PBO panel of expert advisers

On 21 December 2017, a panel of expert advisers was established to ensure our work is of the highest analytical quality, is well considered and draws upon expertise from a range of sources. The panel is responsible for providing expert advice, on an as-needs basis, on matters related to policy costings and our fiscal policy analysis program.

The role of panel members includes:

  • providing views on the PBO fiscal policy analysis program, including on how these products can be presented to inform the public debate most usefully
  • providing input into the scope of individual pieces of research and reviewing draft reports
  • providing feedback on the guidance and technical material the PBO releases publicly to inform parliamentarians and the public on matters associated with costings and fiscal policy
  • providing expert advice on specific issues to improve the PBO’s understanding of policy issues, including behavioural responses, and better inform the development of models to cost policy proposals
  • assisting with the evaluation of policy costings
  • referring the PBO to other experts who would be available to assist with specific matters, as required.

The panel has experience across a broad range of areas and is available to be consulted on cross-cutting issues associated with policy costings and fiscal policy analysis.

The Terms of Reference [PDF 164 KB] is available online.

Panel members

Robert Breunig

Professor Robert Breunig is the director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Crawford School of Public Policy. From 2015 to 2016 he was the Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy.

Professor Breunig is one of Australia’s leading Public Policy Economists. He has published in over 75 international academic journals in economics and public policy. Professor Breunig has made significant policy impact through a number of his research projects: the relationship between child care and women’s labour supply; the effect of immigration to Australia on the labour market prospects of Australians; the effect of switching to cash from food stamps in the U.S. food stamp program and the inter-generational transmission of disadvantage.

Colin Brown

Colin Brown is a retired former First Assistant Parliamentary Budget Officer who helped establish the PBO, contributing to its work and direction from its formation until his retirement in 2023. He oversaw the development of many of the PBO’s costing and analytical processes. He came to the PBO from the Treasury, where he worked on costings and policy analysis in areas such as superannuation and retirement income policy, business taxation, goods and services tax, excise and tax expenditures. He has also served as Australia’s delegate to the OECD Working Party 2 on Taxation Policy and Statistics, including as the Chair of the working party.

Robert Carling

Robert Carling is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies. He specialises in areas of fiscal policy, taxation and federalism. He has been Executive Director, Economic and Fiscal at the New South Wales Treasury and worked at the Australian Government Treasury, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Saul Eslake

Saul is an independent economist and Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania. He has held senior roles in financial markets, including as Chief Economist of the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and as Chief Economist (Australia and New Zealand) for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He also held the role of Director of the Productivity Growth Program at the Grattan Institute.

Ana Gamarra Rondinel

Dr. Ana Gamarra Rondinel is a researcher at the Melbourne Institute Applied Economic & Social Research and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. She is also a Research Affiliate with CESifo Institute (LMU Munich) and the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Crawford School of Public Policy (ANU). She is a public economist focused on the design and analysis of government policy. Her research spans three areas - taxation, education, and family - with gender and inequality as cross-cutting themes.

Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray is a Rhodes Scholar, veteran, and former Senator for Western Australia (from 1996 to 2008), during which time he focused on a variety of tax, finance, economics and business issues; on accountability, governance and electoral reform; and on institutionalised children. His publications include the June 2008 Review of Operation Sunlight: Overhauling Budgetary Transparency and 2011 Budgets and Finance: Sunlight and the Dark Arts. Andrew chaired the Western Australian Regional Development Trust from 2010 to 2014 and served as a Commissioner on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse from 2013 to 2017.

Nigel Ray

Nigel Ray is a director of Housing Australia and undertakes advisory work. He has held several senior positions in the Commonwealth Treasury, including Deputy Secretary (Fiscal) and Deputy Secretary (Macroeconomic). He has also served as an Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund and on the boards of the World Bank Group, representing Australia and 14 other countries.

Leonora Risse

Dr Leonora Risse is an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Canberra, an Adjunct Professor with QUT, and a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. She serves as an expert panel member on gender pay equity for the Fair Work Commission and previously held roles with the Productivity Commission and the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University. Dr Risse is a co-founder and former National Chair of the Women in Economics Network in Australia. Specialising in economic equality, Dr Risse's expertise includes applying a gender lens to policy analysis through gender responsive budgeting.

Aruna Sathanapally

Dr Aruna Sathanapally joined Grattan Institute as CEO in February 2024. She heads a team of leading policy thinkers, researching and advocating policy to improve the lives of Australians. A former NSW barrister and senior public servant, Aruna has worked on the design of public institutions, economic policy, and evidence-based public policy and regulation for close to twenty years. Before joining Grattan, Aruna worked for the NSW Treasury for over five years, where she headed up analysis and advice across the macroeconomy division, state-owned corporations, state and commonwealth revenue, and health and justice reform. She led the 2021 NSW Intergenerational Report and led the economic analysis for the 2022 Women’s Economic Opportunities Review.

Aruna previously practised as a senior lawyer in the Civil Regulation group at the Australian Government Solicitor and then as a barrister at 12 Wentworth Selborne Chambers, specialising in cases involving complex economic evidence. Prior to returning to Australia 11 years ago, Aruna worked at McKinsey & Company’s London office with a range of private and public sector clients. She holds arts (economics and politics) and law degrees from UNSW, where she graduated with the University Medal in Law, and two masters degrees in law and a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Menzies Scholar and John Monash Scholar. She has published internationally in the field of constitutional design and human rights and was appointed in 2015 as external legal adviser to the Parliamentary Joint Committee of Human Rights.

Deborah Schofield

Distinguished Professor Deborah Schofield is recognised for her expertise in microsimulation modelling, particularly applications to health and welfare, recently recognised with her election to Vice President of the International Microsimulation Association (2024). She is the inaugural Director of GenIMPACT: Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine and was previously Professor and Chair of Health Economics at the University of Sydney. She has also spent 10 years in senior government roles in The Treasury, Department of Health and Aged Care and Department of Family and Community Services.

Shane Wright 

Shane Wright is the senior economics correspondent for Nine Newspapers, writing for publications including the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Based in the Federal Press Gallery, he has previously worked as the economics editor for The West Australian newspaper and economics correspondent for Australian Associated Press.