It is with immense sadness that I rise to speak following the death of Professor Ann Harding AO, a groundbreaking economist and the founder and director for 16 years of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, NATSEM, at the University of Canberra. She was a woman of incredible intellect, drive and vision who had a deep commitment to quality research and putting evidence at the centre of public policy decision-making. She was committed to decision-makers putting the needs of and impacts on Australians at the centre of their thinking as they made policies that affect us all.

She was a strong female leader who was a mentor too many and gave great opportunities to women around her. She was a person who cared deeply about other people, and I had the great privilege to see all of this firsthand, as I worked with her at NATSEM for many years.

She pioneered microsimulation in Australia. This is the modelling of the impacts of policies, particularly tax and transfer policies, on households and individuals. She also put the analysis of poverty and inequality at the centre of the public policy discussion. Through NATSEM, she built the capability for this type of modelling in Australia and built a community of people that continue this work today. Through that tight knit community of microsimulators across academia and the Public Service, particularly Treasury and the Department of Social Services, most of them would have NATSEM and Ann to thank for building that capability. And we all have her to thank for enabling this kind of analysis to inform policy.

She fostered an environment in which wonderful work was done but also from which many relationships, professional and personal, have continued to this day. So many people were part of that really positive culture—there are too many to name, but some of my amazing former colleagues are here in the chamber today—and that was no accident, because that was what Ann built in establishing NATSEM.

After graduating from Sydney university with honours in economics, Ann worked as a journalist and then at the Parliamentary Library and in the Public Service. She then went to the London School of Economics, where she completed her PhD, 'Lifetime income distribution and redistribution in Australia: Applications of a dynamic cohort micro simulation model', winning a British Council scholarship.

It was after that that she established NATSEM at the University of Canberra in 1993. She was just 34 and one of the youngest women ever appointed as a professor. At the time she said, as quoted in the Canberra Times:

The reason for making the centre an independent institution is that it will be available as a national resource to anyone who wants to use it for strategic planning and to help improve the level of social and economic policy-making. It's going to help construct a much more informed debate about social policy.

And it did. At the time, the then Minister for Health, Housing and Community Services, Brian Howe, stated:

There is currently a critical lack of information about the actual impact of government policy and programs on the people we are seeking to help … The models being developed by NATSEM will substantially fill that void and will help governments to target health and welfare services so they better meet the needs of all Australians.

The impact of NATSEM was seen in some of the biggest policy debates of the last few decades, including the GST and the impact of moving sole parents onto the unemployment benefit. NATSEM's work really highlighted the terrible impacts of the coalition's 2014 budget. They also provided incredible information on health, regional modelling, effective marginal tax rates, child care and education and contributed to wage cases.

In 2016, Ann was awarded the Order of Australia. According to her appointment she co-authored or authored over 300 books. Her ResearchGate profile lists 138 publications and 2,207 citations.

On a personal note, without the opportunities Ann gave me in her encouragement and mentoring, this shy person who started at NATSEM would never have dreamed of doing public speaking or, least of all, to be in this place. Thank you, Ann; rest in peace.