CPAG People

Janfrie Wakim - Director

Mother of four adult children, Janfrie has been a teacher at secondary and tertiary institutions. Interested in access to quality public education and wider issues of social justice she was a contributor to the second edition of CPAG's Our Children: The Priority for Policy. She has been on the CPAG Management Committee since its inception and Director for the past 8 years.  

Dr. Susan St John - Economics 

Senior lecturer in Economics, University of Auckland, where she is also co-director of the Retirement Policy and Research Centre. As a researcher and commentator on child and family poverty issues and founding member of CPAG, Susan has an extensive track record of articles and presentations. She recently contributed to the special 2006 child poverty edition of the European Journal of Social Security  'New Zealand's financial assistance for poor childen: Are work incentives the answer?', European Journal of Social Security, 8, (3), 2006. Susan is co-editor of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008), co-author of other CPAG material including Cut Price Kids: Does the 2004 `Working for Families' Budget work for children? and Our Children: The Priority for Policy (2001, 2003). She is co-editor of Redesigning the Welfare State in New Zealand: Problems, Policies. Prospects Oxford University Press (1999)-Dalziel P, Boston, J. and St John, S (eds).

Prof. Innes Asher ONZM - Child Health

Professor of Paediatrics, University of Auckland, and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Starship Children's Health.  Co-editor of Trying to Catch our Breath: The burden of preventable breathing diseases in children and young people (The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of NZ, 2006 http://www.asthmanz.co.nz/files/PDF-files/Burden_FullDocument.pdf), Innes also instigated the Auckland University Winter Lecture Series 2004, entitled "Are we wasting our children?" She leads a worldwide children's research study: The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, ISAAC http://isaac.auckland.ac.nz/ and is a contributing author of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008)

Assoc - Prof. Mike O'Brien - Social Security

Coordinator of the Social Work and Social Policy programme at Massey University, Albany, Mike O'Brien has written extensively on poverty and social security issues and is the joint author of Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand.  He is a contributed to CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008) along with the first two editions of CPAG's Our Children: The Priority for Policy. He has also written Workfare: Not fair for kids? and The Impact of Debt on Low Income People, together with an examination of social security reform in New Zealand over the last two decades, Poverty, Policy and the State (published by The Policy Press UK, 2008). His other books are New Welfare New Zealand (published 2007 by Cengage Publishing in Melbourne), a more detailed look at recent changes in welfare policy. Social Welfare, social exclusion - a life course frame (published 2007 by Varpinge Ord & Text, Sweden) is a collection of essays he has contributed to and co-edited with Swedish academic Lars Harrysson, and includes writings by 11 international authors on how people can become excluded from basic opportunities, rights and services in society.

 Dr Nikki Turner - Health

Nikki is a practising GP and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health, University of Auckland.  Her academic interests are in primary health care, preventive child health and immunisation. She is the Director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre and Chair of the Kia Mataara Well Health consortium, based at the School of Population Health, University of Auckland. Nikki is also a contributing author of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008)

Alan Johnson - Housing

Senior policy analyst, Salvation Army; previous roles include lecturer in social policy, community development and economics at Unitec, membership of the Counties/ Manukau District Health Board and Manukau City Councillor. Contributing author of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008) and author of CPAG's 2003 housing report Room for Improvement: Current New Zealand housing policies and their implications for our children and a range of other articles, submissions and presentations for CPAG.

 Dr Lorna Dyall - Social Hazards

Lorna Dyall has worked widely in Maori health in the public sector for the Department of Health, Wellington Area Health Board and Te Puni Kokiri. Lorna is currently a senior lecturer at the Division of Maori Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Auckland University and is involved in teaching and research focused on improving Maori health and wellbeing.

Donna Wynd - Economics and Law

CPAG's chief research and policy analyst, Donna is co-editor of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008) and the author of CPAG's report on foodbank use in NZ, "Hard to Swallow," along with many other submissions, articles and presentations for CPAG and others.  She has a background in law and economics.

Therese Ireland-Smith - Education

Therese is Principal of Felix Donnelly College in South Auckland. She has worked as an education consultant on both national and international projects and has expertise in governance, management and effective teaching practices at all levels of education.

Dr Gay Keating - Health, Wellington CPAG 

Director of the Public Health Association http://www.pha.org.nz/ 

Gillian Roach - Communications advisor

Gillian is a mother of three with a background in communication and non-government organisations.

Jan Abel -Treasurer

Jan is a mother of two with a background in accounting. 

Prof Martin Thrupp - Education

Prof Thrupp has returned to NZ, to the Dept of Education University of Waikato, after six years working in the UK lecturing and undertaking large-scale research projects in the UK and Europe. His research interests include developing more socially and politically contextualised approaches to education management, the influence of social class on school processes and the nature and impact of recent school reforms in New Zealand and England. He has published many articles and several books including Schools Making a Difference: Let's Be Realistic! (1999, Open University Press), Education Management in Managerialist Times: Beyond the Textual Apologists (2003, Open University Press) and School Improvement: An Unofficial Approach (2005, Continuum). Martin is a contributing author of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008)

Dr Steve Poletti - Economics

Steve Poletti holds a PhD in Economics (The University of Auckland, 2006) and a PhD in Mathematical Physics (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1991). His working experience includes teaching and research in Australia and New Zealand and he has published widely on Economics as well as Physics in refereed journals, like Information Economics and Policy, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Physical Review.  He is a contributing author of CPAG's cornerstone report Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008). Lately his research has focused on network interconnection, time-of-use pricing and market power. Steve Poletti is attached to the Economics Department of the University of Auckland Business School.

Dr Anne Else - Social history

Dr Anne Else is a Wellington writer and social commentator who focuses primarily on feminist analysis and history. She is the author of the occasional column on http://www.scoop.co.nz/, 'Letter from Elsewhere', and her books include False Economy: New Zealanders face the Conflict between Paid and Unpaid Work (1996). Pamela Stirling in the New Zealand Listener notes that Else's book is important because it ‘documents how female jobs have become increasingly subject to casualisation, poor pay, insecurity and invisibility.'

Dr M.Claire Dale - Economics, Education

Claire has taught in the Departments of English, Economics and Management and Employment Relations at the University of Auckland, where she completed a PhD. She co-authored CPAG's report Our Children: The Priority for Policy (2001), and is a contributing author of Left Behind: How social and income inequalities damage NZ children (2008), along with many of CPAG's submissions on tax, health, and welfare reform. She is currently welcoming re-regulation of the financial sector, and the protections that will bring to vulnerable families.