Session 4

"Housing Affordability and the Future: Western Australia and the Nation"

Wendell Cox - Principal, Wendell Cox Consultancy (Demographia)

Wendell Cox is principal of Wendell Cox Consultancy (Demographia) in metropolitan St. Louis (Missouri-Illinois), USA. He is an international public policy consultant, specializing in urban land use policy and urban transport. He has completed projects throughout the world and has spoken widely, including two recent national speaking tours of Australia.

He is co-author of the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, now in its third edition. For six years, he has been a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, a national university in Paris. He was appointed to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which oversaw road and public transport policy in the largest United States county (population 9 million) and chaired two national American Public Transit Association committees (Policy & Planning and Governing Boards) during that time.

Wendell Cox Consultancy sponsors three internet websites, www.demographia.com (urbanization and land use issues), www.rentalcartours.net , (travelogues on world cities, including all megacities), and www.publicpurpose.com (transport and other public policy issues). The latter was honored twice by the prestigious National Journal as one of the best transport web sites in the United States.

His book, War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy threatens the Quality of Life was published in 2006.

____________________________________________________________

"Conduct of the Codes - Common Goals - Points of Difference"

John Welborn - Rugby

Western Australia’s first born and bred Wallaby. John Welborn represented Australia between 1996 and 1999, playing six tests.

The last of a generation of rugby players to have spanned the amateur and professional eras of rugby, John received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University of Western Australia and qualified as a Chartered Accountant while pursuing a rugby career that spanned 15 years at the top level.

John represented Western Australia in 15 games before moving to Sydney to follow his ambition of playing rugby for Australia. He earned 63 caps for the NSW Waratahs and remains their most capped second row forward of all time. An accomplished rugby traveller John also played with the Natal Sharks in South Africa and the Leicester Tigers in the UK before moving to France where he played five seasons for famous French club Brive. John completed a remarkable rugby odyssey by returning to Perth in 2006 to be a founding player in the Western Force’s inaugural season.

Since retirement from professional sport John has returned to the financial world as an investment banker for Investec Bank. He remains strongly connected with rugby as a member of the Fox Sports commentary team and is also a regular rugby columnist for the West Australian Newspaper. John is also a player representative on the board of RugbyWA, an executive committee member of the Rugby Union Players Association, and holds directorships of the Force 15 Foundation and Future Now Learning for Life.

__________________________________________________________

Gary Marocchi - Soccer

Gary Marocchi represented Australia 11 times in full internationals playing as a midfielder. His playing career at club level began in Perth in 1971 with Perth Azzurri in the Western Australia State League and concluded in 1980 with Adelaide City in the National Soccer League. He represented Western Australia 22 times and South Australia 3 times.

Marocchi's first venture into coaching at semi-professional level was with Perth Italia in 1991. He remained at Perth Italia until he joined Perth Kangaroos where in 1994 he coached the Kangaroos to the FAS Premier League league title. When Perth Glory entered the National Soccer League in 1996 Marocchi was chosen to lead the new team. His tenure saw the Glory narrowly miss the post-season final series in each of his two seasons in charge. In 2003 he joined Swan IC in the WA State League where he coached until June 2005.

__________________________________________________________

 

Wayne Bradshaw - AFL

Wayne has a background in sport and recreation and was employed by the West Australian Football Commission in 1993, initially as the General Manager of Facilities at Subiaco Oval, overseeing events and the redevelopment of the venue, and then as Chief Executive since 2002.  Some of the projects completed during this period include the construction of the ANZ Stand, CCTV lighting, Eastern Stand Development and oval resurfacing, with an expenditure of approximately $60m.

Wayne’s current role incorporates the general responsibility for the conduct of football in Western Australia incorporating the WAFL, community football, country football, promotion and development of the game, umpiring, ownership of the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Football Clubs and the operation of Subiaco Oval.

Sporting History

• Cricket - State level (junior)
• Football – WAFL (Claremont) and State (NSW)
• Triathlete (social)

Wayne currently cycles, surfs and plays the odd game of golf.  He is also the coach of his son’s football team and generally supports both kids’ sporting activities including netball, softball, cricket and tennis.   For the last five years Wayne has been involved both as a rider and Chairman of the Ride for Youth, a sponsored cycle ride from Albany to Perth in support of Youth Focus, a local charity working with young people to prevent suicide and self harm – a very rewarding (although at times exhausting!) and worthwhile experience. The Ride has raised in excess of $1.5m over this period, including an amazing $580k in 2007.