Peter Botsman

Peter Botsman studied at Cornell University, New York, from 1972 to 1974 and completed a joint BA (Hons) degree at Griffith University, Queensland in 1976. Following a Diploma of Education from Melbourne University and a Master of Philosophy from Griffith University, he completed his Doctorate at the University of NSW in 1987.

He was a lecturer in Technology Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, from 1986 to 1987. In August 1987 he was appointed Director of the Evatt Research Centre and in 1988 Executive Director of the Evatt Foundation. From 1988 to 1996 the Foundation released a number of influential reports. Those which were co-authored, written and planned by Professor Botsman include:

The Capital Funding of Public Enterprises (1988),
State of Siege: Vertical Fiscal Imbalance and the Future of State Government (1989),
The State of Australia Series Reports (1993, 1994, 1995 & 1996),
Enterprise Bargaining in Higher Education (1994),
Creating Jobs (1996)
and Unions 2001 (1997).

In 1991, Botsman won a Harkness Fellowship to the City University of New York and wrote USA Care: A National Health Insurance Strategy for the USA(Chicago, 1991). His work was well recognised in the USA, he was invited to President Clinton's inauguration in 1992 and continues to work with key American policy makers.

In 1997 Botsman was appointed Associate Professor in Public Health and Public Policy at the University of Western Sydney (Macarthur) and Head of the division of Public Health. Professor Botsman took up an appointment as Professor of Public Policy, University of Queensland and Executive Director of The Brisbane Institute from 1 March 1999 to 1 March 2001. During that time The Brisbane Institute emerged as Queensland's pre-eminent public policy forum featuring a wide range of international, national and local speakers.

In May 2001 Professor Botsman returned to Western Sydney as the Foundation Director of the Whitlam Institute and resigned from this position in November 2002.

Botsman is an inter-disciplinary public intellectual. His major publications have been written on a wide variety of subject areas including the banking industry, health research and development, the waterfront, the NSW power industry, unemployment, financing aged care, communityemployment co-operatives and a new model of family centred services for children with developmental disabilities.

Professor Botsman's The Great Constitutional Swindle A Citizen's Guide to the Australian Constitution was shortlisted for the Centenary of Federation Prize in 2001, his book with Mark Latham The Enabling State received national acclaim. His online book
Polity, Capability, Culture: The story of how Canberra and citizenship under-developed Indigenous Australia has been downloaded over 5000 times.

Botsman currently works hard as voluntary national secretary of the ISX, www.isx.org.au editing on-line journal Australian Prospect and his online papers workingpapers.com.au. He also runs a Scottish Highland cattle farm and grows green tea in Kangaroo Valley, NSW