The 2026 State of Infrastructure: Building Australia's Future

Jonathan Cartledge, Chief Executive Officer, Consult Australia

Jonathan brings over twenty years of experience including as an executive leader building organisational capability, championing culture and delivering effective partnerships for positive change. He draws on diverse experience across the not-for-profit and public sectors in Australia and the UK, encompassing strategy, public affairs, government relations, and program leadership. Jonathan has a deep understanding of how to drive change, influence and support collaboration for organisational success.

• Jonathan Cartledge, Chief Executive Officer, Consult Australia's website

Facilitator: Professor Helen Sullivan, Dean ANU College of Asia and the Pacific

Helen is a public policy researcher, teacher, advisor, and senior university leader. She currently serves as Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Helen is a leading scholar on the theory and practice of state-society interactions in contemporary governance. She has advanced the fields of political science in three main ways: on collaboration in policymaking; on public participation and democracy; and via interpretivist methods.  She is the author or editor of nine books and more than 100 peer reviewed academic articles, book chapters, and policy reports. Her most recent book Collaboration and Public Policy. Agency in the Pursuit of Public Purpose (2022) was shortlisted for the WJM Mackenzie Book Prize for the best book in political studies published in 2022/23. In 2024 Helen was elected to the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Helen’s teaching focuses on leading in complex systems and challenging times. She has worked with professionals from all over the world in postgraduate and executive education programs and is actively engaged in shaping education for future leaders. In 2003 she was awarded a Fellowship of the (now) Higher Education Academy for her excellence in innovative, creative and interactive teaching. Helen’s career is distinguished by an enduring commitment to building bridges between research and practice to improve public policy making and professional practice and enhance public understanding of the value of political studies. She has designed and led multiple cross-sector collaborative institutions, worked closely with governments and public service organisations at all levels to embed evidence-based reform, sponsored national and global programs of Indigenous led research and education, and enabled new forms of public engagement with research. In 2017 she was made a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia in recognition of her outstanding contribution to public policy practice.

Jane Cassidy, GHD Principal, GHD Design Practice Leader

• Jane Cassidy, GHD Principal, GHD Design Practice Leader's website

Antony Sprigg, ANU I2S Research Advisory Board Chair

Professor Sara Bice, Co-Founder and Director, I2S

Professor Sara Bice is Co-Founder and Director, I2S (Institute for Infrastructure in Society) at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, where she serves as Head, Policy and Governance Program. Sara’s research agenda is cross-cutting and deeply engaged with industry and government. Her work helps governments, communities and corporations negotiate the impacts of major projects, with an aim to mitigate environmental and social risks and optimise potential benefits. She is Past President, International Association for Impact Assessment, the world’s leading organisation for impact assessment practitioners, researchers and clients, representing almost 7,000 members in 120 different countries. She is an award-winning author and teacher. Past roles include time in Beijing as Professor (Special International Guest) at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management.

• Professor Sara Bice, Co-Founder and Director, I2S's website