Contributors

Rosemary Laing was Clerk of the Senate from 2009 to 2016. Initially joining as Director of Research, she spent 26 years in the Department of the Senate. Among her significant contributions to Senate scholarship, Dr Laing edited the 13th and 14th editions of Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, and was editor and principal author of the Annotated Standing Orders of the Australian Senate.

Joo-Cheong Tham is a Professor at the Melbourne Law School, whose research spans the fields of labour law and public law with a focus on law and democracy. Professor Tham is the author of Money and Politics: The Democracy We Can’t Afford and key reports on political funding and lobbying.

Andrew Murray represented Western Australia in the Senate from 1996 to 2008, where he championed accountability, budgetary transparency and electoral reform. Having played a key role in Parliament’s investigation of children in institutional care, Mr Murray served as a Commissioner on the 2013–2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.

Maureen Weeks is the Deputy Clerk of the Senate. Prior to her appointment in 2017, Ms Weeks held a number of positions in the Department of the Senate, including as Clerk Assistant (Procedure), Clerk Assistant (Table) and Clerk Assistant (Committees). She has also occupied senior roles in the secretariat to the ACT Legislative Assembly.

Glenn Ryall is a Committee Secretary in the Legislative Scrutiny Unit of the Department of the Senate.