Bruce Wolpe

Bruce Wolpe served as a Senior Adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia from 2012-13, and is Chief of Staff to the former prime minister. He was liaison for Prime Minister Gillard with the business community, and involved in key economic initiatives, including establishing the architecture for Australia’s chairing the G20 in 2014; developing and holding the Prime Minister’s Forum on the Economy; the Prime Minister’s Forum on the Digital Economy; the Business Advisory Forum to COAG, the National Panel on Economic Reform, and other government-business initiatives. 

Bruce helped finalise, launch, and begin implementation of the Government’s Australia in The Asian Century white paper.  He worked closely with the Cabinet and senior MPs, and c​ontributed to the PM’s public statements and speeches. He had extensive official travel with the PM domestically and internationally to NATO (Chicago) and APEC (Vladivostok). 

Previously, Bruce served as Senior Advisor to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), ​Chairman and later Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over energy, climate, health, telecommunications, consumer protection and related issues.

From 1998-2009, Bruce was Director, Corporate Affairs for Fairfax Media Limited, Australasia’s largest media company, based in Sydney. Previously, he was head of the media, telecoms and IT practice at Hill and Knowlton Australia. In the 1980s, Bruce was a partner at The Wexler Group in Washington, a government relations firm. From 1974-82, he was Legislative Director for Rep. Waxman, and was Director, Corporate Affairs for National Public Radio, 1982-83. He has served on the Boards of the Australian American Education Leadership Foundation, and the Australian Fulbright Program. Bruce is author of Lobbying Congress: How The System Works (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990, 1996). He is a regular commentator on US politics for Sky News and ABC News.