Experience

Tony specialises in public policy and economics, impact analysis, complex reform frameworks, policy and program evaluation, and evidence-based policy advising capabilities in public sector agencies.

Tony is Managing Director of Policy Partners Pty Ltd, providing economic, policy and management consulting services since 2013 to public sector, industry, and not-for-profit organisations. He also conducts professional development training in policy advising, policy writing and the management of policy projects.

Previously, Tony was a Commonwealth public servant for 24 years, principally as an economist and policy adviser in the Commonwealth Treasury.

  • In 2008, Tony designed the current federal financial relations framework, including the system of financial transfers to and through the States and the associated performance framework. He also led the financial and budgetary aspects of the wider COAG reforms and State-expenditure components of the GFC stimulus packages.
  • He was senior revenue advisor for 8 Budgets and a senior secretariat member of a review of Treasury’s economic and revenue forecasting and the International review of Australia’s taxes.
  • Tony was Chief Economist at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, where he played a key role in the Basin Plan being adopted in 2012, by redefining the socioeconomic evaluation framework to acknowledge the agricultural impacts of reform and adopting a participatory approach to the management of stakeholders.

Tony brings a broad experience to bear on complex economic and policy issues. His expertise covers diverse subjects such as revenue and expenditure aspects of Commonwealth budgeting, federal finances, competition policy, financial and performance frameworks, regulatory economics, taxation design, comparative economics and information systems.