Presenters

Bobbie Pannowitz, Solicitor, Cater & Blumer
Bobbie Pannowitz is a lawyer with a special interest in water law, having worked in water policy and irrigation-based enterprises prior to commencing legal practice. Bobbie works in a large rural law firm in the NSW Riverina, based in Griffith and Leeton, and brings more than a decade of lived experience in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area to her practice, where she previously owned and operated a farm and held water entitlements. Bobbie advises clients on all aspects of water law, including regulatory compliance, policy interpretation, and transactional matters. Most recently, she advised landholders in relation to compulsory acquisitions of flow easements as part of the NSW Government’s Reconnecting River Country Program. Before entering legal practice, Bobbie served as a Senior Policy Advisor to a Member of the NSW Parliament, focusing on statewide water policy, legislative reform, and the impacts of rule changes on landholders and regional communities. She also spent more than five years with a global food manufacturing organisation in risk management, specialising in work health and safety across the agricultural supply chain—from on-farm production through to chain-of-responsibility obligations. This work provided deep insight into the economic and employment impacts of water allocation and reliability on rural industries. In addition to her professional roles, Bobbie has served for several years on the executive of her local business chamber and is its current president. She has also worked with local government and not-for-profit organisations to assess organisational risk, support strategic planning, and strengthen collaboration aimed at improving regional economic resilience in the face of water variability. Bobbie holds a Bachelor of Laws from Charles Darwin University, where she received the Australian Government Solicitor’s Award and was awarded the Supreme Court Medal upon graduation.


Mike Young, Professor Emeritus, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide
Mike Young is Professor Emeritus in Water and Environmental Policy at the University of Adelaide, was the Founding Executive Director of its Environment Institute, is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Mike is a specialist in water policy reform and his research led to the unbundling of Australia’s water licences and the resultant development of an efficient trading system and the Australian Government decision to transfer responsibility for the administration of the Murray Darling Basin’s water resources to an independent expertise-based authority. He played a key role in establishing Australia’s National Land and Water Resources Audit. Mike has held the Gough Whitlam and Malcom Fraser Chair at Harvard University, has served on Global Water Partnership's Technical Committee and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security. He was a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In 2006, Mike was awarded Australia’s premier water research prize – the Land and Water Australia Eureka Award for Water Research. He has played a critical role in the consideration of options for the Murray Darling Basin. Prior to joining the University of Adelaide, Mike spent 30 years with CSIRO where, amongst other things, he established their Policy and Economic Research Unit. In 2003, Mike was awarded a Centenary Medal “for outstanding service through environmental economics”. His full curriculum vitae lists over 240 publications.