Virtual on the Couch with Professor Nicola Spurrier

Professor Nicola Spurrier is the Chief Public Health Officer for the Department for Health and Wellbeing, being appointed in 2019. The Chief Public Health officer is responsible for public health and communicable disease issues. Professor Spurrier’s role also includes advising the Minister and the Chief Executive of SA Health about proposed legislative or administrative changes in relation to public health.

Nicola is a dual qualified Medical Specialist, Public Health Physician and Paediatrician, with 30 years’ experience within SA Health including 10 years in the Department for Health and
Wellbeing.

Nicola has specialised in developing and implementing policies and programs across child health, obesity prevention and Aboriginal health. She also has extensive experience in health protection and promotion, public health partnership and health diplomacy activities.

Jamie Briggs is the Adelaide Managing Partner and South Australian Government leader at PwC.
He was previously a member of the Australian Parliament, serving in the capacity of Federal Minister for Cities and the Built Environment and the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Prior to entering Parliament he was a Senior Advisor to the then Prime Minister the Hon. John Howard from 2004-2007 advising on workplace relations reform.
He has completed his MBA at the University of Adelaide and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Relevant Experience

Throughout Jamie’s 15 year career in the Australian Government he has worked extensively on significant public policy issues, managing a range of stakeholders and delivering high performance outcomes. More specifically in his role as Federal Infrastructure Minister, Jamie worked very closely with State Governments to design and implement major infrastructure projects ranging across Australia. This included developing unique and innovative approaches to deliver projects such as the implementation of the Australian Government infrastructure asset recycling programme, the development of the Western Sydney Airport supporting and infrastructure and the first of its kind concessional loan for the 2nd stage of the WestConnex project in Sydney. In addition, Jamie was appointed as the first ever Federal Cities Minister beginning the process of establishing the city deal concept in Australia.

Since joining PwC in February 2017, Jamie has worked with a range of issues with clients to implement strategies for dealing with significant public interest issues to achieve high quality outcomes. This has included developing PwC’s approach to cities with the development of the ‘CityPulse’ and working with private sector clients to develop solutions to important problems by providing a deep understanding of government and its processes driven from extensive experience in the government sector.