lifting adult literacy levels as a path to achieving improvements in employment, training, health and children’s education. He is also Chair of Just Reinvest NSW, supporting community-led solutions to Aboriginal over imprisonment.

Professor Beetson left school at an early age but returned to education and became one of the first Indigenous Australians to complete a university degree in adult education. He has represented Indigenous peoples at the United Nations (UN) and received an honour from the UN for his work. In 2019, he became the first Indigenous Australian inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.

Professor Rae Cooper AO is a Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations and Director of the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work at the University of Sydney.  Her research interests span across gender equality issues, such as: women’s working lives, gender equality in male dominated occupations, future of work, flexible work, and decent work in frontline jobs.

Rae has also held various positions throughout her career, such as: Editor of the Journal of Industrial Relations, President of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Executive Member of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association, Director of Family Planning NSW, Deputy Chair of the NSW Premier’s Expert Advisory Council of Women, Director of NSW TAFE Commission and Chair of the NSW Working Women’s Centre.

El Gibbs is currently the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Disability Advocacy Network Australia and is passionate about the meaningful involvement of people with disability in public policy and public life. She has devoted over fifteen years to working in policy, strategy, and advocacy for the rights of people with disability and is a highly respected expert in the media and policy.

Ms Gibbs is a person with disability who has previously worked as a sought-after consultant in policy, communications and strategy, including on employment issues. 

Nyadol Nyuon OAM is a lawyer, human rights advocate, executive corporate advisor and writer. Nyadol moved to Australia as a refugee in 2005. Since her arrival, she has completed a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne, and she is currently enrolled in a Masters of National Security Policy at the Australian National University. 

Professionally, Nyadol practised for five years as a commercial lawyer. In 2022, Nyadol was appointed Director of the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre at Victoria University, where she leads legal education and research focusing on law and cultural diversity at Arnold Bloch Leibler in Melbourne. She has worked and volunteered in the community and not-for-profit sector to advocate for legal reform, social justice, human rights, and multiculturalism for over a decade. More recently, Nyadol has provided executive corporate advice to companies and organisations in the private sector dealing with complex ethical issues in a changing and challenging world. 

Nyadol’s works have been recognised with awards, including the Order of Australia Medal in recognition of service to human rights and refugee women and being included among the Australian Financial Review’s 11 most influential women in Australia in 2019.