Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture

2024 Lecture

31st Annual Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture

Anna Booth

• Thursday 15th August 2024
  5:30pm Registration and Networking
  6:00pm - 7:00pm - Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture
  7:00pm - 8:00pm - Reception and Networking


• ABS Lecture Theatre 1110, Upper Level 1,
  Abercrombie Building (H70)
  The University of Sydney Business School

Anna Booth is Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman, a position to which she was appointed in 2023 by Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.

In this significant national role, she is responsible for promoting harmonious, productive, cooperative and compliant workplace relations. Anna is well known for her unique approach to workplace and industrial relations challenges where she works with labour market stakeholders to design solutions collaboratively.

Anna has an impressive record of career achievements through her leadership across the public and private sectors, in the Fair Work Commission and in the union movement.  She is a previous Chair of the Work and Organisational Studies industry advisory board and a University of Sydney alumnus.

Past lectures

The inaugural Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture was given in 1993 by the Hon Bob Hawke. Laffer Lecturers have also included:

About Kingsley Laffer

At the time of his retirement from the University of Sydney in 1976, Kingsley Laffer was Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Industrial Relations within the Faculty of Economics. Kingsley was the founding editor of the Journal of Industrial Relations for 18 years. He also helped establish the Industrial Relations Society of NSW, which later became a national organisation.

Born in Western Australia on 28 February 1911, Kingsley Laffer became an external student of Economics at the University of Western Australia while working in the country. He was the first external student to be awarded the Hackett Bursary. After graduating with first class honours, he taught briefly at the University of Melbourne and then joined the University of Sydney in 1944. He was a member of the academic staff at Sydney for more than three decades. After his retirement, Kingsley became the first Fellow of the Nepean College of Advanced Education (now part of the University of Western Sydney) where he helped develop academic programs in industrial relations.