John Roskam

John Roskam is the executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a Melbourne-headquartered 'free market' think tank. Roskam is a member of the Liberal Party, having worked on their election campaigns and run for Liberal pre-selection a number of times.

History
Prior to his employment at the IPA, between 2000 and 2002 Roskam was the Executive Director of The Menzies Research Centre - a Canberra-based think tank for the Liberal Party. Between 1996 and 1998 he was Chief of Staff to Dr David Kemp, the Federal Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Prior to that he worked as Senior Advisor to Don Hayward, Victorian Minister for Education in the first Kennett Government (199--1996). Between 1998 and 2000 he worked as Manager of Government and Corporate Affairs for Rio Tinto. While completing a PhD on Liberalism and the Liberal Party at the University of Melbourne he also taught politics there.

Links to the Liberal Party
According to Roskam's byline on a 2005 opinion column in the Australian Financial Review, "during the 2001 federal election he worked on the Liberals' federal campaign". He has run for Liberal Party preselection - and missed out - "several times".

In the aftermath of the 2007 electoral defeats of the Liberal Party in both the state of Victoria and federally, Roskam was mooted as a possible candidate for the seat in the state parliament. However, once more his parliamentary aspirations didn't eventuate. Following the November 2008 announcement by Petro Georgiou that he would retire as member of the safe Liberal Party seat of Kooyong, Roskam was mentioned as one of the potential aspirants. However, he later decided against nominating. Instead, Roskam supported John Pesutto, who he described as a leading industrial relations lawyer.

In early 2009 Roskam was also mentioned as a possible contender to to fill the Senate seat vacated by Liberal member Julian McGauran. He also expressed interest in running for preselection for the seat of Higgins held by Peter Costello. However, on the same day that Costello announced his intention not to renominate for the seat, Roskam said in an interview that "Peter was a good treasurer but right now it's a question of how he can make the best contribution to the party. It's for others to comment on whether he is doing that." Subsequently, Costello supporters suggested that Costello would campaign against Roskam. "What John did was so very stupid. Peter took it as a thinly veiled attack," a senior Liberal anonymously said.

Research
With Gary Johns, he has worked for the IPA - including on a contract with the federal government - to develop proposals to limit the role of nongovernmental organizations on public policy.

Affiliations

 * Patron, Education Foundation Australia

Other Sourcewatch Resources

 * Institute of Public Affairs
 * Think tanks/Australia

Articles/Reports By & Interviews With Roskam

 * "John Roskam", Institute of Public Affairs, accessed November 2005.
 * John Roskam, "Howard must reveal his vision", Australian Financial Review, June 16, 2004, page 71.
 * Rowan Callick, "Meet the newest compassionate conservative", Australian Financial Review, June 6, 2005. (Sub req'd.)
 * John Roskam, "Sermons from the left", Australian Financial Review, July 15, 2005. (Sub req'd.)
 * Michael Duffy, "Modern Liberal Thinking", Counterpoint, ABC Radio National, July 11, 2005. (Discussion with Roskam and Greg Lindsay from Centre for Independent Studies).
 * John Roskam, "The ABC is not doing its job", The Age, April 11, 2007.

General Articles

 * Ewin Hannan and Shaun Carney, "Thinkers of influence", The Age, December 10, 2005.