Catalyst Australia

Richard has been President of Catalyst Australia since its inception in late 2007.

Richard Archer is an occupational health and safety consultant, author and a Director of SEARCH Foundation. He has been a Manager of Occupational Health and Safety for Comcare and union OHS officer. Richard has also worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

His main interests lie in the areas of regulation and the effects of globalisation on workers. He holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and Graduate Diploma in OHS from the University of Technology.

Susan Hopgood is both President of Education International (EI) and the Federal Secretary of the Australian Education Union (AEU). She is also a Vice-president the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and a member of a number of its committees.

Susan first started her career teaching mathematics in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia in 1974. She joined the VSTA (now named the AEU) as a young teacher, and became an active member and union representative at school, regional and state levels. In 1985, she began working with the union full-time in the position of Women’s Officer, a job she held until 1993.

Since then, Susan has held a number of positions in the education union: Victorian Branch General Secretary from 1993–1995; AEU Federal Women’s Officer from 1995–1996; and Deputy Federal Secretary from 1996–2006, during which time her responsibilities included international relations. She was elected Federal Secretary of the AEU in 2006, the first woman to achieve that position.

Susan is also extremely active in the broader Australian trade union movement. She is a Vice-president the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and a member of a number of its committees.

Susan has been Vice-President of Catalyst Australia since its inception in late 2007.

John Sutton is a founding member and current treasurer of Catalyst Australia.

John is an Associate Commissioner to the Productivity Commission. Prior to this John was National Secretary of the CFMEU. He has held various positions in the BWIU and CFMEU over the last 28 years. He has been vice-president of the ACTU and International President of the Trade Unions International of Building and Woodworkers.

David Carey is National Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (State Public Services Federation Group).

Alison Peters was elected to the Catalyst Committee of Management in December 2008.

She is the Director of the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) a position she has held since November 2007. Prior to this Alison was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Unions NSW for seven years.

Previously, Alison has held many positions within the trade union movement including Secretary of the Australian Services Union (NSW & ACT Services Branch), National Chairperson of the ASU and Vice President of the Labor Council of NSW (now Unions NSW). She has also been a delegate to several ACTU Congresses.

Alison is currently a director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and has been a director of Sydney Water and the NSW Working Women’s Centre. She has been a member of the Premier's Council for Women, the Cooperatives Council, the Privacy Advisory Committee, the Advisory Council for the International Year of the Volunteer and the Sydney University Work and Organisational Studies Advisory Board.

Alison holds degrees in Commerce (Industrial Relations) and Law from the University of NSW.

Paul Bastian is the National President of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU). Paul joined the Catalyst Committee of Management in 2010.

In his work with the AMWU, Paul has been a tireless campaigner against the asbestos industry and an advocate for asbestos victims.

A shipwright by trade, he completed a Law Degree while studying part time at the University of Technology, Sydney. Paul has been a trade union member since he was an apprentice and has been a trade union official with the AMWU since 1981. He has worked throughout the manufacturing industry, in the construction, shipbuilding and metals industries, in both metropolitan and regional areas of the state.

He is a member of the NSW Manufacturing Council, the NSW Workers Compensation Advisory Council and an executive board member of APHEDA.

Paul has a long history of involvement with community and union campaigns against asbestos and in August 2008 he represented the AMWU and International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) at an International Conference on asbestos, convened by the Vietnam Institute for Labour Protection.

He was appointed to the Board of the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute on 27th November 2007.

Chris Gambian joined Catalyst’s Committee of Management in 2011.

He has been an official with the Finance Sector Union since 1997, with responsibility for organising, training, communications, campaigning and bargaining. He was appointed as the union's National Director for Organising & Development in February 2009.

Chris is also the Secretary of The Evatt Foundation

Chris holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, a Masters degree in Labour Law, and is interested in human rights, environmental and economic justice issues.

He is also the Chair of the Powerhouse Youth Theatre in Fairfield, which aims to give young people a voice through arts.

Louise Tarrant is National Secretary of United Voice (formerly the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union).

Peter Murphy has been the Coordinator and Secretary of the SEARCH Foundation since mid-1995.

He became active in politics as a student at Macquarie University in the 1970s, joining the Communist Party of Australia in early 1975 and working as a NSW Organiser for the Australian Union of Students in 1977. He was one of the 78ers of the Sydney Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras. He worked as a volunteer researcher for the TransNational Cooperative, before moving to Adelaide and becoming a seafarer.

In 1986 he returned to Sydney and worked as the Coordinator of the communist weekly paper Tribune and as a Sydney organiser for the CPA. After Tribune and the CPA stopped operating in 1991, he was active in the New Left Party and helped launch an independent paper Broadside Weekly. In 1993 he began working as a research and media officer for the Rail Tram & Bus Union, and continued in that work part-time until 2005. In 1995 he started working part-time at SEARCH as the coordinator. He has extensive experience in international solidarity.

Peter joined the Catalyst Committee of Management in 2011.

Jo-anne Schofield is Executive Director of Catalyst Australia Inc. Prior to November 2007, Jo-anne worked in the NSW public sector after a 14 year stint with the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, where she worked in a variety of research, legal and policy roles, including five years as Assistant National Secretary.

Jo-anne has also worked as a tutor in Industrial Relations at the University of NSW, and as a secretary and a kitchen-hand.

She has a BA (Hons) first class from the University of NSW where she undertook a double major in Industrial Relations and History and Philosophy of Science.