Jonathan Coppel

Special Adviser

Jonathan Coppel was appointed as a full-time Commissioner from July 2011 to July 2021, and is currently a Special Adviser. Jonathan is an economist with extensive international and domestic experience advising governments on trade, investment, energy, environmental, regulatory and macroeconomic policy.

Prior to his appointment, Jonathan was Head of the OECD G20 Sherpa office. During his OECD career he held senior roles as Counsellor to the Chief Economist, Executive Manager of the NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative, Head of the EU and UK Desks and analyst at the International Energy Agency. In Australia he has held senior management positions at the Reserve Bank and started his career at the Commonwealth Treasury.

Jonathan has taught at the World Trade Institute's Mile Masters Programme in International Law and Economics and the Paris, Sciences Po Institute. While overseas he established and was a director of Cafe Oz, the first Australian bar in Paris.

Jonathan has a Masters in Economics and Management from Columbia University, New York, a Bachelor in Economics (Honours) from the Australian National University and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Jonathan is currently a Special Adviser on the Register of Foreign-owned Water Entitlements inquiry and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts and Crafts study.

He was previously a Commissioner on the following inquiries:

• Vulnerable Supply Chains
• Skills and Workforce Development Agreement
• Remote Area Tax Concessions and Payments
• Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation
• Collection Models for GST on Low Value Imported Goods
• Education Evidence Base
• Intellectual Property Arrangements
• Public Safety Mobile Broadband
• Mutual Recognition Schemes
• Childcare and Early Childhood Learning
• Natural Disaster Funding
• Major Project Development Assessment Processes
• Mineral and Energy Resource Exploration
• Strengthening Economic Relations between Australia and New Zealand
• Barriers to Effective Climate Change Adaptation.

He was the Commissioner overseeing research reports on:

• Foreign Investment in Australia
• Vulnerable Private Renters: Evidence and Options
• The future of the world trading systems (Trade and Assistance Review 2017-18)
• Rising inequality? A stocktake of the evidence
• Rising Protectionism: Challenges, threats and opportunites for Australia
• Digital Disruption: What do Governments need to do?