Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture

2025 Lecture

32nd Annual Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture

Beyond Backlash: AI, Class and the Future of Inclusive Workplaces

Ming Long

• Thursday 28 August 2025
  5:30pm - 6:00pm Registration
  6:00pm - 7:00pm - Kingsley Laffer Memorial Lecture
  7:00pm - 8:00pm - Reception and Networking


• SNH Lecture Theatre 4002 (Messel),
  The University of Sydney Nano Institute
  Sydney Nano Science Hub A31
  Physics Road, Camperdown NSW 2050

Ming Long has recently been appointed as Chair of CSIRO and is also currently on the boards of Telstra, IFM Investors, QBEInsurance (Auspac) and CEDA. She was also previously Chair of Diversity Council Australia and AMP Capital Funds Management Limited, and on the boards of Chartered Accountants ANZ and Property Council Australia.

She is the first woman with an Asian heritage to lead an ASX-200 listed entity in Australia. She was a finalist in the Telstra Business Women's Awards in 2014, established the Property Champions of Change in 2015, named as a 100 Woman of Influence in 2016, received a Member of the Order of Australia for significant contribution to the financial and real estate sectors, and to diversity and inclusion in 2020.

She was also awarded the inaugural Asian-Australian Leadership Lifetime Achievement award in 2023. Ming holds a Bachelor of Economics and Law from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the University of Technology Sydney.

Topic

Ming will explore how diversity and inclusion is being reshaped in Australian workplaces. While addressing the current D&I backlash, she'll argue that AI's influence on who we employ and how we work represents amore significant challenge facing inclusive organisations.

The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Work and Organisational Studies academics.

We hope to see you at the lecture, which will be followed by a reception for discussion and networking. Registrations are essential.

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.