The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate: Judges 2006

Morag Frasr is Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at La Trobe University.  Her publications include Save Our ABC: The Case for Maintaining Australia's National Broadcaster and Seams of Light, Best Antipodean Essays. In 2004 she was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) for her service to journalism, particularly through Eureka Street magazine and the promotion of public debate on a range of social issues, and to the Melbourne Writers’ Festival.

Peter Browne is a research fellow at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research and editor of Australian Policy Online. His book, The Longest Journey: Resettling Refugees from Africa, was published by UNSW Press earlier this year.

John Button is a former Labour party senator and is Patron of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. His published works range from essay to memoir. Beyond Belief: What Future for Labour was the winner of the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate in 2003.