Professor Brenton Prosser

Brenton Prosser is Professor of Public Policy and Leadership at UNSW Canberra, Director of the UNSW Public Partnerships and Impact Hub, and Director of the John Howard Prime Ministerial Library at Old Parliament House. He also represents UNSW as its Senior Associate with the James Martin Institute for Public Policy. 

Brenton's research interests include politics, minority government, governance, public policy, public trust, democratic engagement and mental health.

He has worked in senior leadership roles across public, private and non-government sectors, as well as at leading Australian and UK universities. Brenton has been a senior executive in the APS and a Director of Policy with the largest Australian-based private consultancy firm, Nous Group. He has led numerous multi-million dollar national evaluations of health and social policy for Commonwealth departments. Brenton was Chief of Staff to Senator Nick Xenophon during the period when the Senator first held the balance of power from 2008-2011. He has also been Director of Research and Policy with a national peak body in the social services sector. Most recently, he was Director of an internationally recognized centre for social and economic modelling (NATSEM).

Brenton's previous academic roles include Head of the School of Politics, Economics and Society at the University of Canberra. Prior to that, he was Senior Research Fellow in a UK Russell Group impact centre, where he co-led the first UK citizens’ assemblies on democratic devolution and worked to develop impact strategies within Westminster Palace. He has also held Senior Lecturer positions in sociology (ANU) and education (UniSA).

Brenton has a deep and practical understanding of the relationship between parliament, public sector leadership and policy. His policy experience across government, parliament, private-public sectors and NGOs made him the ideal leader to design new Master of Public Leadership programs at UNSW. Brenton is also an authority on youth mental health and policy, specializing in ADHD. Between 2020 and 2022, Brenton worked with a team from the University of Canberra to design and lead a multi-million dollar evaluation of programs within the Department of Defence Mental Health and Well-being Strategy.

Brenton is the author of five books, over one hundred publications and has presented at conferences across four continents. He has co-authored (with Richard Denniss) a seminal handbook on minority government and public policy, while his handbook on ADHD was a national best-seller. His work has been cited in federal and state parliamentary inquiries into mental health, as well as Australian Royal Commissions. Brenton has had over 130,000 people read his contributions to the Conversation, while he is a regular contributor to the Mandarin.

Recognition of Brenton’s community service extends back to 1997 when he was the Young South Australian of the Year and finalist in the Young Australian of the Year awards. However, Brenton’s most significant community contribution over the last six years has been as a leader with his local Cub Scout group. Here, each week, he mentors a group of eight to ten-year-old future Australian leaders.