The Honourable Pat Conroy MP is the Minister for Defence Industry, Minister for International Development and the Pacific and the Federal Member for Shortland.

Pat was elected to the House of Representatives as the Member for Charlton in 2013 and, following an electoral redistribution, as the Member for Shortland in 2016 and again in 2019 and 2022.
From 2016 to 2019, Pat was Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy and Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure. In 2019, he was appointed Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Shadow Minister Assisting for Defence and Shadow Minister Assisting for Climate Change and Energy.

From 2008 to 2013, he was Principal Policy Adviser and then Deputy Chief of Staff to the Hon. Greg Combet, AM, MP, who served as a Minister in the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments. In these roles, Pat worked in developing significant policies in areas including Defence Materiel, Defence Science and Industry and Innovation. 

Born in 1979, Pat was raised on the NSW Central Coast and went on to study Economics at the University of Sydney, graduating with Honours in 2000.
Pat is married with two children and lives in his electorate of Shortland which covers the Eastern Lake Macquarie area and the Northern Central Coast. He enjoys cooking, playing rugby union and watching rugby league.

The Hon Andrew Hastie MP is a member of the Australian Parliament, representing the electorate of Canning in the House of Representatives.

Hastie completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in History and Philosophy through the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy. In 2006, he graduated officer training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

In 2009, Hastie deployed to Afghanistan as a Cavalry Troop Leader. In 2010, he was selected for service with the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) as a Troop Commander, taking commands in maritime and special reconnaissance capabilities. He deployed to Afghanistan again in 2013 as a Troop Commander with the Australian Special Operations Task Group. During his service with the SASR, he deployed to various theatres in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific.

Hastie resigned from the ADF in 2015 to successfully contest the Canning by-election for the Liberal Party of Australia. He was re-elected in the general elections of 2016, 2019, and 2022. Hastie has served as Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security from January 2017 to December 2020, and as Assistant Minister for Defence from December 2020 to May 2022.

Hastie was appointed the Shadow Minister for Defence in June 2022, following the general election.
Andrew Hastie lives in Mandurah, Western Australia, with his wife Ruth and their three young children, Jonathan, Beatrice and Jemimah.

In March 2020, Sarah founded Precision Public Affairs (PPA) - a boutique public affairs company based in the heart of Australia’s decision-making capital, Canberra.
PPA is a bipartisan and apolitical firm that provides clients with a range of tailored strategies to achieve their organisational objectives including, Corporate Affairs, Bipartisan Government Relations and Public Policy, Parliamentary Protocol and Strategic Engagement, Market Access and Business Development Support.

With ten years’ experience working at the highest level of the Australian Federal Government, including for two Prime Ministers and three Federal Ministers, Sarah has a proven understanding of the Australian regulatory environment, government policy, procedure and protocol, as well as an extensive network spanning the ministry, backbench and federal government departments.

In between her time on the Hill in the Australian Parliament, Sarah honed her corporate public affairs, marketing and media management skills in the Global Markets Division of Deutsche Bank and spent four years within News Corporation’s Corporate Affairs team in Sydney, working directly to the Australian Chairman, John Hartigan. She is a former Managing Director of Nexus Public Affairs, and currently serves on the AIDN National Board. Sarah was responsible for initiating and delivering the Inaugural AIDN Policy Symposium and Sovereign Capability Showcase in 2022 – the first time the Australian Defence Industry had convened in the Australian Parliament since federation, which saw 310+ Australian Defence Industry members meet in Canberra with the Minister for Defence Industry, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry and senior Department of Defence officials, including the Secretary of Defence and Deputy Secretary of CASG. The now annual event is in it’s 3rd year and has become the premier industry association event for Australian SMEs.

Dr Jae Daniel is the co-founder of AIM Defence, a Melbourne based Defence Tech company currently leading the world in the development of Tactical Directed Energy systems for counter-drone. With a background of over 15 years working within the defence industry and academia he is now driven to bring innovation and high value manufacturing back into the Australian ecosystem.

Jae is a recognised world leader in the development of high-power laser systems for Directed Energy and has spent his career at the cutting edge of laser technology globally. He holds a PhD in high power laser design from the renowned University of Southampton and has served roles advising DST and CSIRO on the development of novel laser systems. This extensive experience has been brought to bear to form the base IP of AIM’s smaller, safer, smarter laser systems.

Joel commenced her career in 1990 after Graduating from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce. Joel held various positions in the Banking and Finance sector in Perth and Melbourne across front line and head office environments. She was involved in the implementation of productivity improvement programs along with roles in a major program that involved in design, test and implementation of new software platforms for a large Australian financial institution. Prior to leaving this sector, Joel held the position of Project Manager, leading teams to implement organisational change across 50 locations in metropolitan and regional areas.
Following the success of previous programs, Joel co-founded Blacktree Technology and established the project management and administration functions to support the company as it provided technical solutions to complex problems in challenging environments in Australasia. While originally focused on the resources sector, Joel played a key role in the company’s transition into Defence Industry. During the past 8 years Joel has worked alongside her co-director to steer the company from a micro to small-medium SME with over 30 employees across locations in Perth and Canberra. She now takes on an executive leadership role overseeing the future growth of the organisation in Australia and overseas. In 2023, Joel was appointed to the Australian Industry & Defence Network (AIDN) National Board.
During her career, Joel has undertaken several executive positions with community not for profit organisations. Joel is passionate about the importance of Australian SME’s in Defence Industry and supporting Veteran employment.

David Speers is the ABC's National Political Lead and host of "Insiders" on Sunday mornings. He regularly interviews the nation's political leaders, decision makers and leading analysts.

Over more than two decades covering federal politics, David has won a number of awards for his interviewing and journalism, including Walkley Awards and a Logie. David has hosted Election Leaders' Debates since John Howard v Kevin Rudd in 2007, anchored election night broadcasts and live coverage of every major political moment.

David is based in Canberra and is a past President of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Export Controls Australia Group (ECAG), and General Manager Security, Industry & Trade for a Defence SME consultancy firm.

Amy McDonnell is Co-Founder, Board Director and Chief Operating Officer of Export Controls Australia Group (ECAG), which is Australia’s first non-profit industry association exclusively focussed on export controls and sanctions awareness, advocacy and insight for its members. Amy and Co-founder and CEO Jessica Rankin established ECAG in 2023 and launched in March this year. Amy pioneered the establishment of the Global Defence and Dual-Use Trade Coalition which sees ECAG and counterpart industry associations in the United States (Aerospace Industries Association, AIA) and the United Kingdom (Export Group for Aerospace, Defence and Dual-Use, EGADD) as well as the United States Society for International Affairs (SIA) meet monthly to share information, collaborate and identify education and advocacy pathways to enhance Australian, United States and United Kingdom defence and advanced technology trade.

Amy is also a member of the United States Studies Centre, Women in the Alliance Network for 2024 which is an initiative focussed on collaboration and development of national security professionals.

She is also currently General Manager, Security, Trade and Industry with a national security focussed SME consultancy, focused on supporting industry, academia and R&D organisations across export controls, sanctions, supply chain preparedness, foreign interference, security and cyber.

In previous roles Amy was Senior Manager at PwC, in the Global Trade area where she advised multinationals and SMEs in the defence, export controls, advanced manufacturing and energy, utilities and resources space on trade compliance and international and domestic supply chain optimisation. Amy also previously worked in the Australian Department of Defence as an Assistant Director in roles focused on export controls, defence industry policy and defence industrial base engagement with the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Amy holds an LLB and a Masters of International Security Law.