Curtin’s Cast Episode 16 - 11 June 2025 - Emma Dawson (Chifley Research Centre)

This week's Curtin's Cast is a cracker featuring the Chifley Research Centre's (official thinktank of the Australian Labor Party) new Executive Director Emma Dawson, one of the best and most forthright thinkers in social democratic circles. With Anthony Albanese giving his first major address to the National Press Club, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras chat to Emma about her background, from being born in Northern England, working as a political advisor, running the progressive Per Capita thinktank, her new role, and of course what's going on in Australian politics and what's next for the second term Albanese Labor government. 

Emma Dawson is Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre and former Executive Director of Per Capita. She has worked as a researcher at Monash University and the University of Melbourne; in policy and public affairs for SBS and Telstra; and as a senior policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Governments.

Emma has published reports, articles and opinion pieces on a wide range of public policy issues. She is a regular contributor to Guardian Australia, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, and a frequent guest on various ABC and commercial radio programs nationally. She appears regularly as an expert witness before parliamentary inquiries and often speaks at public events and conferences in Australia and internationally.

Emma is the co-editor, with Professor Janet McCalman, of the collection of essays What happens next? Reconstructing Australia after COVID-19, published by Melbourne University Press in September 2020. She is a Fellow of the Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the UTS Business School.